Good But Expensive: Gen-Z’s Extent Of Decisions On Sustainable Fashion Clothes

Abstract

The fashion industry is one of the most polluting sectors globally, with its production process consuming vast resources and generating significant waste, exerting immense pressure on the environment. Eco-friendly fashion clothing, which utilises renewable materials, reduces pollution, and promotes sustainable production methods, has emerged as a crucial solution to this issue. Despite the appealing concept of eco-friendly fashion clothing, its market penetration remains low; however, hopes may come from younger generations, such as Gen-Z. Considering Gen-Z is becoming the mainstream buyers of fast fashion, it is essential to study how to trigger their sustainable consumption behaviour (SCB) to contribute to societal sustainability. This study applies a quantitative survey (n=1,310) to collect data from Chinese Gen-Z (18 to 30 years old) to understand to what extent their SCB can be comprehensively triggered. By testing the modified framework based on the root of VBN (value-belief-norm) theory, this paper finds that VBN theory remains sufficient for interpreting how Gen-Z’s SCB can be triggered. But in the meantime, it looks like social norm (SN) plays the most significant role in generating the SCB in a direct way (beta=0.712); in addition, individuals’ trust towards a brand, including loyalty, can also directly generate SCB (beta=0.496). Thus, to comprehensively support Gen-Z trigger and maintain SCB, suggestions (on behalf of sustainable brands) are made from multi-dimensional perspectives.