The purpose of this study is to apply the expectancy disconfirmation model to consumer post-purchase behavior toward fast fashion brands. This study incorporated repurchase intention as a result of consumer satisfaction. It was hypothesized that consumer satisfaction, which is influenced by expectation, perceived performance, and disconfirmation, influences repurchase intention. It was also hypothesized that expectation influences performance. This study examined the brands and prices of the most recent purchases of fast fashion and also examined whether the purchases were planned or unplanned. The hypothesized path was tested and the relative influences of instrumental and symbolic performance on satisfaction were identified. Data were collected from questionnaires answered by 344 university students who were selected by convenience sampling. The results were as follows: 1) Purchased brands were, in the order of frequency of purchase, Uniqlo, Zara, H&M, and Forever21, followed by domestic brands, 8seconds, Spao, and Mixxo. The frequency of unplanned purchase was more than twice higher than planned purchase. 2) Based on expectation and performance, dissatisfactory group was larger than satisfactory group, which were 35.8% and 24.7% respectively. 3) It was revealed from the expectancy disconfirmation model analysis that expectation and performance had positive influence, but cognitive dissonance had negative influence on satisfaction. Satisfaction had significant influence on repurchase intention. The path analysis showed that all hypothesized path coefficients were significant. The results suggest some effective marketing strategies for marketers in the fast fashion industry.

The goals of this study are to analyze how fashion professionals' attitudes toward Grunge style have changed since the 1990s and to compare aesthetic features of 1990s Grunge style and the style since 2000. By searching Vogue and Women's Wear Daily articles from 1992 to 2014 according to the keyword "Grunge", three collections from the 1990s and 59 collections since 2000 were selected for analysis. Although Grunge collections of the 1990s were harshly criticized by critics and retailers as ugly, the more recent collections have been highly praised for both design and profitability. The common aesthetic features of Grunge style in the 1990s and beyond include loose silhouettes, mix-and-match layerings, plaid patterns, floral prints, and striped patterns. However, Grunge style since 2000 has new features such as ornate fabrics, handcrafted details, a formal and dressy look, and faux plaid flannel shirts in chiffon or organza. These features give the style a more luxurious, feminine, and refined appearance. The results of this study indicate that Grunge style of the 1990s changed high fashion beauty standards and today's designers and consumers prefer to mix various styles to create new ones. They typically do not consider the original spirit or identities of the varied styles.

This research was designed to conduct research to apprehend fashion brand's mobile SNS characteristics in depth and the related consumer psychology and behaviors such as brand attachment and brand loyalty. The fashion brand's mobile SNS characteristics were differentiated from the web-based fashion brand's SNS. This study targeted women in their 20s using mobile Facebook and mobile Twitter, and residing in Seoul or Gyeonggi province. Total 412 observations were collected through online survey. The major findings of the study were as follows. First, as the characteristics of fashion brand's mobile SNS, ease of fashion data storage, fashion recentness, fashion usefulness, and fashion accessibility were extracted. As the factors of the flow, time distortion/focused attention and playfulness were extracted. Second, the fashion recentness and fashion usefulness showed positive influence to time distortion/focused attention factor in the flow. All four fashion brand's mobile SNS characteristics showed positive influence to playfulness factor in the flow. Third, time distortion/focused attention factor and playfulness factor both showed positive influence to brand attachment and brand loyalty from using fashion brand's mobile SNS. Fourth, brand attachment had positive influence to brand loyalty from using fashion brand's mobile SNS. Based on the above results, this study provided practical ways to develop effective mobile SNS marketing strategies in fashion brand. Also, this study demonstrated feasible future contents and necessary improvement for fashion brand's mobile SNS, which holds marketing implications.

This study investigated the relationship of fashion brand SNS characteristics, relationship quality (satisfaction, trust, and commitment) and purchase intention. The study focused on Facebook and also examined the difference between fashion involvement groups. This study targeted consumers who have used fashion brand Facebook and are aged between 20s and 30s. Data collection was conducted through surveys, and a total 205 questionnaires were collected for the final statistical analysis. The major findings of the study were as follows. First, three characteristics of fashion brand SNS, which were entertainment, interactivity, and providing information, influenced positively on SNS users' satisfaction. Entertainment had the greatest influence on satisfaction, and providing information and interactivity followed. Second, satisfaction for fashion brand SNS influenced positively on trust and commitment. Also, trust to fashion brand SNS demonstrated a positive influence on commitment. Third, trust and commitment on fashion brand SNS both influenced positively on purchase intention. Fourth, the fashion involvement groups showed differences in fashion brand SNS characteristics, relationship quality, and purchase intention. The high involvement group showed much higher results in all aspects then did the low involvement group. Based on the above results, this study has a significant value which suggests directions for future research. Also, this paper is expected to provide managerial implications to fashion companies which need to develop SNS marketing strategies.

This research aimed to examine the effect of emotional dissonance and emotional intelligence on the prosocial behavior of fashion salespeople in department stores, and whether emotional intelligence mediates the relationship between emotional dissonance and prosocial behavior. Moreover, we aimed to suggest a method to improve the prosocial behavior of salespeople as a strategy to obtain a continuous competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive fashion distribution environment. This research was conducted through a questionnaire survey, and 345 responses were collected from department store salespeople for the final analysis. First, the analysis results showed that the emotional dissonance of salespeople arose from their dealings with their organization and with customers. Prosocial behavior was deduced to be a factor of the cooperation with coworker and extra-role customer service. The emotional intelligence was deduced to be a factor of the use of emotion, regulation of emotion, self-emotion appraisal, and others'emotion appraisal. Second, with a higher level of emotional dissonance against the organization, there was less cooperation with coworker, while a higher emotional dissonance against customers resulted in increased cooperation with coworker. Third, it appeared that with a higher level of emotional dissonance against the organization, there was a higher utilization of use of emotion, self-emotion appraisal, and others'emotion appraisal of emotional intelligence. Fourth, as the regulation of emotion, self-emotion appraisal, and use of emotion were higher, there was more cooperation with coworker, whereas an increase in the utilization of one's own emotion and emotional control resulted in a higher level of extra-role customer service. Finally, emotional intelligence has a significant mediating effect between emotional dissonance and prosocial behavior. The above results suggest that for department stores to improve the prosocial behavior of their sales staff requires the establishment of a method to enhance the emotional intelligence of the staff. The results also indicate that there is a need for department stores to prepare a systemic tool to enable them to select people with a high degree of emotional intelligence when recruiting salespeople.

This study attempted to figure out the usage of the modular system in other fields through literature review and empirical study, analyze its structural method in fashion. After analyzing architecture & product-related books, the Internet data and previous studies, the modular system's five structural methods were obtained. Then, 991 photos of women's clothes from 2003 to 2014 were collected through the fashion websites in Korea and abroad. The results can be summarized as follows: First, the following five structures were derived: assembling structure, overlapping structure, arrangement structure, inserting structure and folding structure. Second, according to analysis on the structural method of the modular system in modern fashion, overlapping structure (34%) was the most common. Third, in fashion, the use of fastener for installation and removal is important for assembling structure. In terms of overlapping structure, 3D volume by vertical accumulation was commonly observed. Arrangement structure revealed a horizontal and flat shape through simple arrangement. In inserting structure, on the contrary, non-standardized modules were used as a part of clothes or decorative elements. In folding structure, origami technique for reduction and expansion was used.

In the era of 2.0 web, blog has become the media that men can express themselves with fashion more actively and independently, as paying much attention to their personal appearance and cultivating an upscale lifestyle. They often create their fashion images in the virtual space where enables a free and creative operations of self-expression. The study aims to identify the types of men's ego-images represented on the personal fashion blogs based on the framework of analysis from the previous research (Suh, 2014), to build the base data for analyzing men's fashion style in 21st21st century that reflects changes in men's sexual images, and to verify the framework as comparing with the previous case study about the women blogs (Suh, 2014). The case studies conducted 5 men's personal blogs such as bryanboy, iamgala, little fashionisto, katelovesme, and stylentonic. The study results almost same types of women's ego-images as following. The imaginary ego-image is classified as narcissism, regression, identification, and virtuality, the social ego-image as symbolism of roles and others'desire, the real ego as primary instinct, practical reality, object a, jouissance and sexual perversion. The personal style of men shown on the fashion blogs appears as a significant factor to analyze male customers in the growing men's beauty and fashion market.

The purpose of this study is to identify the antecedents of consumers' decision postponement on purchasing fast fashion brands. Ongoing search behavior, overchoice confusion, and similarity confusion were considered as antecedents. It was hypothesized that ongoing search behavior influences decision postponement both directly and indirectly through overchoice confusion and similarity confusion. Data were gathered by surveying university students in Seoul, using convenience sampling. Three hundred five questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis, which were exploratory factor analysis using SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis using AMOS. Factor analysis proved that ongoing search behavior, overchoice confusion, similarity confusion, and decision postponement were uni-dimensions. Tests of the hypothesized path proved that ongoing search behavior influences decision postponement indirectly through overchoice confusion. In addition, similarity confusion influences decision postponement. The results suggest some confusion reduction strategies for marketers of fast fashion brands. Suggestions for future study are also discussed.

This study was to examine the service and the product evaluation factors of Korean internet fashion shopping malls and to suggest marketing implications for Korean internet fashion shopping malls wanting to expand into the Chinese market. This study conducted a questionnaire survey for college female students in Qingdao, China, who have shopped at Korean internet shopping malls, and 310 surveys were used in the final analysis, frequency analysis, factorial analysis, and regression analysis. The results of the study were as follows. First, Most of the respondents answered that they found the Korean internet fashion shopping malls through the internet, and the most purchased item was outer clothing. Second, the system stability and web site structure excellence factors had a positive influence on the service satisfaction for the shopping mall 'S', while the system satisfaction, service efficiency, interactivity and web site structure excellence factors had positive influences on service satisfaction for the shopping mall 'P', and the system satisfaction, service efficiency, interactivity factors had positive influences on service satisfaction for the shopping mall 'N'. Third, examining the correlation between product satisfaction for the shopping mall 'S', 'P', and 'N' with fashion product evaluation factors showed that, design factors and quality excellence factors of the three shopping malls had positive influences on product satisfaction. The results of this research provide useful information in forming an efficient operating system and improving marketing strategies for internet fashion shopping malls planning to enter or having already entered the Chinese market.

The areas of fashion research and fashion design aesthetics & fashion history have been studied under a common research heading as a Humanities subject in the UK and the USA, and as Clothing and Textiles Studies in Korea. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the 2004~2013 research tendencies in terms of reporting methods and contents from 181 world-renowned Fashion Theory research papers within the UK and USA fashion research corpus, and 359 Korean research papers from The Research Journal of Costume Culture related to fashion design aesthetics & costume history field. The subject areas, periods, methodologies, and differences in the topics of the studies were examined. The results of the research are as follows. Regarding the research authorship and length of the research papers, in Fashion Theory most papers were written by a single English-speaking or other foreign language-speaking author and were on average longer than 21 pages, while in The Research Journal of Costume Culture, many papers were jointly written by two Korean researchers and were between 11 and 20 pages. Regarding the content, Fashion Theory was connected to relatively wide and diverse periodical and regional boundaries including the body, clothing, the fashion media, and the overall fashion system, while The Research Journal of Costume Culture revolved around the body and clothing, textiles, the fashion media, and costumes. In addition, since the late 20th century, the studies appeared to be related to the current Western world overall or to the country of the author. Regarding the research methodology, Fashion Theory used diverse research subjects and methodologies, and research was conducted on topics relating to fashion culture or fashion aesthetics. On the other hand, The Research Journal of Costume Culture featured relatively more dynamic studies aimed at suggesting developments or solutions to problems. It was found that a large share of that research focused on detailed style analyses and suggestions for aspects such as design elements and design developments. Such differences are considered to be caused by the inherent differences between the academic departments for the Humanities, and the Human Ecology. The above research results are expected to provide fundamental information in setting a direction for future research to assist the globalization of domestic research.

This study aims to develop motifs and patterns for fashion cultural product designs in order to promote the Iksan Seodong Festival, which is the most representative festival in Iksan region. The motifs and patterns developed in this study can be used to introduce the distinct traditional culture depicting the legendary Seodong tale. This study used Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 to reconstruct the lotus motifs found from the green-oiled-lotus-motif rafter tile, the atrifact from Iksan Mireuksaji Museum. This lotus motif and the motif based on the Iksan City's logo were applied to a repeating pattern with colorways using the CMYK found from the Iksan city's logo. A total of 24 product designs, including 8 necktie designs, 8 scarf designs, and 8 T-shirts designs, were presented for fashion cultural products. The designs developed in this study can promote not only the local Iksan culture but also the national image of Korea on a global scale.

This study set out to investigate consumers' attitudes toward pro-environment, and their actual purchasing behavior. It aimed to empirically examine the effects of the consumers' attitudes toward pro-environmental products, the importance of the product attributes and the perceived value of the companies' environmental activities, on their purchasing behavior of eco-friendly fashion products, including their satisfaction, trust, and repurchase intention. The questionnaires were administered on 304 married women with previous experience of buying eco-friendly fashion products. The results were as follows. First, the consumers' behavioral patterns in terms of environmental concerns and the purchasing of eco-friendly household items were significantly positive in relation to the purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion products. Second, the importance of eco-friendly attributes was significantly positive in relation to the purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion products. Third, the perceived value of corporate environmental activity was not related to the purchasing behaviors of eco-friendly fashion products. Finally, the purchasing behavior of eco-friendly fashion products was significantly positive in relation to the satisfaction with eco-friendly fashion products as well as the trust and repurchase intention, and satisfaction and trust positively affected the repurchase intention. The implication of the research and direction for future study were discussed.

Now the frame for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in any industry is shifting to Creating Shared Value(CSV). The tremendous profits made in the fashion industry create the temptation to engage in illegal or unethical behavior. When producers, manufacturers, models or consumers are being exploited or treated unfairly, fashion industry has a legal and ethical responsibility to change the situation. Based on issues stated below, therefore, there is an urging need for the CSV in fashion industry. 1) First, eco-friendly issue for the fashion industry matters. The materials, transportation and production that are involved in the fashion industry all have an impact on the environment. Many synthetic materials are derived from petroleum, while many more natural materials are grown on land that could be used for food production. 2) Marketing for fashion seduces people into buying things that they don't need, rather than merely informing them of a product's availability. Advertising and fashion both encourage people to consume as much as possible. New fashions are widely advertised as better than whatever came before. 3) Protection of the fashion design covers the most frequent and important issue now. The main appeal of many fashionable accessories is the brand name. A Gucci bag can be sold for many times more than an identical bag made by a competitor. Forgers take advantage of this fact by creating cheap knock-offs and illegally adding the names of famous and expensive fashion houses. 4) Networking in the fashion industry is another focal point. To survive in a competitive field, fashion firms have to deploy their strategic networking policy in order to sustain long-term relationships with their suppliers, which means the increase of transaction-specific investments on both sides, increase of the years of relationships with suppliers, and reduction of supplier base.

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.

The importance of Social Networking Services (SNS) has increased in recent years because consumers are able to communicate with each other to share their information and experiences via SNS. This allows to easily distribute critical information and is beneficial to other potential consumers. Current studies confirm the important role of social media so that firms can get valuable information to respond to the heterogeneous customers’ needs through SNS (e.g., Rishika, Kumar, Janakiraman, & Bezawada, 2013). This paradigm shift allows firms to consider the important role of SNS on the current fashion market. A firm communicates with consumers sharing their opinions, experiences, and feedback existing on SNS, called social platform, which provides valuable information to respond to consumers’ needs. In the last decades, rapid advancements in technology and customer demands pushed firms to collaborate with outside partners to collect information, creating valuable products or services. In such competitive environments, customers’ involvement is increasingly important because integrating external sources of knowledge from them can result in major advantages for the firm (Nooteboon, 1999). Further, Von Hippel (1986) emphasizes the importance of the participation of the lead users whose present strong needs will become general in a marketplace months or years in the future. They have the tendency to adopt new products earlier than normal customers. According to Von Hippel (2006), lead users may provide valuable ideas for the firm which results in novel products. Lead users can diffuse product information to other customer groups and may play a pivotal role between the firm and traditional customer groups. Likewise, the fashion leaders in the fashion industry have an important role because firms are able to know future market trends from them. Further, the role of fashion leaders is much more important because of the characteristics of the fashion industry. It is very difficult to foresee a trend as customer demand changes rapidly and becomes more heterogeneous. Fashion leaders purchase new fashion products quicker than other people, are more interested in clothing, and invest more in fashion than the general consumer (Goldsmith, Freiden, & Kilsheimer, 1993). Thus, fashion leaders hold an important role as a source of information and for the word-of-mouth effect in the fashion market (Kim & Hong, 2011). The fashion information that fashion leaders deliver builds more trust and interest than direct fashion advertisement or PR, and they have an important influence on the spread of new fashion styles (Vernette, 2004). Additionally, the effects of online word-of-mouth are different from the traditional word-of-mouth effects because there are numerous senders and receivers, and conversations last much longer. Moreover, viral content that includes vivid visual images can especially be influential on network participants (Kulmala, Mesiranta, & Tuominen, 2013; Wolny & Mueller, 2013). We argue that fashion leaders may have a strong impact on leading a trend in the current fashion industry and influence the consumers who share information and experiences with them on fashion platforms to purchase products. Thus, the purpose of our study is to examine the role of fashion leaders in influencing purchase intention of the potential customers who are using the fashion platforms to take information from them. Further, we will outline how fashion leaders influence the creation of valuable fashion platforms and valuable information through sharing their knowledge through fashion platforms. Online surveys were administrated to conduct empirical analyses for this study. Taking the gender and age characteristics of interest based SNS users into consideration, the research sample concentrated on female users in their teenage to 30s, who had the experience with fashion social platforms. The main research results are as follows. First, we found that fashion leaders create valuable information for the other users to visit fashion platforms, providing correct, trendy and trustworthy information to other users. Second, the quality of information and value of a fashion platform that are created by fashion leaders positively influence the users when considering their future purchase decision making and recommendations to other potential consumers to visit the fashion platform. We have some implications in our study. First, we contribute by finding a factor to explain how the value of social fashion platforms can be created and how important the value of information provided by fashion leaders is in the fashion industry in Korea. We found that the role of fashion leaders in influencing a trend of current fashion in the Korean industry is important. The advent of social media, such as SNS, allows us to explain how one-way communication with consumers to set up a firm’s marketing strategy is limited. As the results of this study are specific to the fashion industry, they can be used as a fundamental study to understand the role of fashion leaders to create value on social platforms and share valuable information to normal users. Moreover, this study can contribute to the understanding how social platforms affect the fashion industry through two-way communication to the potential customers using the fashion leaders. It is important for fashion corporations that are interested in social services to have a valuable knowledge of social platform users. Therefore, fashion marketers who are attempting to utilize social platforms can use this study as preliminary data to understand fashion social platform users, who are the potential consumers.

Recently, the influence and importance of the IT industry has been increasing. Retailing has been focusing on the functional retail sale of product. However, the needs of companies are focusing on the retail sectors due to the development of digital technology, diverse types of trends, recent trends in consumption patterns, the globalization of the retail market and liberalization of the market. This study examined the effects of IT shopping service quality on consumer's customer loyalty and satisfaction.The purpose of this study is to examine fashion brand's ideal IT shopping service quality on consumer perception and to identify service quality attributes on IT shopping service environment. Therefore, this study will be unable to identify how to improve the quality of IT shopping service and future effects. The research methods are as follow. In the 1st stage, previous advanced studies on fashion brands are explored. Based on this, archival data related to fashion brand are implemented. In the second stage, the first of in-depth interviews method (FGI) and survey are conducted by targeting experts of the fashion industry and customers as a form of survey research. The survey results from 300 college students suggest three dimensions of IT service quality: interaction quality, environmental quality, and outcome quality do have significant impacts on off line customer’s perceived value and loyalty. Both utilitarian and hedonic values are positively related to customer loyalty, and satisfaction. This study concludes with discussions of managerial implications and directions for future research. There is limited research on the domestic fashion retailer IT based shopping service quality measurement. (IT-based services that are not widely spread in Korea). This research will guide the importance of IT shopping service activities and highly recognized variables to consumers, circumstance variables, individual variables Lastly, the study is expected to provide useful information on brand strategy information and management for corporate’s expecting performance.

Luxury retailers are said to be leading the way with investment in instore technology (Patel 2013). As consumer decision making has shifted from the rational to the emotional and experiential (Kim et al., 2009), luxury fashion retailers are increasingly investing in experiential retailing to provide a differentiated retail experience and encourage consumers to dwell and consume. However, although academic research has identified the increasingly important role of technology in consumers’ lives (Gilmore and Pine, 2002; Kim et al., 2009; Srinivasan and Srivastava, 2010), there is a lack of research on technology implementation in the luxury context; on how it could be conceived and what beneficial effects it would have on the shopping experience. The aim of this research to explore the adoption of in-store technology within the luxury retail store environment with respect to the motives and methods employed. Motives include the proliferation of e-commerce, the showrooming concept, to increase dwell time and spend instore, to enhance the level of interaction with customers and also that in-store technology can be a PR generator. There are three main methods that luxury brands have been using technology in their flagship stores and these are functional, inspirational and experiential.

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.

This paper integrates scholarly work and industry practices in fashion design, marketing, and consumer behavior as the basis for presenting six principles of fashion design and marketing for sustainability and social change. Criteria for effective marketing strategies are offered.

Launched in 2008 and 2010 respectively, Instagram and Pinterest are two of the fasted growing social media platforms with 220 million users combined (Leverage 2014, Techcrunch 2014, Loren & Swiderski 2012). Their success is due to their simplicity and a focus on visuals rather than text, furthermore they are described as platforms with strategic potential for fashion brands (Wired 2012). Despite this, many fashion brands have been slow to engage with them. However the Huffington Post (2012) suggests that the visual social media has a wide appeal with respect to both brand positioning and increasing awareness. Recent research by Mashable (2014) highlights that referral traffic and spend is higher from Pinterest users than Facebook users, and this contributes to the rationale for study. The aim of this reseach is twofold, firstly it is to explore the reasons for the utilisation of visual social media platforms within a fashion brands marketing planning cycle, and second it seeks to identify the strategic and operational ways in which fashion brands can use them. For the purpose of this paper only Instagram and Pinterest are investigated. Using a qualitative and inductive approach, the study will use in-depth elite interviews with 6 UK fashion brands (2 Luxury, 2 mid-market, 2 value) alongside content analysis of their platforms. This will enable the research to also consider how each platform can be harnessed at different levels of the market therefore contributing to the lack of empirical applied research in this area.