Understanding Chinese Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Sustainable Fashion Products: The Moderating Role of Face-Saving Orientation

Xiaoyong Wei,Sojin Jung

doi:10.3390/su9091570

Abstract

In a culture where collectivism is pervasive such as China, social norms can be one of the most powerful tools to influence consumers’ behavior. Individuals are driven to meet social expectations and fulfill social roles in collectivist cultures. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate how Chinese consumers’ concern with saving face affects sustainable fashion product purchase intention and how it also moderates consumers’ commitment to sustainable fashion. An empirical data set of 469 undergraduate students in Beijing and Shanghai was used to test our hypotheses. Results confirmed that face-saving is an important motivation for Chinese consumers’ purchase of sustainable fashion items, and it also attenuated the effect of general product value while enhancing the effect of products’ green value in predicting purchasing trends. The findings contribute to the knowledge of sustainable consumption in Confucian culture, and thus their managerial implications were also discussed.

Highlights

With China’s emerging economy, its consumer market is expanding rapidly
To resolve the sustainability issue, the Chinese government has transformed each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into action plans based on its recent national plan to implement the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development [4]
Considering that the social aspect of face has a profound impact on Chinese consumers’ behavior, we argued that understanding the concept of face would be critical to explore sustainable fashion product consumption in China

Summary

Introduction

In the fashion industry, China’s 1.3 billion people constitute a huge market for garment consumption [1]. According to Euromonitor [2], China was the second largest market for apparel and footwear, which generated a total retail value of USD 328,389.4 million in 2016, and is expected to experience a 3% growth rate over the two years. In spite of this huge potential, the fashion industry has caused serious environmental problems in China such as water pollution [3]. An increasing number of fashion consumers have been paying attention to issues of sustainability in fashion for future development in China [5]

Objectives

Methods

Results