In the context of a company actively using virtual idols to carry out marketing activities, it is very important to help the company understand the key factors affecting consumer purchase intention. In total, 459 eligible responses were collected via an online questionnaire survey. The psychometric properties of the model were examined by factor analysis, and the multiple regression method was applied to test the hypotheses. This paper empirically analyzes the influence of virtual idol characteristics on consumers’ willingness to buy brand clothing, with consumers’ attitudes as intermediary variables and clients’ involvement in virtual idolatry and adult playfulness as adjusting variables. A quasi-replication study method using both MRA and fsQCA found that the popularity, homogeneity, relevance and anthropomorphism of virtual idols enhance customers’ willingness to buy from big to small. Among them, attitude plays an intermediary role in the influence of popularity on purchase intention, and plays a complete intermediary role in the influence of relevance and homogeneity over purchase intention; consumer idolatry involvement positively regulates the relationship between professionalism, relevance and attitude; consumers’ adult playfulness positively regulates the relationship between popularity and consumer attitude. Finally, from the perspective of improving attitude and purchase intention, we provide suggestions for virtual idol creation applicable by operation teams and clothing brand companies.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the nursing students' levels of the knowledge, willingness, and attitudes toward first aid behavior as bystanders in road traffic accident and the related factors. A total of 475 nursing students were recruited by convenience choosing in Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The nursing students' self-efficacy, core self-evaluation, knowledge, willingness and attitudes toward first aid behavior as bystanders in traffic accidents were investigated with a self-designed questionnaire. The scores of knowledge, willingness, and attitudes toward first aid behavior in traffic accident trauma were 7.51 ± 1.93, 15.54 ± 5.03, and 7.73 ± 1.56, respectively. Students who once gained training of first aid showed lower levels of attitude toward first aid behavior than those untrained (t = -2.345, P = 0.019). It was found that self-efficacy was correlated to the knowledge (r = 0.150, P < 0.001), willingness (r = 0.182, P < 0.004) and attitudes toward behavior of the first aid (r = 0.371, P < 0.001) among nursing students. Core self-evaluation was correlated to knowledge (r = 0.193, P < 0.001) and attitudes toward behavior of the first aid (r = 0.199, P < 0.001). The first aid knowledge among nursing students was not satisfactory. The study suggested that an unsustainable short first-aid training program may bring negative effects. Countermeasures should be taken to ensure both quality and continuity of first aid training. Meanwhile, more attention should be paid to improving the self-efficacy and core self-evaluation of the nursing students.

Purpose: To improve the apparel e-customized system and meet consumers’ personalized requirement in the e-customization, the purpose of this paper is to develop an e-customized co-design system on garment design (ECS-GD) that enables users to co-design garment and communicate with stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach: The e-customized co-design system mainly consists of function and modular structure, communication and evaluation modular. Based on the evolutionary algorithm and fuzzy theory, the e-customized system model is proposed with a presentation of garment interface. Based on the parameters of skirts, technical sketches, fabrics, color, patterns, comments and scores, the decision is made by consumers. Findings: For the system to be effective, the system was conducted by multi-individuals co-work (consumers, designers, manufacturers and experts). The data flow was congruent to the design knowledge. The expert evaluation and communication were involved in the proposed system. Research limitations/implications: The limitation of this study is that the system is not tested in experiments. The model, main function and data flow are proposed in this study, which is important in the e-customized co-design system development. Originality/value: Compared to the e-shopping and garment recommendation, the proposed ECS-GD is a good approach to improve the existing e-customized system and a well solution to help consumers with design knowledge recommending, professional suggestions and evaluations. Besides, the sketches and knowledge recommendation are provided to consumers which is a learning process.

With the development of Internet technology, increasing numbers of people would like to have clothes that are customized to meet their personalization requirements. The purpose of this study is to explore how visual-audio merchandising elements affect consumers’ impulsive purchase intentions in apparel e-customization. There are five dimensions to visual-audio merchandising elements, i.e. the perceived visual-audio of environmental atmosphere, the perceived visual of apparel attributes, the perceived visual-audio of apparel presentation effects, the perceived visual of fashion information, and the perceived visual of service information. Supported by the stimulus-organism-response model, a theoretical model is constructed with positive emotion as the mediating variable. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis, regression analysis, and mediating effect test are adopted to analyze 361 valid datasets. The application and feedback are conducted as well. The findings indicate that (a) visual-audio merchandising elements, perceived visual-audio of environmental atmosphere, perceived visual of apparel attributes, perceived visual of fashion information, and perceived visual of service information positively influence impulsive purchase intentions; (b) perceived visual-audio of apparel presentation effects have no direct significant effect on impulsive purchase intentions; (c) visual-audio merchandising elements, perceived visual-audio of environmental atmosphere, perceived visual of apparel attributes, perceived visual-audio of apparel presentation effects, perceived visual of fashion information, and perceived visual of service information positively influence positive emotion; (d) positive emotion positively influences impulsive purchase intentions; and (e) positive emotion mediates the relationship between visual-audio merchandising elements and impulsive purchase intentions. The quality of technology and service should be considered by brand managers. The findings contribute to fashion brand e-customization and online shopping strategies and provide suggestions on consumers’ impulsive purchase intentions.

In an effort to reduce the negative impact of clothing manufacturing on the environment, a number of international clothing brands have made strides towards engaging in more environmentally-sustainable behaviours. However, further research is still needed in order to understand the effects of these efforts on consumer perception and decision-making in the case of sustainable clothing. This study examines the role of visual information (VI) associated with sustainable clothing on a website, and the perceived intelligence of voice assistants (PIVA), in influencing consumers’ purchase behaviour (PB) when shopping online for sustainable clothing. 2656 valid samples were collected and analysed using correlation analysis, factor analysis, and regression analysis. The results indicate that VI and PIVA both significantly influence consumers’ positive attitudes and PB towards sustainable clothing. Furthermore, the significant effect of these two factors on PB, through positive attitude towards sustainable clothing, are moderated by knowledge of sustainability issues. This paper therefore provides theoretical implications for sustainable clothing online retailing by testing the relationship between relevant variables. The findings also contribute to brand retailers improving their consumers’ decision-making and strengthening the perception-behaviour relationship in sustainable clothing shopping.

After analyzing the organizational structure and communication of three original Chinese fashion clothing brands, researchers argue that collaborative design is useful for achieving a common goal, communicating, and sharing information among consumers and stakeholders from the brand. Researchers summarized the design process in three structure models as balanced group structure, unified group structure, and radial group structure. Based on the unified group structure, two experimental projects are adopted to examine how to keep communication working effectively in the brands’ organizational structure. The results and feedback from the two experimental projects show that collaborative design improved the quality of design service. The study proposes a communicating structure model and interacting with the consumer and group members (stakeholders) that contribute to the achievement of modular design and collaborative design system setup. The limitation of the study is that it has not covered all stakeholders of brands’ organizational structures and the model needs to be enhanced.