The Influence of Social Media and Sustainability Advocacy on the Purchase Intention of Filipino Consumers in Fast Fashion

Abstract

The large consumption of fast fashion brings many negative environmental impacts. Filipino consumers love and buy fast fashion because it is relatively cheap but trendy, and there are lots of fashionable designs to choose from. Despite the shortage in water supply and disposal issues of fast fashion, people still continue to purchase. The lack of awareness of consumers on sustainable fashion consumption led the researchers to conduct a study that aims to identify factors affecting Filipino consumers’ buying decisions on fast fashion using the combined theory of planned behavior, elaboration likelihood model, and hedonic motivation. A total of 407 participants were gathered through a convenience sampling approach, and the data collected were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The result shows that attitude towards fast fashion is the highest contributing factor to purchase intention. While social media positively affects purchase intention, sustainability advocacy negatively impacts the consumers’ intention to buy fast fashion. The awareness of sustainability leads to consumption reduction of fast fashion garments. Surprisingly, perceived product price and quality do not show a significant influence on purchase intention. Incorporating sustainability advocacy on social media may be a great strategy to encourage the sustainable consumption of fashion garments. The findings of this study could be a great tool to influence fashion companies and government institutions to promote sustainability awareness and transition marketing strategies to the sustainable consumption of fashion.