This study explored dominant topics about the metaverse discussed in Twitter and the sentiments in each topic in the case of Decentraland using topic modeling and sentiment analysis. The appraisal theory of emotion and motivation theory were used to explain why positive or negative sentiments were expressed toward specific topics. The majority of topics were related to economic benefits such as coins, NFTs, tokens, estate, land, and spaces or socializing with others at specific events. Many of them included predominantly positive sentiments because consumers appraised them as motive consistent. This serves as an important implication for marketers and developers in the metaverse that they need to focus more on these features so that consumers can interact with the motive-consistent features and thus have positive emotions.

The purpose of this study is to explore relationships between company’s characteristics, the status of business ethics education, employee perceptions of corporate business ethics, and organizational performance. A total of 161 small- and medium-sized apparel companies participated in a survey and data was analyzed using cross-tabulation, ANOVA, and SPSS PROCESS. The results show that, larger companies involved with export are more likely to implement business ethics education, whereas no company characteristic is associated with perceptions of corporate business ethics. Furthermore, apparel companies that implemented or planned to implement business ethics education, have employees with more positive perceptions of corporate business ethics and better organizational performance than fashion companies that have no plan to implement such education. In addition, companies in the apparel sector with higher employee perceptions of corporate business ethics had greater organizational performance than apparel companies with lower employee perceptions of corporate business ethics. This study emphasizes the need to implement business ethics education to enhance employee perceptions of company business ethics, which in turn promotes organizational performance. It is expected that the results of this study will positively affect the development and expansion of business ethics education programs and contribute to the foundation of knowledge for business ethics education for fashion companies.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of information on shapewear’s functionality in consumers’ purchase decisions in an online shopping context. Through two steps of stimulus development process, four mock websites were developed to conduct a main study. In the main study, a 2 (visual information: absent vs. present images of the shapewear’s functionality) x 2 (verbal information: absent vs. present descriptions of the shapewear’s functionality) between-subject factorial design was employed to examine the impact of visual and verbal information regarding the functionality of shapewear on the consumer decision-making process (i.e., attitudes and purchase intentions). The results showed that verbal information about how shapewear reduces the size of specific body parts (i.e., waist, abdomen, hips, and thighs) were effective in increasing perceived attractiveness in an online context, which increased attitudes and purchase intentions. In addition, attitudes toward the shapewear mediated the effects of expected physical attractiveness on purchase intentions. The results of this study provided empirical support for the importance of expected physical attractiveness in consumers’ online purchase decision on shapewear and useful managerial implications for enhancing the effectiveness of online shapewear presentations by including descriptions of the functionality of shapewear in decreasing the size of body parts.

Using an experimental design, we investigated whether the relationship between apparel product novelty and consumers’ curiosity depends on perceived fashion influencers’ socioeconomic status. In addition, we investigated mediating role of curiosity in the product novelty effect on purchase intentions and intention to use a social shopping service.

Although several researchers have investigated atypical naming effects with respect to food and color names, no research has examined atypical names in the context of apparel products. In this research, we investigated the way in which atypical clothing names influence consumers’ mental imagery, followed by consumers’ evaluations, compared to typical clothing names. We also investigated the moderating effect of the clothing design’s visual complexity. An experimental design was used with 2 name (atypical vs. typical name) × 2 levels of visual complexity (complex vs. simple design) between-subjects design. A total of 292 responses were collected. The results showed that the atypical name was more effective than were the typical one in influencing consumer’s attitudes and purchase intentions. Also, we found significant interaction effects of visual complexity and names on consumers’ evaluations, which are mediated by mental imagery. For clothes with a simple design, the atypical clothing name increased mental imagery, followed by product attitudes and purchase intentions, more than the typical name did. In contrast, when participants were presented with a garment with a complex design, typical and atypical names did not have different effects on consumers’ evaluations of the garment through their mental imagery. The findings of this study help marketers understand better the way in which consumers process certain names associated with a garment’s design cognitively, and therefore, improve their ability to name garments strategically depending on their design details.