Purpose: While many consumers claim to include ethical considerations in their consumption behavior, only a small fraction adheres to these self-made standards. For example, although two thirds of consumers polled by Nielsen in 2015 in thirteen countries stated to be willing to pay more for sustainable brands only ten percent actually purchased this type of product. Even if responsibly produced products still only account for a small share of the market they represent a pervasive marketing phenomenon that merits further scientific research. The so-called attitude-behavior-gap has received a considerable amount of attention not only in the business context, but also in scientific marketing research. Nevertheless, previous studies commonly discussed responsible consumption from an information-processing perspective concentrating on the rational and goal-directed side of responsible consumption. What is still largely missing, though, is the consideration of emotions as drivers or influencing factors for consumer responsibility, even though the few existing studies suggest a positive influence. This holds especially true for the self-conscious emotions of guilt and pride. Furthermore, the few studies at hand generally focus on non-durable goods like tea, coffee or juice and leave a research gap with regard to durable products like fashion items. Thus, the aim of this study is to further investigate the influence of self-conscious emotions on responsible consumption in the context of the fashion industry. Specifically, the influence of the two emotions guilt and pride as well as the influence of social visibility on the consumer’s decision-making and purchasing process shall be investigated. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach containing qualitative and quantitative methods is applied. While in-depth interviews and focus groups with fashion consumers shed light on potential influencing factors and outcomes of self-conscious emotions, a scenario-based experiment further validates these results on influence of guilt and pride in the context of responsible consumption. The experiment follows a 2 (negative vs. positive responsibility outcome) x 2 (social vs. no social visibility) design and is conducted via online questionnaires. Findings: Experiences of self-conscious emotions provide feedback on past behavior that ultimately leads to a revised behavior linked to consumer responsibility in the future. Specifically, pride (guilt) can potentially lead to increased (diminished) word-of-mouth and purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications: Limitations lie in the type of research design as a scenario-based experiment was chosen for the quantitative study. Future research should investigate the topic at hand with a field study, ideally with a suitable partner from the industry. Another limitation lies in the examination of only one industry that strongly differs from other industries. Further investigations should compare the self-conscious emotions’ impacts on different types of industries. Practical implications: The current research provides suggestions on the adequate use of communications to promote sustainable fashion brands and to develop according campaigns that elicit emotional reactions from consumers. Furthermore, although guilt and pride refer to past behavior, they can nevertheless be used by management to influence future consumer actions, e.g. choice of responsibly produced garments as opposed to conventional ones. Incentives for successful word-of-mouth of sustainable fashion brands could strengthen this effect. Additionally, the final results deliver insights on whether social visibility should be increased (e.g. through offerings in offline channels) or rather reduced (e.g. through promotions in online channels). Originality/value: This study closes a research gap by investigating consumer responsibility not from an information-processing, but an emotion-based perspective. It furthermore complements research on emotions in the context of responsible consumption by investigating durable products, namely fashion items, that differ strongly from previously examined product groups like tea or coffee.

This article explores alternate ways to conceptualize self-nature relationship, that is, how nature in general, rather than specific nature places, become part of the extended self and how this influences responsible consumption. An ethnography, using participant observation, iterative in-depth interviews and photographs, was used to understand self-nature relationship and consumption behavior. The study was conducted in Malaysia using the English language as the medium of communication. The results suggest three levels of extended-self, reflecting the individual’s depth of relationship with nature; relational extended-self, encapsulated-self and assimilated-self. Nature as extended self, then, influences meanings attached to nature which results in different levels of attachment with nature; these are, functional, emotional, religious and spiritual attachment. When nature is perceived as separate from self, consumption behaviour is motivated by self-interest or self-preservation. As nature experiences are internalised, individuals begin to form emotional connections which initiates the process of self-extension whereby nature is progressively seen as part of the self. At the higher level, stronger affiliation with nature may result in religious or spiritual attachment, which motivates further assimilation of the self with nature and a sense of oneness with the broader universe promoting communal relationship and mutual gain. Our study contributes theoretically with the discovery of three dimensions of extended self and how extended self influences responsible consumption. Practically, these insights are valuable for public policy, social marketing and sustainability programs, for example, it highlights a possible solution to our unsustainable consumption behaviour which is, programs or activities which encourage our citizens to spend time with nature.

This study examines how environmental consciousness and socially responsible clothing consumption attitude influence people's perceptions of the consequences of fast fashion. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey administered to females in their 20s to 40s, and a total of 430 surveys were used in the final analysis. The research results are as follows. First, environmental consciousness-which was conceptualized as interest in consumer effectiveness and the environment-had a positive influence on attitudes toward socially responsible clothing consumption attitude, i.e., clothing recycling and resource conservation. As the perception of consumer effectiveness was high, respondents had a tendency not to follow trends. Second, consumers with a high level of interest in the environment perceived the effect of fast fashion on the environment as serious, and they felt negatively toward personal use of fast fashion. Third, consumers with strong resource conservation behavior perceived the effect of fast fashion on the environment as serious, but those with positive attitudes toward secondhand clothing did not appear to have that perception. Finally, consumers who followed trends and those with weakly held attitudes about resource conservation felt positively toward personal use of fast fashion. The results of this research indicate that environmental consciousness is an important factor for socially responsible clothing consumption behavior. In addition, consumers with strong attitudes regarding resource conservation were more perceptive of the negative effect of fast fashion on the environment.