Most research on socially responsible consumer behavior has focused on consumer purchasing behavior; therefore, little is known about it during the product disposal stage. This study seeks an in-depth understanding of consumer disposal behavior in a used clothing donation setting. An interpretive analysis revealed that the primary motivation for participants' used clothing donation behavior is the need to create space in the closet for something new. The threat of feelings of guilt played a significant role throughout the process prior to donation, specifically in the decision whether to discard or donate a clothing item. Participants experienced both utilitarian and hedonic values regarding their donation behavior, and these values in turn affected future donation intentions. A conceptual model based on the study findings that integrates a theory of reasoned action framework with a consumer values perspective is proposed. Study implications and future research avenues are also discussed.

Purpose – This study seeks to investigate significant factors influencing consumers' willingness to pay a premium for three different socially responsible products – organic cotton, sustainable cotton, and US-grown cotton shirts. Design/methodology/approach – Through random-digit-dialing, the study data were collected from 500 respondents nationally via telephone surveys. The survey data were analyzed using stepwise regression and mean comparisons. Findings – More than half of the respondents indicated that they were willing to pay a premium for organic, sustainable, and US-grown cotton shirts ($5.00 or more for these cotton shirts at the $30.00 retail value). Consumer attitudes toward socially responsible apparel, attitudes toward environment, age, and gender were found to be significant factors for consumers' willingness to pay a premium. Four apparel product evaluative criteria, brand name, laundering requirements, color, and fit, were also found to be important for consumers' willingness to pay a premium. Research limitations/implications – Generalization from the study findings must be assumed with care due to the telephone survey mode. Practical implications – Apparel businesses planning to offer organic, sustainable, or US-grown cotton apparel products may want to emphasize certain tangible benefits, such as strong brand, reasonable price, easy care, color, and fit, concurrently with intangible benefits, such as feeling good by helping society and environment. Originality/value – The findings showed relationships among attitudes, product evaluative criteria, demographic characteristics, and willingness to pay a premium for three different options of socially responsible cotton apparel, in order to help close the gap between attitudes and behavior in consumer research.

Information transparency has mostly been associated with financial institutions, and little is known about its application in the apparel supply chain. The aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that may influence consumer attitude and purchase intention with respect to apparel products from businesses that are transparent about their supply chain. An interpretive analysis, through interviews with consumers, revealed that attitude and intention seemed to be affected by prior knowledge about the apparel industry, distrust on the business’ efforts, values (hedonic and social responsibility value) gained by consumers by consuming transparent products, as well as price and quality of the product. The study uses the theory of reasoned action to explain the relation between attitude and intention and combines with the concepts of consumer value and price and quality. Implications, limitations and scope of further research are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to understand fashion consumers’ channel switching to online stores during the COVID-19. We proposed an extended theory of planned behavior by incorporating protection motivation theory. The results showed that consumer assessments of perceived severity and altruistic fear of COVID-19 and response efficacy and self-efficacy of channel switching increased their beliefs (i.e., attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norm) and intentions to switch shopping channels to online. We also found that the age (young vs. old) moderated the effects of response efficacy and self-efficacy on perceived behavior control, perceived severity on subjective norm, perceived behavior control on channel switching intentions, and channel switching intention on actual switching behavior. The findings provide fashion retailers and the society with a better understanding about fashion consumers’ shopping channel switching under the pandemic.