The market distribution channels has changed from single to multi-channels due to the diffusion of digital development products. In addition the new consumption emergence has been applied in showrooming and reverse-showrooming. One of well-known shopping district in South Korea, Dongdaemun, has been introduced Dongdaemun-based fashion brand which use on/offline multi-channel distribution. This study aims to segment multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands and analyse the effects of customer equity attributes, customer satisfaction, and re-purchase intention. The goals of this study are as follows: 1) to identify multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands, 2) to analyse the influence of multi-channel attributes on customer equity, customer satisfaction, and repurchase intention, 3) to explore the consumer group differences on shopping orientation. This study applied means-end chain theory to conduct in-depth interviews for the purpose of deriving the multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands and explore the influence of such attributes on customer equity, customer satisfaction, and re-purchase intention. This study collected 493 samples and structural equation modeling was used for final data analysis. The main findings of this study are as follows. The multi-channel attributes have a significant impact on value equity and brand equity. Relationship equity is influenced by product diversity, entertainment, and informativeness. The all of customer equity drivers have significantly impacts on repurchase intention and only brand equity have significant effect on repurchase intention. Also, customer satisfaction affects re-purchase intention. Brand equity have a significant influence on CLV. The consumers group differ in how consumers recognize multi-channel attributes of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands, based on channel preference. This study shows the importance of customer equity and suggests long-term implications for the development of Dongdaemun-based fashion brands.

Due to the highly competitive nature of the apparel industry, fashion brands attempt to constantly engage consumers through various marketing strategies. Social media was found to drive female consumer purchases for apparel items. In shopping for fashion, consumers have used their personal connections on social media as an information source about different brands and products and to seek approval of their peers before making a purchase decision (Park & Cho, 2012). Cha (2009) found that female consumers look to their social media network connections for emotional connections, opinions, and approval on clothing, perfume, and accessories they are considering purchasing online. Ruane and Wilson (2013) found that female consumers use social media sites for information on where to shop and what merchandise to purchase. In studying the effect of blogs on corporate outcome, the role Millennials play is found to be significant. They are heavily reliant on word of mouth when up to 93% of Millennials has purchased a product after hearing about it from a family member or friend (Hoffmann, 2014). They not only usually read reviews prior to purchase, but also pass their recommendations via social media post-purchase (Hoffman, 2014). This age group constitutes 27% of the US population and in spite of their lower incomes, they spend more money on e-commerce than any other age group ($2,000 annually) (Smith, 2015). Therefore, this study aims to suggest strategies to fashion brands on effective blog campaign, which may eventually provide insights on how marketers can encourage engagement with female Millennial apparel consumers. The study’s objectives are 1) to examine the effect of brand awareness building customer’s brand credibility, brand similarity and blog engagement 2) to investigate the impact of brand responses on customer’s brand credibility, brand similarity and blog engagement, and 3) interaction effect between brand awareness and brand responses on customer engagement through cognitive evaluation in fashion blog context. A 3 (brand response: automated response, personalized response, no response) x2 (Brand awareness: well know, unknown) experimental design was developed through a pre-test of 139 participants. For main-test, experiment conditions and the following survey were completed by the convenience sample of 537 students in a large Southern university. Research findings revealed the significant impact of brand awareness on customer perceived brand credibility and brand similarity which were significant predictors of engagement intention. In contrast, the study indicated the insignificant relationship between brand responses and blog engagement intention. Study’s result not only suggested implications for marketers but also expanded further studies contributing on the body of knowledge.

A firm’s new product success is mainly determined by how well it is accepted by the mass in a short time. Although companies have been adopting various marketing methods, word-of-mouth [WOM] has been regarded as one of the most effective means for customer acquisition (Villanueva, Yoo & Hanssens, 2008), primarily due to its reliability, social support, and support by social pressure and surveillance as Arndt (1967) has suggested (as cited in Woodside and Delozier, 1976). Moreover, online word-of-mouth is being given new significance alongside the advent of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other online channels (Berger and Iyengar, 2013; Dellarocase, 2003; Schafer & Taddicken, 2015). For this reason, researchers have paid a close attention to opinion leaders, who are not only early adopters of innovation themselves (Goldsmith & Witt, 2003), but also information transmitters and influencers (Vernette, 2004). Therefore, this study aims to identify both online and offline opinion leaders, who could adopt new products first, and diffuse the adoption of new products to others. Thus, this study draws upon the innovation diffusion theory conceptualized by Rogers (1995). According to Rogers (1995), innovation is defined as an individual’s or an organization’s perception of an idea as new. In addition, he articulates that if an innovation is transferred through certain communication channels over time within a social system by its members, diffusion occurs (Rogers, 1995; Rogers, 2002). The main purpose of this paper is to examine the intermediary role of opinion leadership as a quintessential link between consumer characteristics (consumer innovativeness and lifestyle and values) and new product adoption behavior. The research data is collected through survey, which is conducted by distributing questionnaires to a group of users of Apple Watch by Apple, Mi band by Xiaomi, and the products by Fitbit. The model of the study will be tested through structural equation modeling approach. In particular, this paper considers not only regular opinion leadership in offline context, but also online opinion leadership in order to go with the tide of the developing online world. Moreover, this study selects wearable technology as a new product category, which makes the overall research highly fashion-oriented. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effect of involvement of product category on the relationship between lifestyles and values and opinion leadership. The author anticipates that fashion innovativeness and four lifestyle and values factors (sense of accomplishment, self-fulfillment, excitement, and fun and enjoyment) will positively affect online and offline opinion leaderships, which again will have a positive influence on new product adoption behavior. Moreover, this study predicts that the correlation between lifestyles and values and involvement of product category will have a positive influence on online and offline opinion leaderships and new product adoption behavior. This study may contribute both to the academia and to the managers within businesses that deal with wearable devices. Theoretically, this study is of particular value in that it adopts consumers’ lifestyles and values as predictors of opinion leadership and new product adoption behavior, which is an uncommon approach within existing research streams regarding opinion leadership and new product acquisition. In managerial terms, by revealing the significant relationships between the consumer characteristics and both offline and online opinion leaderships who are the potential customers of new products, this study enables the managers to identify their targets and differentiate their marketing strategies considering the different characteristics of consumers in offline and online environments. In particular, since this study adopted several wearable technologies as new products, businesses that deal with wearable devices may pay close attention to the results of this study and manipulate their marketing strategies in adequate terms.

While it was found that consumers’ experience on purchase intention is significantly affected by greater involvement in blogging (Hsu & Tsou, 2011), not many fashion companies use blogs to improve online consumption and relationship with their employee or customer (Fieseler & Fleck, 2013). Further, despite the growing significance of blog communication, there is a lack of understanding for the impact of accumulation of social capital in the blogosphere on the consumers’ attitude and engagement in previous research. This study is designed to address this gap, and particularly the role of three dimensions of social capital (i.e., structural, relational, and cognitive) in understanding blog user’s attitude and engagement. The purpose of this study is to investigate 1) the effect of blog user’s motivation (i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, reputation, altruism, enjoyment, community identification) on their level of social capital within the blog 2) the influence of structural social capital and cognitive social on user’s relational social capital and 3) the impact of relational social capital on blog user’s attitude and engagement. Data was collected through a marketing research firm utilizing online survey method. With 530 usable data, the results of this study indicated enjoyment have positive significant effect on structural social capital while community identification have negative significant effect on structural social capital. For the effect of blogging motivation on cognitive social capital, the result showed positive significant effect of perceived usefulness, altruism and community identification on cognitive social capital Further, structural social capital does not have relationship with relational social capital while cognitive social capital has significant effect on relational social capital. The results also indicated that the relational social capital has influence on blogging attitude, which in turn has strong positive relationship with blogging engagement. The findings of this study contribute some useful knowledge about fashion blog and the relationships of the three social capital dimensions to the literature. Also, this study not only provides theoretical insight into understanding the influence of fashion blog user’s motivation on blogging behavior and satisfaction of needs of belong, it also exposes the influence of relationships building in blog community on user’s blogging attitude and engagement. Previous studies focused more on social influence on knowledge sharing motivation, and most of the researchers paid attention to the interaction of cognitive social capital and relational capital. This study employs the knowledge sharing motivation findings of previous studies, and it uses the effective motivation factors to test if they have the same impacts on people’s blogging behavior.

Fashion bloggers and their personal brands have attracted significant attention in recent years, as prior research has indicated their importance in shaping the fashion industry. As fashion is cultural-specific social construct, to understand how bloggers’ personal brands are developed, it is critical to examine the practices of bloggers from two different cultures, namely, Taiwanese and American. The two cultures are chosen because fashionable persons in the U.S. are well established and can be considered as qualified brands that accumulate a significant amount of followers and fame. However, this institutional process is still under development in Taiwan where routine practices, norms and rules, and the structural features that serve to guide and constrain the behaviours of individuals have yet been established. To focus on the practices within the institution, the framework of practice theory is applied to analyze how individual bloggers negotiate their ways to become branded persons. Focusing on the best practices in the field, 20 most popular fashion blogs from the U.S. and Taiwan were selected in the sample. The verbal and visual texts visible in these blogs are analyzed. The results suggest that moving from amateur bloggers who take interests in fashion to establishing a well-connected fashionable persona in the fashion industry is a long process of celebrities in the making. The contrasts between the two countries indicate that cultural elements are important factors to consider in understanding the formation of persona-fied brands. It appears that the usual assumption of distinction between the public persona and the private persona does not always imply in persona-fied brands. When the external institutions have yet been established, the practices of such a distinction may prove to be challenging. While all the bloggers included in the sample are still unified persons that encompass both the creation and the execution of the personal brands. U.S. bloggers are slowly moving toward professional management of the brands where they see themselves as persona-fied brands and where other persons may execute the brandable qualities on their behalf. On the other hand, Taiwanese bloggers rarely make such a distinction. In fact, most of the bloggers have yet identified the two facets in their personas. They do not see themselves as micro-celebrities that stand in a higher level of the hierarchy than their fans. They regard themselves as part of a fashionable community where others appreciate their taste. This is evident by the practices of how they organize their communities and how they interact with their fan bases.

Motivated by the recent cases of negligent social responsibility as manifested by foreign luxury fashion brands in Korea, this study investigates whether agency costs depend on the sustainability of different types of corporate governance. Agency costs refer either to vertical costs arising from the relationship between stockholders and managers, or to horizontal costs associated with the potential conflicts between majority and minority stockholders. The firms with luxury fashion brand could spend large sums of money on maintenance of magnificent brand image, thereby increasing the agency cost. On the contrary, the firms may hold down wasteful spending to report a gaudily financial achievement. This results in mitigation of the agency cost.

Consumers nowadays are looking for luxury brands that are able to fulfil their values. Luxury fashion marketers have spent enormously on advertising and adopted sex appeal extensively as their major selling technique. Little empirical evidence, however, has been presented with regards to the effectiveness of using sex appeal in luxury fashion advertising. Consumer responses to sex appeal in luxury brand advertisements are also poorly understood and under-investigated. The massive use of sex appeal in luxury brand advertising suggests the strong need for empirical research to determine the relationship between sex appeal and perceived luxury values. Based on the luxury value framework and adopting a quasi-experimental design, this study examines the influence of sex appeal in advertising on the relationships between attitude towards the advertisement and luxury value perceptions. Results show that the increase of sex appeal level increases the favourability of the advertisement which results in significant changes in luxury value perceptions. The influence of gender is found to be prominent in this study, which highlights the importance of gender consideration when adopting sex appeal strategy for any luxury brand advertising. Implications for luxury brand marketers and advertisers are discussed.

Urban regeneration has emerged as a new paradigm of urban development today. In this situation, awareness has increased that urban regeneration should be pursued in connection with culture and art (Evans, 2009). Urban transformation has continued through internal restructuring in an expanded or reduced scale by economic and social changes (Garcia, 2004). Initially, diverse public/private parties initiated urban image improvement and strong brand creation through leading developmental strategies in order to attract floating enterprises, residents and tourists. At this time, states built culture-centered urban regeneration strategies in relation to urban development and regeneration such as large-scale culture and art facility establishment or large event hosting (Couch, 1990). However, in the modern society, with the elevated awareness on environment, the focus has shifted from development towards service industry and tourist industry in urban. In this sense, cultural policies are deemed to be responsible for the expanded idea of urban development considering diverse aspects from physical and economic aspects, to social significance, sustainability and to culture and art (Bianchini & Parkinson, 1993; Garcia, 2004).

One of the most significant challenges of modern strategic marketers refers to the ability of expressing the authentic value of fashion brand. This is particularly important for luxury goods, which are able to effectively impact on customers’ social attitude and behavior. Hence, pertinent literature is progressively focusing on the role of authenticity as a strategic element for marketing theory. Specifically, three elements have been associated with brand’s authenticity, namely quality commitment, heritage, and sincerity. In the present research we apply a validated empirical instrument concerning brand authenticity and its aforementioned three elements. Precisely, we will present and discuss the results of a survey implemented in the Tuscany region (Italy), thus aiming at investigating possible differences and/or similarities characterizing Tuscan customers’ perception of luxury brand authenticity. A structural equation model will be conceptualized and assessed in order to analyze the existing relationships between brand’s authenticity elements, namely quality commitment, heritage, and sincerity. The results confirm the hypothesized significance of these relationships among variables. Further, we will introduce the notion of mythopoiesis, which will be interpreted as a strategic vehicle able to appropriately communicate the traditional values, culture, and historical symbolic meanings of luxury fashion brand. Actually, marketing mythopoiesis results in being an effective element for translating a historical ‘stock’ of heritage into a strategic ‘flow’ of narrative capabilities by marketing managers.

Introduction What is fast fashion? Does this term just define all the latest or the most popular or the most famous clothes? In reality, this social phenomenon goes beyond the conventional notion of industrialized fashion and carries more importance than is implied by this view. Fast fashion, defined as “the retail strategy of adapting merchandise assortments to current and emerging trends as quickly and effectively as possible” (Sull & Turconi, 2008, p. 5), has received a great amount of attention from fashion marketers and consumers since its inception during the 21st century (Tokatli, 2008; Jang et al., 2012). The purpose of this study was to deepen our understanding of fast fashion consumers. Based on the review of related literature, the key variables related to fast fashion consumers were categorized into three dimensions: consumer characteristics (i.e., fashion leadership, price consciousness), consumer awareness (i.e., awareness of sustainable practices of fast fashion retailers, perception of fashion democratization), and attitude toward fast fashion retailers. The three dimensions were examined in a sequential manner to assess the power of each set of antecedents in explaining college students’ repatronage intention of fast fashion retailers. Related Literature While fast fashion retailers have experienced a huge financial success mainly due to their affordable and accessible fashion products, they have also been harshly criticized by some members of the public because of their lack of corporate social responsibility. Indeed, fast fashion retailers’ low cost and efficient supply chain management systems have had negative effects on the environment, society, and people (Barnes & Lea-Greenwood, 2006; Bruce & Daly, 2006; Ro & Kim, 2009). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that about 14.3 million tons of textiles were generated in 2012, making up 5.2 percent of total municipal solid waste. Such massive textile waste has been attributed to fast fashion retailers because the cheap and trendy items they produce encourage consumers to make frequent purchases and to frequently dispose of unwanted clothing. Furthermore, several fast fashion retailers (e.g. Gap and Forever 21) have been criticized for the use of child labor and the sweatshop-like conditions of their factories (Ramishvili, 2012). Moreover, some fast fashion retailers have been involved in intellectual property lawsuits because they replicated the runway designs of prominent designers to produce knock-off products (Pous, 2013). In response, a few fashion experts claim that fast fashion retailers destroy fashion because the styles produced lack of aesthetic expression and creativity (Choufan, 2013). However, these issues are not solely a problem associated with fast fashion retailers. In fact, the entire fashion industry is responsible for adverse environmental and societal consequences to some extent. Traditional fashion retailers (e.g. Diesel, Levi’s, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Hermès) also generate huge amounts of textile waste along with hazardous waste that results from the chemical materials used in production processes. Their products are also manufactured in developing countries to keep production costs low. They also may not pay attention to the labor environment. Therefore, traditional fashion retailers along with fast fashion retailers have responsibilities related to sustainability issues (Casey, 2014; Greenpeace, 2013). Nevertheless, fast fashion retailers have received the majority of the public’s criticism regarding these issues. Contrary to a popular belief, fast fashion retailers have taken some steps to apply the concept of sustainability into their business practices. For example, H&M collects unwanted garments for recycling, uses recycled or reused materials for producing new garments and uses organic cottons (Lanyon, 2013). Other fast fashion retailers like Zara, Topshop and Uniqlo as well as H&M also have launched eco-friendly collections (MacDonald, 2012). Moreover, H&M, Zara, Mango and Uniqlo have committed to eliminate the release of toxic chemicals by 2020 in response to Greenpeace’s Detox campaign and to public pressure (Greenpeace, 2012). Furthermore, fast fashion retailers are also paying attention to labor issues. For instance, after more than 1,100 people died from the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24th in 2013 (Chua, 2013), major fast fashion retailers signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. This accord indicates these retailers agree to be responsible for the working environment for employees in apparel factories in Bangladesh. Although their ultimate goal might be to increase their sales by recovering their brand images damaged by unfavorable media coverage, it is clear that movement toward sustainable practices will minimize the negative impact of their business practices on the environment and society and encourage other retailers to incorporate sustainable practices. In spite of the harsh criticism directed at fast fashion retailers, consumers still like wearing fast fashion products considering that fast fashion retailers have continuously expanded their businesses worldwide and have been successful. Prior researchers interested in fast fashion retailers have focused on supply chain management issues (Barnes & Lea-Greenwood, 2006; Mihm, 2010), the value of fast fashion (Cachon & Swinney, 2011), and indentifying business strategies of a particular fast fashion retailer (Ferdows, Lewis, & Machuca, 2005; Ghemawat, Nueno, & Dailey, 2003; Tokatli, 2008). However, few researchers have theoretically explained why consumers still like fast fashion products and visit fast fashion retailers. With that in mind, the present study identified various factors that positively influence consumer attitude and their patronage intention toward fast fashion retailers. Furthermore, although fast fashion retailers have positive motivations toward consumers (e.g. provide inexpensive fashionable items,participate in sustainable practices), consumer research has highlighted their negative effects on the environment and society (e.g., Morgan & Birtwistle, 2009). Methods An online self-administered survey methodology was employed with a purposive sample of U.S. college students who had shopped at fast fashion retailers. A total of 154 usable responses were used for data analysis. The click through rate was 79.79%. Exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression were used to examine the interrelationships among the three dimensions of antecedents (consumer characteristics, consumer awareness, consumer attitude) and repatronage intention. The measurement items employed were developed based on previous literature. All items were reviewed and modified to fit the context of this research: consumer attitude and patronage intention toward fast fashion retailers (Madden, Ellen, & Ajzen, 1992); perception of fashion democratization (PFD) (Dubois, Czellar, & Laurent, 2005); fashion opinion leadership (Flynn et al., 1996; Goldsmith & Hofacker, 1991); and price consciousness (Lichtenstein et al., 1993). The items for measuring awareness of sustainable practices of fast fashion retailers (ASP) were created based on news articles presenting sustainable practices fast fashion retailers actually engaged in. Participant Characteristics Among the participants, 48.1% were majoring in a fashion related area (e.g. fashion design, retail merchandising). The majority of the participants were female (85.1%). Most participants (92.2%) were between 18 and 25 years old. With respect to ethnicity, 63.0% were Caucasian. Approximately half of the participants (52.6%) reported that they earned less than $10,000 annually. Also, 26.0% of the participants shopped at fast fashion retailers once a month. Results A weighted least squares (WLS) hierarchical regression analysis was used for data analysis. Fast fashion shopping frequency was used as a weight variable as it is related to the variability in the dependent variable. The results revealed that: (a) fashion leadership positively influenced repatonage intention (Model 1); (b) after controlling consumer characteristics, PFD played a significant role in increasing variance explained in repatonage intention (Model 2) and (c) after controlling consumer characteristics and awareness, consumer attitude was found to be a significant predictor, partially mediating the linkages from fashion leadership and PFD to repatronage intention (Model 3). Implications and Conclusion Our findings suggest that fashion leadership plays an important role in the fast fashion market because it initiates the acceptance of new trends and leads to diffusion of new fashion. Prior research suggests that fashion leaders (versus followers) are willing to take risks in trying new items offered by fast fashion retailers, are interested in fashion information, tend to retain fashion items for socializing for a short period of time and need various and unique fashion items (Goldsmith, Freiden & Kilsheimer, 1993; Kang & Park-Poaps, 2010). Given that fast fashion retailers promote frequent purchases and decrease the financial burden by offering new products on a weekly basis and charging low prices, our finding is consistent with fashion leaders’ characteristics prior research identified. Another important finding is that the role of PDF in defining fast fashion consumers. Fast fashion products look similar to high-end products, but are comparatively inexpensive because the fast fashion retailers apply or copy high-end designs into their products and use cheap materials (Niinimäki, 2009; Reinach, 2005). Also, fast fashion retailers open tremendous stores across the world, which make fashion more accessible to consumers globally. As a result, fast fashion retailers accelerate the fashion democratization and it means that both concepts of fast fashion and fashion democratization are highly related. As Wang (2010) stated, “fast fashion’s soul is to make fashion democratized with its low price and speed” (p.10). Further research is needed to extend and corroborate the findings of this study.

Since the arrival of omni-channel retailing, which promotes seamless experience for consumers and zero effort commerce, channel integration has been a big issue in both the domestic and the international retail industry. Some researchers have identified problems that can occur in the process of channel integration, such as cannibalization and channel conflict (Coelho & Easingwood, 2003). However, many studies on channel integration report its positive impact on a firm’s revenue growth through improved trust (Schramm-Klein & Morschett, 2006), higher consumer conversion rates (Neslin et al., 2006), and greater cross-selling opportunities (Berry et al., 2010). Regarding the issue of effectively establishing channel integration in order to bring positive synergy to a company, the present study intends to identify a solution within a company’s internal factors. This study aims to provide a strategic perspective on channel integration formation of domestic fashion retailers by identifying some of the key organizational components that drive a firm’s channel integration in this omni-channel era, when the boundaries between online and offline markets are disappearing. This study predicts that organizational structure and strategic orientation are the key components of a fashion retailer’s channel integration implementation in an omni-channel environment. As shown in previous studies, channel integration has a positive impact on a firm’s performance through active and innovative transformation of the organization’s hardware and software (Cao & Li, 2015; Yan, Wang, & Zhou, 2010). In particular, this study introduces channel (extension) strategies (number of different types of channels in both online and offline markets) into channel integration as one of the crucial variables, in addition to the two existing variables. The data were collected through a survey targeting mid-level executives or above, within a business unit of Korea’s fashion companies with over $10 million revenue. Through this selection, a total of 120 samples were used in the final analysis. Hierarchical regression modeling was used to prove the study’s hypothesis. The revenue size of a parent company and SBU was used as a control variable in the level 1 model; channel strategies in the level 2 model; organizational structure in the level 3 model, and organization strategic orientation in the level 4 model, which was used as an independent variable. Integrated back-end system and integrated human resource management, which are the highest levels of channel integration (Cao & Li, 2015; Oh, Teo, & Sambamurthy, 2012), have been used as dependent variables. The main findings of this study are as follows: In a back-end system integration model, organization strategic orientation was identified as the highest level when the organizational structure becomes more centralized, whereas the system integration level is the highest when the model is competitor-oriented and innovation-oriented. In the human resource management integration model, the human resource management integration level is at its highest when the organizational structure becomes formalized and specialized, and organization strategic behavior becomes more competitor-oriented and innovation-oriented.

The fashion industry is one of the most labor intensive industries, and employs over 25 million workers in over 100 countries (Reinhard, Schmidt, Rützel, & Zentgraf, 2013). There have been many concerns regarding the poor working conditions of garment workers, including their long working hours, forced overtime, and hazardous working environments, especially in developing countries. In Korea, competition has intensified within the industry with the emergence of global fashion companies, which has caused many fashion companies to move their production bases overseas in search of cheaper labor (Son, 2007). Thus, the labor problems that have arisen in the fashion industry are mostly about low wages and the poor working conditions of production workers. However, what about the labor problems of fashion industry workers other than those in production factories? Lee, Kim, Shin, Yoon, Lee, Chang, Chung, and Choi (2009) noted in their study that white-collar workers in fashion companies in Korea work longer hours, receive fewer benefits, and have a higher turnover rate than workers in other industries. In 2015, the poor working environment and low or absent wages of fashion industry interns came under public scrutiny (Kim, 2015; Kwon, 2016). In addition, there were cases in which body size was specified when hiring fashion designers, which raised the question of discrimination based on physical appearance (Kim, 2015). These employment conditions are important factors that influence fashion design majors entering the job market. Hence, regarding this and the physical body size discrimination of fashion designers in the Korean fashion industry, the aims of this paper are twofold: 1) to examine the present situation of physical discrimination by analyzing fashion companies’ job advertisements and 2) to explore fashion major undergraduates’ opinions about job criteria that indicate potential physical discrimination. Two approaches were used in this exploratory study to examine potential hiring discrimination tied to job applicants’ body size; 1) investigation of job advertisements by fashion companies and 2) focus group interviews with fashion majors seniors or graduates looking for a work as fashion designers. First, job advertisements for fashion designers placed on major fashion recruiting sites (e.g., www.saramin.co.kr, www.fashionscout.co.kr, and http://cafe.naver.com/fashionworking) in 2015 were reviewed to determine the current situation of which physical conditions or specific body measurements are set as job requirements or preferred qualifications when hiring fashion designers (n=201). Next, five focus group interviews with seven university seniors each(n=35) were conducted. No fashion companies that were looking for experienced fashion designers only (n=65) included a physical body-size requirement in the job advertisement. Thus 136 fashion designer interns or entry-level fashion designer advertisements were used in further analysis. According to the analysis of the “job requirements”, among those 136 advertisements, 51.5% required education and only 16.2% required a related major along with education, 10.3% required fitting capable size (e.g. female fitting size 55) and 13.2% even presented detailed body measurements (e.g. height 175–178 cm). Among the “preferred” qualifications mentioned in the advertisements, fitting capable size accounted for 6.6%, detailed body measurements accounted for 2%. Analysis results showed that physical conditions capable of fitting were presented more frequently than major as requirements or preferred qualifications, indicating that physical conditions capable of fitting was one of the most important factors for hiring fashion designers. Based on the five focus group interviews, participants’ opinion toward body size requirements in job advertisements were summarized into five themes: 1) Discontent over the unreasonable standard— “Why do I have to have a model figure to become a fashion designer?”; 2) Adapting to given circumstances— “I will lose weight to become a fashion designer”; 3) Frustration over reality that can’t be changed with effort— “I can lose weight, but I can’t get any taller”; and 4) Setting practical alternatives—“I can be a children’s clothing designer instead of women’s”. Most respondents shared a sense of discontent over such hiring requirements and unreasonable discrimination on the grounds of appearance, but they also showed reluctant acceptance of the unreasonable discrimination practiced by employers in the fierce job market. The physical restrictions set as requirements by fashion companies fundamentally deny opportunities to some applicants. Importantly, the outright specification of a physical condition that cannot be overcome through personal effort or improved by the cultivation of skills as a hiring requirement is an infringement upon personal rights. The fashion industry should make efforts to improve its awareness of fashion designers as specialists equipped with design competencies instead of treating them as fitting models simply to save costs.

Social media has quickly becoming tools of choice for communicating between brand and their customers. Among all social medias, instagram is seen as the most effective one, especially for fashion brands. Instagram’s main function to share videos and pictures is suitable with visual communication methods that is often being used by fashion brands. Posts with high amount of likes and positive comments may increase brand awareness and can trigger positive e-WOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) among customers and potential customers. Why is communicating with consumers very important? Because in this era consumers are brands’ most trustworthy and loyal marketers for company’s products (Çukul, 2015). Customers are likely to believe review from their families and friends rather than reviews that is being written by the company itself (Chang, 2014). Realizing the importance of nurturing positive word of mouths among customers, this paper is going to use qualitative analysis to analyze Instagram posts of well-known local fashion brands to find out what kind of post that will generate the highest positive e-WOM feedback from the audience. Content of Instagram account of researched brands are being examined according to post type (photo / video), content type (9 elements), number of likes and reviews, photo type (amateur / professional), and shooting place (studio / outdoor / shops). Analysis is conducted to understand what kind of Instagram post that will give positive feedback from their customers. The result of this paper will serve as guidance for company to tailor interesting and engaging post hence increasing the probability of creating positive e-WOM that will increase brand image that ultimately will increase sales.

With increasing challenges like climate change, companies are confronted with rising expectations from stakeholders, especially consumers. The paper investigates consumers’ reactions towards CSR strategies using a case-study and focus-groups. Results imply that digitally-based strategies at the core of newly found fashion companies are perceived generally positive, although with mixed impressions.

When substitute products are recommended, online consumers are more likely to evaluate products based on concrete attributes than abstract attributes and to perceive subordinate attributes as more important. When complementary products are recommended, concrete or subordinate attributes considered relatively less important, leading to less choice difficulty during the comparison process. Introduction Retailers use recommendation systems to support Internet shoppers who face the problem of searching for and selecting the right product from a vast assortment of options. Previous research argues that online recommendations help decision making by reducing consumers’ cognitive effort, while other studies claim that online recommendations increase consumers’ confusion (Xiao & Benbasat, 2007). One of the reasons for this lack of consensus seems the characteristics of recommendations not considered in the research. This study attempts to investigate how recommended product types, whether they involve complementary or substitute products, influence consumers’ decision-making process when shopping for fashion products. We address recommendations of complementary and substitute products prime consumers’ construal levels in different ways; consumers compare products at a lower construal level when substitute products are recommended than when complementary products are. We also demonstrate that consumers, as a consequence, evaluate alternatives based on concrete attributes (i.e., the physical and aesthetic characteristics of products), as opposed to abstract attributes (i.e., values and qualities), when substitute products are recommended, and perceive product attributes previously considered less important as being more important after recommendations. Literature Review Recommendations of Complementary and Substitute Products A recommendation system is the electronic software that implicitly and/or explicitly elicits the interests or preferences of consumers and provides recommendations (Xiao & Benbasat, 2007). In online fashion stores, such a recommendation system is often found as a form of recommendations of substitute (i.e., similar) or complementary (i.e., matching) products on the product detail pages. Presenting complementary or substitute products on a webpage can serve as a product display that affects consumers’ purchase decision. Because online shoppers move through webpages vertically (i.e., between product list pages) or horizontally (i.e., from product list pages to product detail pages), the simultaneous comparison of all alternatives can be difficult (Lee & Yi, 2014). Accordingly, consumers make local choices after comparisons on a single page, which subsequently affects the global choice (Simonson & Tversky, 1992). To explain how recommending complementary or substitute products affects decision making, this study adopts Construal Level Theory (Liberman & Trope, 1998) as its theoretical framework. It claims that people construe an event or an object at different levels of abstraction, from a lower-level, concrete to a higher-level, abstract construal, and represent it more abstractly as psychological distance increases (Liberman & Trope, 1998). Recent studies of assortment found that benefit-based organizations of assortment lead to more abstract construal, relative to attribute-based organizations of assortment (Lamberton & Diehl, 2013). Given that recommended substitute products share similar attributes with alternatives and are from the same product categories, the distance between the alternatives and recommended products is relatively short. Meanwhile, complementary products are recommended based on their benefits and selected among different product categories relatively far from the alternatives. Therefore, we suggest H 1 that consumers evaluate and compare alternatives in a concrete way when substitute products are recommended, on the other hand, in an abstract way when complementary products recommended. Recommendations and Product Comparison The attributes considered during evaluation are expected to differ since different levels of construal are induced by two types of recommendations. During the purchase decision, consumers often perform relative comparisons across options on attributes (Bettman, Luce, & Payne, 1998). For fashion products, both concrete and abstract attributes exist within a hierarchical structure, whereby abstract attributes are determined by concrete ones (Kim & Rhee, 1991). Prior research on construal level indicates that concrete attributes are emphasized as psychological distance decreases, whereas abstract attributes become salient as this distance increases (Liberman, Trope, & Wakslak, 2007). Accordingly, we posit H 2 that when substitute products are recommended, consumers weigh concrete attributes more than abstract attributes. On the other hand, when complementary products are recommended, where abstract benefits are emphasized, consumers consider abstract attributes more important than concrete attributes. Recommendations also influence consumers’ experience of difficulty during the comparison process. When examining alternatives based on attributes, consumers have a tendency to give more weight to attributes that they think are important (Dhar, Nowlis, & Sherman, 1999). Thus, choice task entails distinction between more and less important attributes (Sela, Berger, & Nardini, 2013), which leads to clear preference and less difficulty of choice. Research suggests that construal level affects the change in attribute weights for central or peripheral features in that a high construal level decreases comparison relative to a low construal level by shifting attention away from low-level details (Khan, Zhu, & Kalra, 2011). This finding implies that one can distribute attribute weights better at a high construal level, while one may weigh unimportant attributes heavily at a low construal level. Accordingly, we propose H 3 that consumers distinguish important core attributes from less important subordinate ones when complementary products are recommended. On the contrary, when susbtitue products are recommended, consumers consider subordinate attributes more important after recommendations, making the comparison of the alternatives difficult. Method Seven hundred and two females in their 20s and 30s in South Korea participated in online survey. The survey used a 2 (products: shirts and jackets) × 2 (recommendation: substitute and complementary) between-subject design. We randomly assigned half the participants to the shirts condition and the other half to the jackets condition. After giving purchasing scenarios with product assortments of six products, we asked participants to look around the assortments and select tentative purchase options. Participants then were asked to rate the perceived importance of concrete and abstract product attributes. Later, we recommended four substitute or complementary products for each of the two most preferred alternatives. After allowing participants sufficient time to explore the recommended products, we asked them to make their final decision. After indicating their choices, participants completed several questions related to their choice process on seven-point scales. We measured behavioral identification, perceived importance of concrete and abstract attributes, information overload during the selection process, and choice difficulty. To investigate the possibility that participants’ personal tendencies affect the choice, we additionally measured maximization tendency, fashion involvement and perceived fit for recommendation and Internet shopping experience. Finally, demographic characteristics were measured. The stimuli photos used in the study were collected from five Internet shopping malls to increase external validity, and selected on the judgments of the researchers and experts after a pre-test. Results Respondents exhibited no differences in maximization tendency, fashion involvement, perceived fit for recommendation, or experience of Internet shopping regardless of the recommended stimulant. However, as expected, respondents of substitute products with recommendations showed a lower behavioral identification score than did those of recommended complementary products. This result indicates recommendation of substitute products induces a lower construal level, accepting H 1. The perceived importance of product attributes varied by recommendations. Prior to product recommendations, no difference in the importance of concrete or abstract attributes was observed between the groups. However, the perceived importance of concrete attributes increased after recommendation of substitute products, while no significant change in the importance of concrete attributes was found after recommendation of complementary products. Recommendation have no effect on the change in the perceived importance of abstract attributes. Rather, product type did have an effect: the importance of abstract attributes increased after recommendations when jackets were compared. These results imply that recommendation of substitute products solely had an effect on the evaluation of concrete attributes, partially supporting H 2. Recommendations were also found to affect the increase in the importance of subordinate product attributes. Participants were likely to weigh subordinate, concrete attributes more after recommendation of substitute products than after recommendation of complementary products. In addition, when substitute products were recommended, participants considered subordinate, concrete attributes more importantly than subordinate, abstract attributes. The increase in the importance of subordinate, abstract attributes was irrespective of recommendation type. This result supports the notion that recommendation types can systematically influence the evaluation of options. When substitute products were recommended, consumers tend to assess products based on concrete attributes and perceive subordinate attributes as more important than before recommendations. On the contrary, when complementary products were recommended, the types of attributes served as evaluation criteria were unchanged and did not accompany an increase in the importance of subordinate attributes. According to Sela et al. (2013), the distinction between important and unimportant attributes blurs as the importance of subordinate attributes increases, which implies it becomes difficult to compare options. Indeed, regardless of product types, respondents in the present study were more likely to experience difficulty in making a decision when substitute products were recommended than when complementary products were, supporting H 3. Conclusion This study contributes to theory and practice in many ways. Our work demonstrated that the recommendation type alters the perception of the importance of the attributes of fashion products by affecting consumers’ construal levels. Furthermore, we extended the literature on recommendation systems by identifying additional factors that influence consumers’ decision-making process. Prior research has focused on the horizontal presentation of recommendation. We, however, investigated how vertical presentation, namely recommendation on product detail webpages, affected the evaluation of alternatives. Practically, the findings have important managerial implications. Retailers provide recommendations to increase sales by helping consumers efficiently make a purchase decision. Nevertheless, consumers may engage in a complex comparison process when substitute products recommended. When complementray products recommended, the attributes used as comparison criteria are relatively consistent and steady. Thus, retailers can predict a consumer’s final choice based on the early prediction of his/her preferences. The results of this study are useful for offline retailers as well as online retailers wishing to marketing and sales strategies.

As a solemn and serious uniform, military uniform can be differentiated easily from any other clothing in the aspects of color, material and style. Inspired by military uniform, fashion designers have been applying military uniform elements into modern fashion design in recent years, which helps to bring military uniform from the trench onto international fashion runway. The primary method of this research is theory analysis method and exampling study method. Based on the collected materials of modern military uniform, this paper takes the fashion and cultural study theory of the famous American scholar Susan B. Kaiser as the leading theory to analyze four subject positions embodied in military uniform, including nation, rank, gender and time and space. By analyzing the subject positions embodied in military uniform, it shows the rich cultural connotation of military uniform and the function of various small details. Meanwhile, by giving specific examples, this paper explores the influences of military uniform on modern fashion design in respect to color, style, material, pattern and accessory. Through the conduct of this research, it comes to the conclusion that military uniform also has the characteristics and properties described in the fashion and cultural theory of Susan B. Kaiser, in addition, designers can be inspired by every specific object around them, which shows the talents of designers.

In a world where opportunities and chances are common, the phenomenon referred to as “generation maybe” describes people in their 20s and early 30s who are usually being indecisive. With the increase in breadth of information and choices, the number of people who are hesitant in deciding whether to purchase increases at a fast pace, as does the number of products and services targeting this group. In order to enhance our understanding of the phenomenon of consumer hesitation, this study explores contextual factors and consumer characteristics that affect consumer hesitation in the purchase decision-making process. Specifically, this study examines whether seven contextual factors, self-determination tendencies, and five decision-making styles influence consumer hesitation in the product decision making process. An online survey was administered to test our research questions. A total of 309 Korean consumers (female= 48.9%) aged from 20 to 35 were surveyed. A regression analysis revealed that four contextual factors (product involvement, need for information on alternatives, relative price, and uncertain need), two sub-dimensions of self-determination (perceived competence and relatedness), and two decision-making styles (price seeking and advice seeking) have noticeable influences on consumer hesitation. We also found that the degree of consumer hesitation positively influences consumer post-purchase satisfaction. The study concludes with discussions and practical implications.