Ethical Dimensions in Clothing Purchase

It is widely reported that consumer interest in environmental and ethical issues is growing. Evidence suggests that ethical considerations are now impacting on a broad range of consumption decisions. The focus of this paper is the impact such concerns may hold in clothing purchase decision making. Through an inductive qualitative approach, clothing purchase decision making has been explored before discussing consumers’ knowledge and concern of ethical issues within the supply chain. Any impact that these concerns may exert has been discussed. It is identified that although there is widespread knowledge and understanding of the ethical issues that may be present in the manufacture of clothing, these concerns do not play a primary role in consumers’ selection of items. Product attributes such as colour, style and fit dominate the decision making process in most cases. Despite this, ethical considerations can be seen to impact on the consumer in three key ways: initial boycott of particular products or brands; influencing final purchase decisions if items are similar on other criteria and, impacting on post-purchase satisfaction with the product

Assessment Feedback Using Comment Banks: A Useful Approach?

The workload of any academic can be challenging, with a plethora of activities and conflicting priorities. This paper provides an analysis of one of the most time-consuming of teaching roles; the assessment of student work. It begins with a literature review identifying the role of assessment and assessment feedback, and identifies best-practice in assessment feedback. A method of generating high quality feedback efficiently through the use of IT and comment banks has then been critiqued. The method proposed here has been trialled on a large cohort of students and feedback gleaned through two focus groups. Students demonstrated clear preference for feedback generated through the proposed method, and the time savings to academics are dramatic

Fashionitis

Shopping is the nation’s fourth favourite leisure activity , costing us £37billion per year – but it seems that for some it has become a compulsive obsession for having the latest look, the ultimate outfit and chicest wardrobe. Jeff Bray suggests: ‘Fashion-itis describes the behaviour whereby clothes shopping is highly hedonistic, forms a significant social and leisure activity, and becomes almost an obsession.

An Exploratory Study into the Factors Impeding Ethical Consumerism

ABSTRACT Evidence suggests that consumers are increasingly aware of, engaged with, and influenced by ethical factors when forming opinions on products and making purchase decisions. Despite this, a number of recent studies have highlighted significant differences between consumers’ intention to consume ethically, and their actual purchase behaviour. This paper contributes to an understanding of the factors contributing to this ‘Ethical Purchasing Gap’. A model of the impeding factors to ethical consumption is constructed based upon a review of existing literature, and the inductive analysis of focus group discussions. While exogenous variables such as Moral Maturity and Age are well covered in the literature, a further range of impeding factors have been identified as important. For some consumers, such is their purchasing inertia that the decision making process is devoid of any ethical considerations. For others, ethical views are displayed through post purchase dissonance and retrospective feelings such as guilt. Some consumers display a reluctance to consume ethically due to personal constraints, a perceived negative impact on image or quality or an outright negation of responsibility. For many, the desire to consume ethically is conveyed, yet their cynicism, together with an external locus of control, deters them because they question the impact they, as an individual, can achieve. It is important that future research examines each of the factors identified here to better understand consumers purchasing behaviour in this context

Consumer Behaviour Theory: Approaches and Models

Critique of the various approaches that have been taken towards the study of Consumer Behaviou

Retail Innovation - The never-ending road to success? A critical analysis of pitfalls and opportunities

This paper outlines the current and continuous changes occurring in the retail and social environment that necessitate the constant evolution of retail formats. Over recent years experiential retail formats have appeared in recognition of the increasing need to ‘entertain’ shoppers and satisfy their ‘leisure’ needs. A number of ‘best practice’ examples of such retail innovation have been presented. While such experiential innovations appear to be the ‘holy grail’ of modern retailing, they often require considerable investments of both capital and management time. This paper has used an autoethnographic approach to reflect upon the constraints and costs involved in the design, construction and operation of such a retail enterprise to provide a unique and holistic assessment of the benefits and challenges experiential innovation holds in developing new retail formats and initiatives. The findings from this research highlight a number of previously unreported pitfalls that are likely to be encountered, financially, operationally and symbolically. It is recommended that retailers continue to explore experiential innovations, but that they proceed with caution

Price endings and consumer segmentation

Purpose – To investigate the area of price endings to determine which groups of consumers are more likely to use odd-endings as opposed to round-endings. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed that tested respondents' use of odd-endings as opposed to round-endings dependent on classification by gender and age. Respondents were required to estimate the price they would be expected to pay in stores for six products. This methodology enabled the researchers to generate a large sample size and to encourage accuracy of response. Findings – The main finding was that there was a difference between gender groups; women were more likely to respond with odd-endings than men and hence segmenting the market is the way forward when investigating price endings. Research limitations/implications – The research only considers segmentation by gender and age. Further research needs to be undertaken to fully understand the consumer responses. Practical implications – Although the difference between 99 cents and a $1.00 is small, for high volume items this can have a significant impact on gross profit and margins, particularly for low value items. If retailers understand which groups of consumers were more likely to be attracted to the round-endings they could use this knowledge to determine the most effective prices. Originality/value – This research follows on from a price trial conducted into price endings and is the second phase of an investigation into whether odd-endings are effective. It proposes a theory that has been empirically tested and points the way forward for future research in this area

A Critical evaluation into the role of ethics in clothing purchase decisions.

Consumer awareness and interest in ethical issues is growing with sustained and significant rises in sales of ethical products (L. Vickery (personal communication, January 12, 2007); The Co-operative Bank 2010); despite this, little research has been conducted into how ethical factors affect consumers’ choices. The clothing sector accounts for over 12% of UK retail expenditure (Office for National Statistics 2011a), and a wide range of potential ethical issues are present within the industry including very low wages paid throughout the supply chain, poor working conditions and the extensive use of chemicals leading to long term injuries and deaths (World Trade Organisation 2008). Given the importance of the clothing sector, the significance of ethical issues in clothing manufacture and supply, and the recent growth in consumer interest in ethical issues, research in this area is both necessary and timely. A conceptual framework developed from a comprehensive evaluation of the literature examining consumer behaviour, ethical decision-making, and clothing selection is presented, and informed a sequential mixed methods primary research strategy. Indepth, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to inductively probe the research area before exploring the possible relationships using a quantitative survey (n=384) distributed to a random sample of the UK population. The research found that the boycotting of brands, stores or products for ethical reasons is important to some consumers. Ethical indicators provided influence in guiding final purchase decisions, and post-purchase reflection on items purchased may trigger positive or negative emotions depending on the product’s perceived ethical credentials. Survey data verified these relationships, measuring their importance in clothing purchase decisions. Results also show that while ethical factors are secondary to most consumers, they exert a clear influence on decisions in some situations. Female respondents were found to be more sensitive to ethical issues and those with higher household incomes likely to be less strongly influenced. The key findings from the study are synthesised into a theoretical model which provides a clear account of the role of ethical considerations in clothing purchase decision-making. This research provides the first thorough examination of ethics within the purchase of clothing. Given the scale of the clothing industry, the findings are of significant academic and commercial interest