Renting than Buying Apparel: An Empirical Study of U.S. Consumers

Min-Tzu Ling,Olabisi Adesanya,Ting Chi,Zibo Zhao,Rebecca Anderson

doi:10.31274/itaa.11723

Abstract

Apparel rental services as one of the most common collaborative consumption modes has been gaining popularity among the U.S. consumers in recent years. However, our knowledge on this changing consumer behaviors are limited. To address the gap in the literature, this study aimed to identify the factors significantly influencing the U.S. consumers’ intent to use apparel rental services. Online survey was used to collect the primary data. 338 eligible responses were gathered for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Attitude, subjective norms, perceived consumer effectiveness, environmental knowledge, perceived personal relevance, and past environmental behavior significantly affect U.S. consumers’ intention to use apparel renting services. There are no significant differences between ages, genders, education levels, and income levels in regard to their intention to rent apparel. The proposed research model exhibits a very good explanatory power, accounting for 74.7% of variance in U.S. consumers’ intention to use apparel renting services.

Highlights

Introduction and Literature ReviewEnvironmental issues posed by the excessive apparel consumption can be addressed without denying consumers’ desire for new and trendy fashion
The demographic variables including gender, age, education level and income level were included as control factors
The primary data were collected by a Qualtrics survey of U.S consumers via Amazon MTurk, which enabled to reach a wide range of eligible consumers (Chi & Zheng, 2016; Goodman et al, 2012). 338 eligible responses were gathered for data analysis and hypothesis testing

Summary

Introduction

Environmental issues posed by the excessive apparel consumption can be addressed without denying consumers’ desire for new and trendy fashion. Apparel rental services as one of the most common collaborative consumption modes has been gaining popularity among the U.S consumers in recent years. Our knowledge on this changing consumer behaviors are limited (Lang & Armstrong, 2018). To address the gap in the literature, this study aimed to identify the factors significantly influencing the U.S consumers’ intent to use apparel rental services. A research model was proposed building on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The psychometric properties of the proposed model were examined using the gathered survey data. The effects of significant factors on U.S consumers’ intent to use apparel rental services were determined.

Objectives

Methods

Results