This study analyzed the effects of fashion consumers’ moral identity and empathy propensity on ethical consumption attitude and donation behavior, and the effect of ethical consumption attitude on donation behavior. The survey was conducted on consumers over the 20s who experienced the donation of fashion products, 384 responses were used for data analysis. The result showed that the internality and symbolism of moral identity had a positive effect on ethical consumption attitudes. The all factors of empathy propensity positively affected eco-friendly oriented consumption, and cognitive empathy and social empathy positively affected boycott oriented consumption. The cognitive empathy, social empathy and relational empathy positively affected community oriented consumption and practice oriented consumption. Furthermore, social empathy and relational empathy positively affected recycling oriented consumption. The eco-friendly, boycott, community, and recycling oriented consumption positively affected temporal donation. The all factors of ethical consumption attitude positively affected emotional donation, and eco-friendly, community, recycling, and practice oriented consumption positively affected material donations. The internality and symbolism of moral identity positively affected temporal and emotional donation, and the symbolism except internality positively affected material donation. The cognitive empathy, social empathy and relational empathy positively affected the temporal donation and material donation. In addition, the all factors of empathy propensity positively affected emotional donation. The results of this study will contribute to the ethical product strategy, marketing, and sustainable development of the fashion industry.

Upcycling is the process of repurposing abandoned resources or useless products into products of better quality or higher environmental value. Upcycling products are evaluated to be sustainable because they demonstrate environmental values. However, domestic upcycling companies are operating on a small scale with a slow growth rate. This study aims to examine the value and risk factors of upcycling products from previous literature and clarify the effect of these ambivalent characteristics on purchase intention. This provides direction regarding factors upcycling companies should focus on. The data were collected via an online experiment with women in their 20s and 30s residing in South Korea, nationwide. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 18.0. Analysis of this data suggests that environmental, design, and self-expression value positively affect purchase intention. This extends previous upcycling literature by identifying design and self-expression value as important antecedents of purchase intention. However, in contrast to previous literature, no significant effect of performance or diversity risk was found. These results indicate that ethical attitude has a moderating effect on the relationship between environmental value and purchase intention. This study confirms that consumers intend to purchase upcycling products when they possess not only environmental value but also design and self-expression value.

The willingness to actively contribute to more sustainability bares important challenges for managers who must take strategic decisions. The literature about corporate social responsibility has developed in many directions, with often a divide in focus, between society (Acquier & Aggeri, 2015) or corporate sustainability and responsibility (Bansal & Song, 2017). The paper sits at the intersection of these fields by focusing on the question of ethical dilemmas. The objective is to approach the question of ethics in context, through the trade-offs that managers are facing when taking strategic decisions to build sustainable business models, to discuss the contours of the ethical competences at work. The paper focuses on a specific context, the one of successful pure players of sustainability in the luxury fashion industry. It means first that we leave aside the question of organizational change to analyze the core dilemmas that even new actors that start from scratch must face. These pure players could also be named “social entrepreneurs” (Elkington & Hartigan, 2008) or “elegant disrupters” (Bendell & Thomas, 2013). Second, by focusing on luxury fashion we locate our analysis in an industry where the nature of the activity is both a source of salient controversies and of exemplary practices (Kapferer, 2010; Godart & Seong, 2014), two aspects that have the potential to make visible some dilemmas. We focus on a small number of cases of organizations that we selected per criteria of similarities and differences, to allow for an inductive in-depth comparative case study (Yin, 2009). The four organizations are: a producer of yak products, a fur recycling company, a fur auction house and a digital platform for emerging designers. The cases are similar in that each organization is a successful promoter of sustainable practices. The four cases however differ in that each puts at the core of the business model different types of sustainability issues and is based at a different level of the value chain (sourcing, fabrication, intermediation and market access). Also, the four organizations differ in the degree to which they aim to disrupt existing practices in the luxury fashion industry. Data were collected through a series of interviews and complementary press articles, websites and reports. Data analysis proceeds in two steps. We start by narrating each case through the voice of the organization, to describe and understand the rationale behind each business model. We then further our interpretation of the cases through a comparative analysis by systematically recording the tensions or contradictions. Each firm organizes the activity around key engaging choices that promote sustainability but do not lift some inbuilt dilemmas–labelled as: sustainability vs. luxury fashion, sustainability vs. sustainability, and sustainability today vs. tomorrow. The paper highlights how innovative players can openly discuss some dilemmas, approaching sustainability as a story they care about but also as a debate. Yet, the paper also points to the fact that some dilemmas may remain harder to reflect upon, especially the ones that can counter in the long-run the objectives that were at the base of the business. Some questions as the one of growth, in time and scale, might push far the reflexive ability but it is also where ethical competences might be the most needed.

It is recognized that the global apparel market of the twenty-first century is largely profit driven, and that the majority of producers and retailers have sourced products from the lowest cost locations. Purchase tickets of fashion goods available from ‘fast’ fashion retailers (at least within the UK) refrain from providing the consumer with details of the full circumstances of production. It seems that the majority of major retailers and producers are not willing to engage in levels of self-regulation which could ensure that the products offered to consumers are ethically produced and offer acceptable levels of sustainability. Meanwhile many fashion consumers have the desire to purchase sustainable products, produced ethically by workers paid fair wages in safe working environments. Consumer demand could be a powerful tool to adjust the behaviour of manufacturers and buyers. This paper proposes the introduction of international legislation demanding greater degrees of transparency than exist currently and that the full sourcing and production details of fashion products are stated clearly on the product’s purchase ticket within its retail setting. With the introduction of such legislation, consumers could thus be given the opportunity of purchasing goods which they feel accommodate their own views on ethical manufacture and sustainable products. In turn, consumer pressure could ensure indirectly that retail buyers consider all ethical and sustainable aspects of production when negotiating with garment producers/suppliers. Further to this, such a negotiating stance could ensure the improvement of the terms and conditions of employment of the numerous garment workers worldwide.

본 연구는 윤리적 패션으로서 업사이클링 패션 브랜드의 지속가능성을 살펴보고 패션 산업의 지속가능한 발전 가능성을 모색하고자 하는 것이다. 본 연구의 목적은 첫째, 지속가능한 발전에 대한 관심에 따라 윤리적 패션, 국내 업사이클링 패션 브랜드에 대한 개념과 특성을 이해한다. 둘째, 윤리적 패션으로서 지속가능한 발전을 위한 국내 업사이클링 패션 브랜드의 현황과 사례를 살펴본다. 셋째, 국내 업사이클링 패션 브랜드 5곳을 선정하여 윤리적 패션으로서 국내 업사이클링 패션 브랜드의 지속가능한 발전 특성을 도출한다. 윤리적 패션으로서 국내 업사이클링 패션 브랜드의 지속가능성은 첫째, 사회적 지속가능성에서 패션 취업 교육 및 훈련이나 교육서비스 제공을 통해 업사이클링에 관한 정보를 제공하여 사회적 책임을 독려하는 사회적 가치를 추구할 수 있는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 지속가능성이라는 공공의 가치를 높이며 사회적 공동체의 이익 실현하여 지역사회 발전에 기여하는 사회적 지속가능성을 실천하는 것이다. 둘째, 경제적 지속가능성은 국내 업사이 클링 패션 브랜드의 일자리 제공이나 협력 업체와의 공정 및 공동 경제 활동을 통해 시장 경쟁력을 확보하여 경제적 이익 창출로 나타났다. 셋째, 환경적 지속가능성은 업사이클링 브랜드의 창의적인 패션디자인 제안, 개선된 품질, 친환경 및 고기능성 소재 사용에 대한 미래 환경 관심으로 나타났는데, 이는 환경보호운동 같은 캠페인과 천연소재 및 기능성 소재를 활용을 제시하여 지속가능한 패션 산업을 위한 미래 환경의 중요성을 강조할 수 있다.