Antecedents of value co-creation activities for online fashion brands

Abstract

While there are a significant number of large and successful fashion brands accessible online, there has been a notable rise in the number of entrepreneurial online-only fashion retailers. These retailers are leveraging their social commerce capabilities for the co-creation of economic value and social value. Research is growing in terms of both co-creation, and social commerce, but little is known about what kind of activities take place on social commerce platforms, or their antecedents, including within the online fashion industry. Qualitative content analysis from focus group research reveals a range of activities requiring varying levels of emotional and informational commitment. Further, fashion involvement and willingness to participate are identified as antecedents to online co-creation behaviour with the UK’s fashion retailers and their other consumers. Another valuable contribution is made with the hypothesis of a direct causal link between fashion involvement and willingness to participate, moderated by social desirability, the first time that these concepts have been linked in the literature.