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Ethical Fashion Supply Chain Management
Edited by Tsan-Ming Choi, Chris K. Y. Lo, Christina W.Y. Wong, Rachel W. Y. Yee
1. Introduction
Due to the adverse environmental impacts of the present clothing consumption behavior, there is a rising concern on sustainability issues on the consumption side of the fashion supply chain (FSC) ([35] Fineman, 2001; [44] Jackson, 2004; [8] Birtwistle and Moore, 2007; [16] Carter and Rogers, 2008; [70] Niinimäki, 2010). Fashion companies, including manufacturers and retailers, are increasingly developing and marketing eco-fashion to promote sustainable consumption ([46] Joergens, 2006; [36] Fletcher, 2008; [89], [90], [91] Wong et al. , 2011a, 2012a, b). Although fashion consumers have a positive attitude toward environmental protection, they rarely apply such attitude into eco-fashion consumption ([83] Solomon and Rabolt, 2004; [70] Niinimäki, 2010). The attitude-behavior gap in fashion consumers' environmental protection interest and eco-fashion consumption disappoints fashion companies ([87] Weller, 2008), and motivates green marketing and eco-fashion consumption research to investigate factors that influence fashion consumers' eco-fashion consumption decision (ECD) (e.g. [86] Tanner and Kast, 2003; [45] Jalas, 2004; [83] Solomon and Rabolt, 2004; [82] Sener and Hazer, 2008; [70] Niinimäki, 2010). Among other factors, product-related attributes (PRA) of eco-fashion (e.g. product design, quality, and price) and store-related attributes (SRA) of eco-fashion (e.g. store design and environment, store's ethical practices, and shop convenience) have been argued as factors that influence ECD ([70] Niinimäki, 2010). Prior studies revealed that fashion consumers are interested in purchasing eco-fashion but they are not willing to sacrifice personally, such as paying a higher price ([46] Joergens, 2006; [15] Carrigan and Attala, 2001). Following this line of thought, we argue that the relationships between PRA and SRA of eco-fashion and ECD are subject to the price premium (PP) level of eco-fashion.
Although many studies in green marketing and eco-fashion consumption literature have investigated the relationships between PRA, SRA, PP, and ECD (e.g. [15] Carrigan and Attalla, 2001; [6] Beard, 2008; [72] Ochoa, 2011), they are confined to a number of aspects. First, while customer service is an important SRA that affects fashion consumers' purchase decision ([32] Erdem et al. , 1999; [5] Batlas and Papastathopoulou, 2003), its impact on ECD has been neglected in prior studies. This study considers customer service as part of...