Exploring young adult consumers’ sustainable clothing consumption intention-behavior gap: A Behavioral Reasoning Theory perspective

By Sonali Diddi, R. Yan, Brittany Bloodhart, Vickie Bajtelsmit, Katie McShane. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 2019

220 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Clothing overconsumption is a growing global phenomenon with serious effects on the environment and society. Huge amounts of textile waste are ending up U.S. landfills due to unsustainable clothing consumption patterns. With the conceptual underpinnings of Behavioral Reasoning Theory, the purpose of this study was to explore sustainable clothing consumption behaviors (SCCBs) that young consumers were most and least likely to engage in and to understand specific reasons for their decisions to engage in a variety of SCCBs. The study used qualitative method of inquiry and conducted six focus groups with forty-one young adult consumers. Data was transcribed and analyzed to develop specific reasons that the participants attached to engage or not engage in SCCBs. Qualitative analyses revealed that participants’ reasons for engaging in SCCBs included perceived value, sustainability commitment, uniqueness, acquisition from known sources and lifestyle changes. Specific reasons for not engaging in SCCBs included perceived lack of variety/style, budget constraints, skepticism, lack of knowledge/skills, emotions attached to consumption, perceived lack of availability and consumers’ self-indulgent behavior. The findings of this study provide important implications for public policy makers and businesses to integrate and promote circularity in the fashion industry. The study also emphasizes the important role consumers’ play in extending clothing lifecycle.

Subfields: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c9d6c85fbc05674214da6e88e6c4e0565597fc1a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

1. Amandeep Dhir
2. R. Padhy
3. Aditya Kumar Sahu
4. Shalini Talwar

In Marketing

1. Amandeep Dhir
2. Shalini Talwar
3. Puneet Kaur
4. Mototaka Sakashita
5. Mohd. Sadiq
6. R. Padhy
7. Aditya Kumar Sahu

Citations in the corpus

• Envisioning the Future of Behavioral Decision-Making: A Systematic Literature Review of Behavioral Reasoning Theory (2020, background): “…transportation ( Claudy and Peerson, 2014 ; Peterson, and Simkins, 2019 ), renewable energy sysems ( Claudy et al., 2013 , sustainable clothing ( Diddi et al., 2019 ); nd employee behavior , which covers error reporting ( Russo et al., 015 ), technological change ( Vakola, 2016 ), turnover and…”
• Green apparel buying behaviour: A Stimulus–Organism–Behaviour–Consequence (SOBC) perspective on sustainability‐oriented consumption in Japan (2021, background): “Researchers have also attributed the lower adoption rate of green apparel products (Rausch & Kopplin, 2020) to this gap and stressed the urgent need for empirical investigations to identify ways to reduce it (Diddi et al., 2019).”