With the rapid development and progress of modern social economy and science and technology, a new concept has emerged in the public's vision: the digital creative industry, which is a type of industry that combines modern information technology and cultural creative industries into one and integrates them, such as "the universe", virtual products, artificial intelligence, VR technology, and so on. Research by ARK INVEST shows that the compound growth rate of the "meta universe" will reach 17%, increasing from $180 billion currently to $390 billion in 2025. The mature "meta universe" can satisfy users to complete all social, entertainment, and other attributes similar to the real world.

The wide application of digital media technology in fashion shows has become the epitome of the development and innovation of today's fashion industry, enabling designers to break through the constraints of time and space, changing the performance of today's fashion shows, and making them present unprecedented new features. With the development of information technology, the integration of emerging digital technology and the fashion industry is accelerating. So far, separate studies have been carried out in various academic fields on the combination of Metaverse and NFT, but the current status and nature of relevant research are still incomplete. Furthermore, the current research on virtual fashion shows and NFT in China's apparel industry is limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of digital fashion marketing stimulation on consumer brand attitudes using the stimulation-organ-response (SOR) framework model. By analyzing 77 cases of virtual fashion shows in China, this study obtained antecedent variables and designed a research model. An online sample of 300 Chinese Gen Z consumers was collected and analyzed using SPSS and FSQCA. This research hopes to provide valuable information for the sustainable development of China's fashion industry, and to help Chinese fashion brands confirm the future market development direction of Metaverse and NFT.

The global society is overwhelmed by growing social inequality and environmental pollution. Especially, the fashion industry has been linked to hazardous clothing wastes and exploitation of labor in poor countries. We acknowledge that the sustainability philosophy could be an alternative governing principle that can lead us to a better future for the fashion industry. This study investigates brain responses of fashion professionals and consumers as they are presented with sustainable fashion of luxury and SPA brands. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the whole brain responses of participants were measured and analyzed to reveal how their brain responses differ depending on fashion products’ brand type and certification mark. We build an online education platform for professionals and lay consumers on the subject of sustainable fashion. Brain responses are measured from both groups of professionals and consumers while they are exposed to sustainable fashion products of luxury and SPA brands. A group of subjects watch the online educational program while under the counterpart condition subjects see another video of the same length, unrelated to sustainability. BOLD measures are acquired using Siemens 3T scanner and analyzed using SPM 12 software. We find selective brain activation patterns that can distinguish the educated group from the uneducated ones. The practical implication of this study is that we must do our best to build a sustainability education program which can motivate professionals and consumers effectively, by stimulating both cognitive and affective bases of behavioral change.

In contemporary society, the severity of social problems, such as environment pollution, is gradually raising people’s awareness towards sustainability (Gleim, Smith, Andrews, & Cronin, 2013). The fashion industry’s interest in sustainability is growing. However, consumers have neither sufficient knowledge or, nor faith in, sustainable fashion, and often question the reasons to pursue sustainability (Skov, 2009). The success of sustainable fashion depends on effective branding and marketing communications strategies designed to enhance consumers' knowledge, benefit and value perception. Providing consumers with the benefits of new products is an effective way of communicating (Lee & Colarelli O'Connor, 2003). Knowledge is an important variable affecting consumers ' perceived benefits (Haas & Hansen, 2007). Consumers’ values, attitude, and knowledge also affect their environment awareness and actions (Laroche, Bergeron, & Barbaro-Forleo, 2001). According to a previous study, environmental knowledge plays an important role in consumer behavior (Tilikidou, 2006). Consumers perceive various kinds of value according to their knowledge (Haas & Hansen, 2007; Hartmann & Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2012). Therefore, it is crucial to create awareness of the effect of consumer behaviors on the environment (Cegarra-Navarro, Cordoba-Pachon, & Fernandez de Bobadilla, 2009). Many studies have highlighted the leading factors influencing sustainable behavior (Cervellon & Wernerfelt, 2012). However, there a dearth of research on how sustainable knowledge influences perceived benefit, perceived value and behavior Thus, the purpose of the present research is as follows: (1) to identify the effects of sustainable fashion knowledge on perceived benefit and perceived risk, (2) to investigate how perceived benefit and perceived risk influence perceived value, and (3) to investigate perceived value’s influence on purchase intention and knowledge sharing intention. Sustainable fashion education, nationality, and uncertainty avoidance, will have a moderating effects on relationships among sustainable fashion knowledge, perceived benefit, perceived risk, perceived value, purchase intention, and knowledge sharing intention. Four hundred fifty samples were collected to measure sustainable fashion knowledge, perceived benefit, perceived risk, perceived value, purchase intention, knowledge sharing intention, uncertainty avoidance, and demographic variables. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 18.0 for descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis, and AMOS 18.0 for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), validity test and multiple group analysis on the results. A measurement model was then estimated by examining the results of the CFA. The main results of this research are as follows: (1) sustainable fashion knowledge has a positive influence on perceived benefit and perceived risk, (2) perceived benefit and perceived risk have a positive influence on perceived value, (3) perceived value has a positive influence on purchase intention and knowledge sharing intention, and (4) there was a difference in the relationship between variables according to the consumer groups (education, nationality, uncertainty avoidance tendency). This study is meaningful for taking an in-depth look at the influence of customers’ perceived value, based on their level of sustainable knowledge, on consumer behavior and on knowledge sharing related to sustainable fashion. In terms of practical applications, this study can provide in-depth and empirically-supported online education and a brand marketing strategies regarding an actual sustainable fashion brand.

The ever-evolving fashion industry has brought forth direct and indirect effects on the environmentto the extent that environmental contamination, labor exploitation, and pirated or counterfeit products have emerged as serious social issues. The sustainability-related issues are associated with all stages of the product lifecycle, ranging from the extraction of raw materials to product disposal (Berkhout & Smith, 1999).In lifecycle management (LCM), the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability is seen from the perspective of the product lifecycle (Kocmanova & Nemecek, 2009). TBL refers to corporate efforts to keep a balance among financial viability, environmental soundness and social accountability (Elkington, 1997). As sustainable products are defined in the light of lifecycles, research on product lifecycle management (PLM) has drawn much attention (Gmelin & Seuring, 2014).In addition, PLM is known to exert substantial effects on new product development, which warrants the need to view new sustainable products from the perspective of PLM (Cantamessa, Montagna, & Neirotti, 2012). Therefore, the present study intends to apply a conceptual model of PLM-based new sustainable product development to the fashion industry and to take multifaceted approaches to sustainable fashion product development. To that end, case studies of 21 local and global sustainable fashion brands, 1:1 in-depth interviews with 24 experts from sustainable and non-sustainable fashion brands, and participant observation of 5 sustainable fashion brands were conducted as part of this study. The findings illuminate the management issues attributable to the lack of technology and expertise, as well as the quantification issues involving monitoring or normalized data collection, despite the presence of some process-specific sustainable items in sustainable products developed by the fashion brands. Also, the findings will serve as reference data for further discussions and provide some implications for the sustainable fashion product development of fashion brands.

Using a range of interpretive methods, including focus-group interviews, in-depth interviews, and structured field observations, this study investigates how shopping experiences within sustainable fashion stores may cause consumers to change their attitudes towards sustainable fashion. Heider’s balance theory was applied to interpret the results, whereby we constructed the maps of individual consumers’ positive and negative associations of concepts, events, and outcomes within consumers’ purchasing decisions about sustainable fashion products. Our findings suggest that there could often be a gap between the consumer’s perception of sustainable fashion and their actual purchase behavior, which creates an ‘imbalanced’ state. However, positive store experiences may persuade consumers to achieve a balance by purchasing sustainable fashion products. The study provides important and theoretical and practical insights for sustainable fashion marketing

One of the top tourist destinations in Korea during 2014 was Dongdaemun market, which is a representative traditional market that provides reasonably priced, fashionable products. Already constituting 43.1% of Korea’s foreign tourists, the number of Chinese tourists is expected to reach 14.88 million by 2020 at an average annual growth rate of 19.8%. The most important way to improve customer equity is by understanding a store’s attributes, so this study aims to investigate the effects of Dongdaemun fashion market’s store attributes on customer equity. A survey was conducted among Chinese tourists and structural equation modeling were used to test the hypotheses. The main findings of this study are: Store attributes appear to have an impact on all of the three drivers of customer equity. Value equity has a positive impact on the customer lifetime value (CLV). Also, brand equity and relationship equity were identified as having positive impacts on revisiting intention, regardless of the type of shopping mall. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for developing the customer equity of Dongdaemun’s traditional markets.

Design innovation is acquiring greater importance as consumers’ emotional needs grow ever greater and the cycle of technological innovation grows ever faster. Apple in particular led and strengthened this trend, achieving incomparable business success in the technology-driven electronics industry. However, although the importance of design innovation has increased, very little research has been done to explain the influence of design innovation on business success. This study aims to investigate the influence of design innovation attributes on perceptions, attitudes, and purchase intentions among designers and consumers. 408 designers and 464 consumers participated in an online survey that presented as stimuli four different smart watches. Design innovation attributes were evaluated based on the criteria of features, aesthetics, and ergonomics; consumer-perceived values were categorized as emotional, social, and functional. Regarding consumers attitudes, attitude toward product and attitude toward brand were measured separately. Overall results indicate that purchase intention among designers and consumers alike is influenced by their attitude toward product as well as brand. However, in the case of designers, these attitudes are most influenced by emotional value, while consumers are influenced by emotional as well as social values. Moreover, all three innovation attributes - namely, features, aesthetics, and ergonomics - affect designers’ perception of emotional value, but only aesthetics and ergonomics affect consumers’ emotional and social value. The study demonstrates three significant differences in the responses of designers and consumers. First, there is correlation of aesthetics and ergonomics to functional (price) value among designers, but not consumers. Second, there is correlation of functional (quality) value to attitudes toward product and brand for consumers, but much less or none at all for designers. Third, the influence of features on perception of emotional value is more pronounced among designers as compared to consumers. In conclusion, aesthetics and ergonomics are important design innovation attributes for consumers as well as designers, but the latter also attach significance to features. While perception of emotional as well as social value is important to consumers, designers consider only emotional value. It is anticipated that the relative importance of design innovation attributes will vary according to product categories and price ranges; therefore, further comparative studies will be meaningful in investigation of design innovation.

With the recent hype concerning three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, affordable 3D printers have been launched, enabling individual machine owners to download or create design files and thus produce artifacts. As a design community, Shapeways—which comprises over 300,000 members and 25,000 online shops—commercializes and promotes good ideas using 3D printing technology (Shapeways, 2015). Through Thingiverse, people can globally upload and share design modeling files without cost and print out items as desired. In general, 3D printing communities provide data without charges and witness gradually increasing data sharing rates. Literature on 3D printing mainly focuses on cases of technology-related patents, policies, and intellectual property rights. Thus, there is a paucity of empirical studies on 3D printing users. To overcome the limitations of previous studies, this study first builds on both social cognitive and social capital theories to elucidate the effects of 3D printing community users’ self-efficacy; altruistic tendency; and perceived structural, cognitive, and relational capital on their voluntary knowledge sharing and innovative behaviors. Second, it aims to verify inter-group differences in innovative behaviors of 3D printing community users while considering either high or low levels of fashion innovativeness and fashion involvement. For this verification, antecedents of knowledge sharing are elicited from previous research followed by an interview and a questionnaire survey with 3D printing community users to substantiate such antecedents. Next, the data collected from the interview and survey is analyzed using SPSS 18.0. The results indicate that first, altruistic tendencies influence knowledge sharing, which is consistent with the social cognitive theory, whereas structural, cognitive, and relational capitals affect knowledge sharing, which parallels social capital theory. Second, knowledge sharing in 3D printing virtual communities exerts significant effects on innovative behaviors. This study establishes the antecedents and consequences of knowledge sharing in 3D printing virtual communities and proposes a model for effective knowledge sharing, which is projected to stimulate the application of 3D printing technology in creating and sharing fashion design content and providing substantive data for market formation.

3D printing technology, also called the third manufacturing revolution, dramatically changes and revolutionizes the original frame, shifting production processes, supply chains, and the global economic order (Yeh, 2014). The World Economic Forum (2013) selected 3D printing as one of '10 promising technologies'. U.S. President Barack Obama, states in the State of the Union address in 2013: "I will bring a revolution of new manufacturing business on the support of technology of 3D printing". Furthermore, G2 (Group of 2: US and China), China expressed their commitment to invest in the 3D printing technology to restructure the manufacturing industry (Garrett, 2014). By considering its immense economic and creative potential, it is important to understand the effects of 3D printing on the fashion industry. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is (1) to examine the application of 3D printing in fashion industry and (2) to analyze the way it changes the fashion industry. In this study, information from various sources was used, such as governmental market reports, academic literature, newspaper articles, and related other materials. Through analyzing the change of the fashion industry, this research found that technical characteristics of 3D printing were more suitable for customized items that produced in small quantity rather than for the mass market. In addition, 3D printing will change the ‘global operating environment’ for policy makers as well as with regards to business and labor conditions. Governments have to consider the possible risks and problems of 3D printing, ranging from design copyright, security concerns about printing of weapons, and other destructive issues This study indicates how 3D printing technology changes the structure of the apparel industry and the preparation of future changes. The findings will help to understand the effects of 3D printing on the fashion industry and provide a guideline to policy makers to develop a governmental policy. These implications will be useful to both the government and apparel companies. Future research of 3D printing should include quantitative research concerning the attitude and acceptance of fashion consumers on 3D printing technology.

Social media, Web 2.0 based social activity and powerful marketing tool, brought about a new paradigm for the 21st century culture and society. In line with the trend, the fashion industry is vigorously undertaking marketing activities on social media, seeking to build and maintain relationships with their customers through the Internet and mobile devices. The one-way provision of information by firms to customers has evolved to a symmetrical form of customers, whereby the customers also supply information to the firms share information with other customers. Through social media services, customers not only share their thoughts and experiences but also exchange tangible products and publicize the products, thereby directly participating in production and marketing activities of brands. Such participation of consumers offers inspirations for differentiated service on the part of the brands, for which proactive and long-term participatory activities of customers are required. Customer participation is of primary importance in current service marketing industry. Until now, related literature on customer participation has mostly centered on offline service situations. However, the advent of social media has simplified the process of participation for customers, and invoking voluntary customer participation has become the greatest challenge facing service industries, and, at the same time, the path to success. Those of us who live in the age of information technology are offered the opportunity to engage in two-way communication with other customers, the brand, and the media. Thus, customer participation is just as, if not, more important in an online environment. More and more customers are becoming directly involved in brand activities, which affect the brands as well as the customers themselves. Nonetheless, extant customer participation research focuses on developing constructs that are largely based on offline situations. Although such constructs correspond in part to the online setting, they fall short of meeting the unique characteristics of customer participation in social media. Therefore, in order to establish constructs for customer participation in social media, revision and supplementation of the offline-based constructs were found to be necessary. Based on interaction theory, this study explored the notion of customer participation in fashion brands’ social networking site (SNS) service by categorizing it into three types: customer-customer, customer-brand, and customer-media participation. In addition, it examined the external factors that influence customer social participation and how active social participation of customers in SNS affects trust and customer equity. The association between measurement variables according to the brand type was also closely examined. This study underwent two pre-tests to revise and supplement the survey items on customer social participation. A preliminary investigation was conducted on 516 respondents, and a total of 582 respondents participated in the main investigation. The respondents who were invited to participate lived in Korea, were in their 20s or 30s, and had previous experience in using fashion brands’ SNS service, SPSS 18.0 was used to conduct frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and t-test. Based on the results, AMOS 18.0 was used to undergo confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of the study are summarized as follows. Based on the brand type (SPA and luxury) and the rate of sales, Uniqlo, a global SPA brand that boasts the largest number of SNS fans, and Louis Vuitton, a global luxury brand, were chosen for the study. The respondents consisted of consumers in their 20s and the 30s who, within the last six months, had previous experience in using the SNS service of the brands. The sample consisted of 40.7% male and 59.6% female, and 72.5% were in their 20s and 27.5% in 30s. A large percentage of the respondents were students (64.9%). The large proportion of university students reflects the trend of most active users of SNS being university students. Second, SNS service shopping context found positive association with customer-customer participation and customer-brand participation, but customer-media participation was insignificant. The results show that as the SNS is characterized by its linkage to different websites and platforms, customers are exposed to constant opportunities for participation. On the other hand, customer-media participation was found to be insignificant, which can be interpreted as indiscriminate constant supply of information that seeks to spur impulsive buying leading to antagonism of the customers. Such negative situations can be avoided by departing from indiscriminate provision of information to offering information that is customized to the needs and demands of each customer and invoking the customer to participate in information delivery. Third, SNS participation motivation and customer social participation were all positively associated. In particular, customer-media participation demonstrated the strongest influence, followed by customer-customer and customer-brand participation. As such, active participation of the customer with the brand is the most effective way to create collaborative, synergy effect or co-creation. Fourth, all routes from SNS user orientation to customer social participation were significant. SNS users in general possessed high levels of self-efficacy and tended to feel elevated as well as find altruistic pleasure in providing information that would help others. Such users participate through numerous ways such as customer-brand and customer-media participation but were the most active in customer-customer participation. Fifth, it was found that customer-customer and customer-brand participation builds trust of the customers toward the SNS service and the information or the information provider. However, customer-media participation did not indicate the same results. In order to build trust through participation, brands need to provide an inviting environment for customers to post comments and share information. Furthermore, marketing strategies, such as offering events and coupons to stimulate E-WOM activities of customers as well as creating a space for open communication are vital to building trust. Sixth, customer-media participation was positively associated with customer equity. Unlike customer-customer and customer-brand participation which requires constant physical effort of the customer, customer-media participation demands considerably less time and effort apart from the initial stages during which customization process is undergone to receive tailored information with just one click. Therefore, establishing convenient and practical system that targets the Y-generation in their 20s and 30s is emphasized in order to maintain a long-term relationship. Seventh, trust is positively associated with customer equity. Building trust is based on interactivity among people. This study found that customer-customer participation and customer-brand participation influence customer equity through trust, while customer-media participation leads to customer equity without being mediated by trust. Therefore, all three types of participation are equally important to customer equity. Eighth, brand type was a meaningful moderator to the relationship between SNS service shopping context, SNS service user orientation, participation motivation, customer social participation, trust, and customer equity. To summarize, the type of participation to encourage is based on the brand type, and as customers may have different expectations according to the brand, it is important to understand their orientations and provide customized information or an open space for communication. In addition, participation behavior has a strong potential to influence customer equity, but depending on the type of participation, trust may not necessarily positively influence customer equity. Therefore, it is recommended that brands offer credible and sincere information that customers can trust and follow. The significance of this study is that it is one of the first studies to examine customer participation in a social media environment. At a point in time where customers’ value creation is attracting increased attention, this study empirically revealed that customer-media relationship, which enables customer-customer and customer-brand participation on SNS, is also within the bounds of participation. Furthermore, this study identified the importance of relational marketing approach to brand and customer through customer social participation. By applying the concept of customer equity, which is in its fledgling stage in the area of consumer fashion marketing, it offers a basis for future research on long-term relationship building with firms The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed below. The sample of the study consisted of Koreans between the ages of 20 to 30. The limitation in the sample is inadequate to generalize the findings, and therefore, a comparative study with broader sample across culture and age is necessary. Moreover, this study observed customer participation on SNS environment. However, as there was a lack of preceding literature in this area, the measurement scales were revised and supplemented to fit the purpose of this study. The measurement instrument, therefore, needs to be further applied with different antecedents and consequences in subsequent research. Finally, due to the lack of previous literature on customer participation in SNS environment, the theoretical basis of the relationship between the variables lacked solidity. This study adapted a part of a theoretical framework to fit the context of the study to come up with the hypothesized relationship between the variables. Therefore, it is suggested that future research works toward developing and strengthening the theoretical framework of customer social participation.