Sustainable fashion and the role of personality traits in determining the Purchase likelihood and the Willingness to Pay for sustainable apparel.

Abstract

Sustainability has become a global and important issue, as a consequence of the environmental degradation that can be tracked back to the industrial revolution. States, firms and individuals must take actions in order to avoid environmental catastrophes, by creating and respecting new laws, changing the production system and adopting different consumption behaviors. In ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, the fashion industry is one of the most important players, since it is sadly known to be characterised by high water usage, pollution, labour issues in developing countries and the difficulty of recycling fashion products which eventually finish in landfills or are incinerated. The concept of sustainable fashion was introduced for the first time during the sixties when fashion consumers started to reflect on the repercussions of their consumption behaviour on the environment. This study adds to the topic of sustainable fashion, in particular to the sustainable apparel consumption behavior. The aim is to prove the relationship between the individual’s personality traits and the purchase likelihood and willingness to pay for sustainable apparel. The personality traits examined are impulsivity, localism, need for uniqueness and frugality, with the additional purpose to test the moderation effect of anxiety on the relationship between impulsivity and purchase likelihood/ WTP and the influence of cynicism in moderating the relation of frugality with purchase likelihood and WTP for sustainable apparel. The hypotheses have been tested through a quantitative research model; the answers have been collected by means of a questionnaire involving a sample of 100 people. The hypothesized relationships have been tested through partial least squares structural equation modeling technique. The results reveal that cynicism and need for uniqueness have a significant impact on purchase likelihood and willingness to pay. The findings of this study are a contribution to the analysis of purchasing behavior and willingness to pay for sustainable apparel; they may help marketers in planning targeted strategies and methods to increase sales. Despite of the increasing interest in sustainable fashion characterizing the last few years, this argument is still new and little known to a large part of the population, as this research demonstrates. This study, compared to others who deal with the purchasing likelihood or willingness to pay for sustainable fashion, analyze empirically some specific personality traits. Impulsivity, localism, need for uniqueness, frugality, anxiety and cynicism have been specifically taken into consideration because it has been scientifically proven that they describe a consumer concerned about the environment and/or a fashion addict buyer. By testing and evaluating the hypotheses it is possible to identify which are (or are not), the characteristics of a typical sustainable fashion consumer and increase the awareness on this important topic.