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The aim of the study was to investigate consumers' value perceptions of apparel companies' activities in regard to environmentally friendly apparel products. We recruited women living in USA to obtain 593 responses for statistical analysis of the data. The results suggest that the fit between environmentally friendly products and a fast fashion brand is important for fashion consumers, and a good fit of the fast fashion brand with sustainability causes increases consumers' perceptions of the fit between the parent brand and the sustainable extension line. Consumers' perceptions of cause-effectiveness value and monetary value of the extension line were each found to have an impact on both their purchase intention and their willingness to pay a premium price. These findings contribute to both academia and fast fashion retailers interested in corporate social responsibility.
Keywords: cause-effectiveness value, monetary value, environmentally conscious apparel products, purchase intention.
Environmental concerns have been acknowledged in the last few decades (Beard, 2008), and it is widely known that development of sustainable practices improves business performance (Tang & Tang, 2012). As a result, major players in the fashion industry have initiated efforts to make their products environmentally friendly (Cervellon & Carey, 2011).
Fast fashion is a term used in the fashion industry to express that recent trends are adopted by manufacturers of brands so that they are quickly available to consumers. The emphasis on speed has quickened both the production and the consumption of goods. Therefore, fast fashion has been criticized as an environmentally unsustainable business model because this focus on speed might cause a shorter product life cycle compared with traditional apparel retail methods. Recently, some fast fashion retailers, for example Zara and H&M, have claimed to be supporting sustainability, and have begun to include environmentally friendly product lines. Environmentally conscious consumers may be concerned that the short life cycle of fast fashion products creates more waste and environmental damage compared with traditional fashion products. Thus, consumers may question the fit between fast fashion brands and sustainability (J. Lee & Kim, 2015). As Davies, Lee, and Ahonkhai (2012) pointed out, few studies have been conducted in which the focus has been on the issue of the sustainable development of products such as luxury fashion and fast fashion. In particular, a recent...