Although interest in eco-friendly fashion products is increasing among scholars and industry leaders, the concept of eco-friendly products remains unclear, preventing consistent assessment of which fashion products are eco-friendly. This study conducted a content analysis of eco-friendly product information from 87 domestic and 102 foreign brands to reveal key standards for categorizing eco-friendly fashion products. Product characteristic information was coded according to the four material-based standards (i.e., organic material, regenerative material, alternative material, and sustainably produced/upcycled material). Consistency between coders was confirmed by Cohen’s kappa. In results, eco-friendly fashion products are categorized by four material-based standards and two certification standards (i.e., certified, not certified). Among the four material-based categories, the greatest number of domestic and foreign companies produced eco-friendly products that were classified as the regenerative material group. In addition, companies acquired eco-friendly certifications related to the use of organic, regenerative, and alternative materials. The greatest number of eco-friendly material brands used for eco-friendly fashion products belonged to the regenerative material group. Based on the study results, a typology of eco-friendly products was suggested. This typology can benefit practitioners and academics by highlighting a need for classification system for the eco-friendly fashion products, as well as by providing insight into the categorization of eco-friendly fashion products.

This study examines the effect of cosmetic certification marks on consumer behavior. The underlying objectives of this study are threefold. First, it explores whether the certification mark inserted into the cosmetic package—such as marks denoting quality assurances, ethical practices (specifically, pertaining to animal testing), and recycling packaging—affects consumer responses. Second, it investigates whether a higher number of certification marks leads to heightened positive consumer responses. Third, it analyzes the potential moderating effect of consumers’ certification mark knowledge on the relationship between certification marks and consumer responses. In the pretest, certification marks with higher recognition were selected as stimuli, and a survey involving a total of 550 male and female consumers was conducted. The collected data were analyzed through ANOVA and post-hoc tests. The findings of this study confirm a significant difference in consumer responses to products based on the certification marks inserted in the cosmetic packaging. Compared to clusters without a certification mark, groups with two or more certifications (recycling certification + ethics certification, recycling certification + quality certification, recycling certification + ethics certification + quality certification) exhibit significant consumer responses. Second, more certification marks did not result in an increase in positive consumer responses. Third, a moderating effect of consumers’ cosmetic certification knowledge on the certification mark-consumer response relationship was not found. The findings of this study have implications for developing product promotion strategies that leverage cosmetic certification marks as a marketing tool.

To compete with the growth of fashion shopping platforms in the online fashion market, general shopping platforms have begun to expand their product categories to include fashion items. This research examines the characteristics that influence consumers’ trust in each of these platforms and their intention to reuse them. Applying the concept of platforms, this study also distinguishes between general shopping platforms and fashion shopping platforms and compares their characteristics. This study surveyed 788 consumers in their 20s and 30s with experience in using general shopping platforms or fashion shopping platforms (389 and 399 respondents, respectively). SPSS was used to conduct frequency analysis, factor analysis, and cross-tabulations, and AMOS was used to conduct confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation analyses. The results were as follows: platform reputation, shopping convenience, and interactivity all influenced consumer trust. For fashion shopping platforms, the product quality factor significantly improved consumer trust. However, for general shopping platforms, the product quality factor only influenced reuse intentions to reuse and did not contribute to improving trust. Platform reputation and information offering have influenced reuse intentions for both shopping platforms. Regardless of the type of shopping platform, platform reputation has influenced reuse intentions and consumer trust, and platform esthetics didn’t have affect consumer trust and consumers’ reuse intentions. Consumer trust influenced the intention to reuse on both platforms.

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.

A growing number of fashion brands and retailers are actively adopting live streaming as a new marketing channel. In spite of the increasing use of live commerce, the effects of live streaming commerce on customer purchasing behavior for fashion products are not fully understood. The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting consumers’ attitudes toward a purchase via fashion live streaming commerce (FLSC) and intention to use FLSC. The study also investigated whether consumers’ expenditure on fashion and time spent on mobile shopping moderate the relationships among research variables. A total of 230 questionnaires were analyzed through descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple-group comparison tests using SPSS and AMOS. A summary of the main results of this study is as follows. First, the perception of the attributes of FLSC (ease of use, economic efficiency, interactivity, and enjoyment) has a positive effect on attitude toward a purchase via FLSC. The ease of use and economic efficiency of FLSC, in particular, have greater impacts on attitudes than other factors. Secondly, attitudes toward FLSC positively impact the intention to use FLSC. Lastly, the results of group comparisons, by fashion expenditure and time spent on mobile shopping respectively, hold no significant moderation effects among the variables. These findings demonstrate that consumers are more likely to use FLSC as they form a positive attitude by the attributes of FLSC mentioned earlier. The study provides some insights on an exploration of live streaming commerce for fashion product sales.

This study examined the effect of Instagram usage time (short, long) and spending on fashion products (light, heavy) on product attitude and purchase intention of products promoted by an influencer. The moderating effect of influencer type (mega, macro, micro) was also investigated. A total of 515 males and females in their 20s participated in an online survey. Descriptive statistics were analyzed and exploratory factor analysis and two-way ANOVA were conducted. Research findings were as follows. First, the usage time, both short and long, had a positive effect on product attitude. Also, the interactive effects of usage time and influencer type on product attitude were found. Consumers with short Instagram usage time displayed the highest attitude toward products promoted by a macro-influencer whereas consumers with long Instagram usage time displayed the highest attitude toward products promoted by a micro-influencer. Second, usage time and influencer type did not show interactive effects on purchase intention. Third, both categoriacl variables of users’ spending on fashion products had a positive effect on product attitude. Fourth, the interaction effects of spending on fashion products and influencer types on purchase intention were found. The group of light buyers showed the highest purchase intention on products promoted by the macro-influencer while the group of heavy buyers showed the highest purchase intention of products promoted by the micro-influencer. Based on the results, implications were suggested.

The purpose of this study was to explore the importance level, the present level, and the educational need for 21 business ethics components among 2-year and 4-year college students majoring in fashion. Survey data of 364 students (128 students of 2-year colleges and 238 students of 4-year colleges) were analyzed through descriptive statistics, Borich’s needs assessment for education, The Locus for Focus model, exploratory factor analysis, and t-test. The results showed five business ethics components ranked highly as educational needs among college students: ‘reducing waste’, ‘using vegan materials’, ‘using human-friendly materials’, ‘strengthening sustainable technologies’, and ‘promoting workers’ rights’. Those components should be integrated into curricula of fashion majors in colleges. Students in 4-year colleges considered most of 21 business ethics components as more important than did students at 2-year colleges. More needs for education were observed by 4-year college students in eight business ethics components than by 2-year college students. In addition, a positive attitude toward business ethics education and the suitability of business ethics education were higher among 4-year college students than 2-year college students. Results provide a guideline for business ethics education by indicating a list of business ethics components that urgently needed to be adapted to fashion curricula according to each college type.

The aim of this study is to explore diverse characteristics of females aged 25 to 49 years grouped according to Body Mass Index(BMI), and to investigate the effect of body satisfaction and self-esteem on involvement in dieting within each BMI group. In total, 549 females who participated in an online survey were divided into groups based on BMI(underweight, normal, and overweight). Results demonstrated three key factors, as follows. First, differences were identified among BMI groups according to demographic characteristics(age, household income, and marital status), although no difference according to education level was found. Second, differences according to BMI groups were found in body satisfaction and involvement in dieting, whereas were not found in self-esteem. Third, model testing for each BMI group showed, a positive correlation between body satisfaction and self-esteem in all three groups. However, there was a difference in causal relationships among variable across BMI groups. Body satisfaction negatively affected and self-esteem positively affected involvement in dieting for the underweight and normal groups, whereas there was no causal relationship between variables in the overweight group. Based on these results, basic information of groups segmented by the level of BMI was obtained, which could be used for both academic and practical implications.

The objectives of this study are to explore the information source, assessment, and preferred styles of 3D virtual influencers(VI), to investigate the expected impact of advertisements with 3D VIs on brands, and to explore ways of expanding the use of 3D VIs. In-depth interviews with 40 males and females in their 20s and 30s were conducted and qualitative data were analyzed. The study results are summarized as follows. First, the information source of the 3D VI was SNS, acquaintances, and broadcasting. Second, 3D VIs were considered positively due to their attractive appearance, wide utilization, innovative use, freshness, separation from private identity, and time and cost savings, while considered negatively due to their unrealistic appearance and antipathy against replacing a person’s role. Third, the preferred appearance styles of the 3D VI differed according to the level of virtuality although the majority of interviewees preferred similar looks to real people with low virtuality. Fourth, diverse image qualities such as innovative, differentiated, trendy, high-value, professional, and future-oriented were considered as transferred to the brand advertised by 3D VIs. Fifth, advertisements with 3D VIs may help build positive perceptions of advertised brands that may lead to purchase behaviors for some consumers. Lastly, to expand the use of 3D VIs, the specific advantages of virtual models should be maximized with consideration of how to implement a variety of body types and images of models. Findings present an important foundation to generate strategies to better apply 3D VIs to the fashion market.

Purpose of the study is to explore the effect of the types of mobile coupons(textvs. image-focused coupons; free-gift vs. discount coupons) on characteristic perception of mobile coupons, and the causal relationships among characteristic perception, attitude, and use intention of mobile coupons. A total of 140 university students participated in experiments with questionnaires including one of the four stimuli. Important findings are as follows. First, image-focused mobile coupons generated more enjoyment than did text-focused coupons. However, the text/image-focused coupons were not different in perception of informativeness and credibility of mobile coupons. Second, enjoyment perception was significantly increased when image-focused contents were combined with discount coupons whereas enjoyment perception was decreased when text-focused contents were combined with free-gift coupons. This interaction effect reflects that the level of enjoyment of consumers can be changed in terms of the combination of the value-provision types of coupons and the text-image focused contents. Third, it was found that consumer perception of coupon characteristics formed attitudes toward mobile coupons, and use intention of mobile coupons was determined by attitudes toward mobile coupons. Study findings may fill the void of research investigating the effect of text-image contents and the types of coupons on consumer reponses toward mobile coupons. Mobile coupons have limited quantity of information within a small size of mobile phone screen, therefore, the results were not consistent with prior research tested with mobile advertisements indicating the effect of text-image contents on perception of informativeness and credibility.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of combinations of diverse methods notifying price discounts (i.e., reference price, odd price, and discount rate signs) and the relationships among product attribute perception, discount perception, attitude toward product, and purchase intention of product. Experiments were conducted where 12 stimuli of different price discount information notifications regarding T-shirt advertisements were presented to 352 informants. The results showed that notification of each type of discount information increased discount perception, whereas no effect due to the size of letters used in the discount rate notification was found. As more price discount information notifications were used, discount perception tended to become stronger. The results of ANOVA analysis show that both product attribute perception and discount perception affected attitude toward the product. In addition, product purchase intention was determined by attitude toward the product as well as price discount perception. Based on these findings, marketers may want to use a combination of methods of price discount notifications in advertisements to deliver price discount information clearly to consumers. Confirmation of discount information using multiple cues would help consumers to notice and perceive price discount information provided by retailers more effectively. Discount information is crucial for increasing both purchase intention and favorable attitude, therefore, diverse strategies regarding discount information presentations should be developed, tested and applied in the real world of retailing.

The purpose of the present study was to generate a list of business ethics components according to business area for small and medium-sized fashion companies. Based on the literature review, 21 components of business ethics components were identified within five business areas. Ten CEOs(Chief Executive Officers) each participated in an in-depth interview, sharing ethical and unethical cases from their own businesses. Constant comparative analysis was used to generate important business ethics components from those cases. In results, important business ethics components for each business area are: 1) using human-friendly materials, strengthening sustainable technologies, using vegan materials, concerning safe process, and reducing waste in the material production and sourcing area, 2) enhancing an efficiency in design, developing recycle/reuse designs, avoiding to copy designs, and using messages for public interest in the product design area, 3) concerning fair-trade, reducing harmful substance, saving energy, and using ethical supply channels in the distribution and logistics area, 4) acquiring certifications, promoting consumer protection, avoiding exaggerative/false advertisements, and promoting social contributions in the management and marketing area, and 5) promoting workers’ rights, complying with the law, and investing on employee educations in the labor management area. All of the ethical and unethical cases of the ten companies have involved aspects of the 21 components, thereby enhancing understandings on how each issue is being seriously considered and/or handled in the small and medium-sized fashion companies. Study findings may provide a basis for development of a research model for quantitative studies and/or educational programs related to business ethics in the fashion industry.

This study aims to explore the diverse characteristics of obese groups of Korean males in their 20’s to 40’s. A total of 201 males who each had a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 23 or over were recruited through a convenient sampling. Samples were categorized into groups of overweight, slightly obese, and severely obese, and submitted for data analysis. Results are summarized as follows. First, in terms of demographic characteristics, slightly and severely obese males were older than overweight males. There were also group differences in marital status and household income. Second, slightly and severely obese groups demonstrated a higher perception of obesity and a lower perception of health than did the overweight group. Third, there were no group differences in body satisfaction, socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance, and self-esteem. Based on these results, we concluded that overweight, slightly obese, and severely obese groups were distinguishable from each other in terms of their demographic characteristics, whereas the slightly obese group and the severely obese group were not different in terms of perception of obesity, perception of health, weight control behaviors, body satisfaction, body image, socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance, and self-esteem. These findings may reflect that people may not become increasingly sensitive to socio-psychological stimulations as they gain more weight if they have exceeded a certain level of obesity. This observation provides meaningful implications for the differences among obesity groups given the lack of prior research focusing on this issue.

This study explores the effect of moral identity on attitude toward and purchase intention of upcycled fashion products by comparing purchasers and non-purchasers. Data from 127 purchasers and 307 non-purchasers collected through a survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, model invariance check, and multiple-group comparison tests using Amos 23.0. Results indicate consumers with purchase experiences of upcycled fashion products showed a higher level of moral identity (internalization and symbolization), positive attitude toward upcycled fashion products, and purchase intention than did consumers with no purchase experience. In model tests, internalization affected attitude toward purchasing upcycled fashion products, whereas symbolization affected purchase intention, regardless of purchase experience. The effect of symbolization on purchase intention was consistent with prior studies focusing on charity behaviors that are highly visible to others. These findings demonstrate that fashion products are visible and symbolic, so it should be carefully considered in ethical consumption studies. From these results, researchers may obtain insights on the process of how consumers apply moral identity to their purchase intention regarding upcycled fashion products. Likewise, marketers may enhance satisfaction of consumers with a high level of symbolization by putting special tags and logos that clearly highlight the products’ upcycled nature.

This study explores sustainability education in textile and apparel (T&A) programs in U.S. higher education institutions. Specifically, the researchers study whether more courses with sustainability focus are offered in higher-ranked institutions and explore whether sustainability is taught more in specific T&A related subject fields. Content analysis was conducted for 3,200 courses found in online course catalogs or the course information sites of 69 institutions. Institutions were selected from the 2015 rankings of the top 50 fashion design and top 50 fashion merchandising schools in the US on www.fashion-schools.org. All cases were coded by two coders with a Cohen’s Kappa score of 97.5%, indicating good interrater reliability. Coded data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and t-tests. The findings show that sustainability is being integrated into the curricula and across courses of T&A programs in the U.S. Over half of the institution surveyed offered at least one sustainability embedded course. Higher ranked institutions provided more sustainability- related courses than power-ranked institutions. A natural match between the subject field and specific sustainability theme was observed (e.g., cultural diversity in history/culture and social psychology/education; recycle/reuse in textile science; sustainability in fashion design; social responsibility and ethics in industry/consumer). The need to introduce sustainability in courses holistically is discussed, whereby sustainability within the industry supply chain is examined in a connected way.

This study explores determinants of purchase intentions for vegan fashion products based on the modified planned behavior model. Survey data from 434 university students were subjected to an analysis using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The results showed that almost half of the consumers surveyed recognized vegan fashion products and a little more than a half of consumers surveyed had purchase experience for vegan fashion products. Clothing, bags, and shoes are the most frequently purchased vegan fashion product categories. From the results of the model test, purchase intentions on vegan fashion products were determined by attitude, subjective norms, ethical responsibility, and ethical identity of the consumers. When consumers have a more positive attitude, have higher subjective norms, stronger ethical responsibility, and stronger ethical identity regarding the purchase of vegan fashion products, they are likely to have a greater intention to purchase vegan fashion products. The findings contribute to the literature by adding test results for vegan fashion products among the ethical product categories, highlighting the importance of the consideration of product category, which can give somewhat different results when exploring ethical consumption. Based on these findings, marketers need to use special tags or signage highlighting the ethical values and meanings of vegan fashion products to better communicate with target consumers with a high level of ethical responsibility and to help increase consumers’ control over purchase behaviors through reducing barriers generated by insufficient product information.

In this study, causes and consequences of bullying were explored, focusing on victim personality and appearance factors. The research model included the relationships among bullying, important causes of bullying (aggression, cleanliness, and obesity of victims) and consequences of bullying (self-esteem and depression) and was tested through survey data from 594 (194 male and 404 female) middle school students. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and path analysis with SPSS and AMOS. In the results of the model tests, victims who are more aggressive, less clean, and more overweight are more likely to be bullied. In addition, adolescents bullied by others tend to have lower self-esteem and more depression. Furthermore, the model comparison was assessed by gender and a difference between the two gender models was found. In the check of critical ratio for difference, it was concluded that the cleanliness of the victim is a more important cause of bullying for male adolescents than for female adolescents. It is meaningful to confirm the effects of the victim’s appearance factors on bullying in the literature focusing on personality issues of victims. Educators and counselors may refer to the findings in developing counseling guidelines and manuals to prevent bullying in school.

Study objectives are: 1) to investigate the difference in consumer perceptions of the model’s image and physical attractiveness according to advertising model types; 2) to explore the effect of the difference between the model’s image and the consumer’s self image, the difference between the model’s image and the brand’s image, and the physical attractiveness of the model on attitude toward the advertising model; and 3) to explore the effect of attitude toward the advertising model on attitude toward the advertisement. A total of 306 female consumers over the age of 45 participated in experiments with advertisement stimuli for a senior apparel brand. Results showed a significant difference in the model’s images and physical attractiveness according to each model type. The consumer’s attitude toward the advertising model was determined by physical attractiveness of the model, not by the difference between model’s image and the consumers’ self-image, nor by the difference between the model’s image and brand image. Attitude toward advertisements was determined by attitude toward the advertising model. The findings imply that advertising models of a senior apparel brand can be selected based on the physical attractiveness of the model. Consumers do not consider whether the model’s image fits well with their self-images or the brand’s image when building an attitude toward the advertising model, and this precedes the consumer’s attitude toward the advertisement. These results can be used as guidelines to select appropriate models for advertisements of senior apparel brands.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of time remaining to use mileage in the notification message from retailers on consumer responses. A total of 577 consumers participated in experiments involving different notification messages of the time remaining to use mileage. Results showed: 1) a significant difference in mileage benefit perception, positive emotion, negative emotion, attitude toward retailers, and repurchase intention according to the remaining time to use mileages, 2) benefit perception positively affected positive emotion and negatively affected negative emotion; positive emotion positively affected and negative emotion negatively affected attitude toward retailers; and attitude positively affected repurchase intention on retailers, and 3) the remaining time to use mileages moderates the relationship between attitude and repurchase intention. Findings highlighted the importance of timing of the message to notify the consumer as to remaining time to use mileage. In the case of a message indicating long remaining time to use mileage, consumers showed more positive responses toward retailers than did consumers who had a message indicating short remaining time to use mileage. These results can be used as guidelines to select the optimal time to send notification messages of remaining time to use mileage in order to generate positive consumer responses.

This study is to explore the effect of music characteristics (i.e., likeliness and familiarity of music) on the relationship between mood and attitude toward the product in the online shopping mall selling hand-made shoes. A total of 319 consumers participated in experiments with online shopping mall stimuli with a variety of background music. In results, consumer mood positively affected attitude toward the hand-made shoe products in the online shopping mall under background music. A moderating effect of music likeliness was found in the relationship between mood and product attitude, indicating that mood more strongly affected product attitude under more liked music than under less liked music. When consumers are listening to more liked music and are in good mood, they may build their attitudes toward products independently from their mood, whereas they may build positive attitude under good mood versus negative attitudes under bad mood if they are listening to less liked music. A moderating effect of music familiarity was not found in the relationship between mood and product attitude. Based on results, it was confirmed that the S-O-R model could be applied to explain the effect of background music on consumer responses in online shopping malls. Marketers may be able to select and adjust the likeliness and familiarity of background music to better serve consumers in diverse shopping conditions, referring to the study findings.