Research Paper

Bridging the Attitude-Behaviour Gap Within

Sustainable Fashion Consumption in Germany

Master Thesis

Geneva Business School

Master of Business Administration: Digital Marketing

Submitted by:

Mira Bocti

Supervised by:

Roberta Giannini

Barcelona, Spain

Date: 04/01/2021
Word count: 14,752
Declaration of Authorship

“I hereby declare:

● That I have written this work on my own without other people’s help
(copy-editing, translation, etc.) and without the use of any aids other
than those indicated;

● That I have mentioned all the sources used and quoted them correctly
in accordance with academic quotation rules;

● That the topic or parts of it are not already the object of any work or
examination of another course unless this has been explicitly agreed
on with the faculty member in advance;

● That my work may be scanned in and electronically checked for

plagiarism;

● That I understand that my work can be published online or deposited to

the university repository. I understand that to limit access to my work
due to the commercial sensitivity of the content or to protect my
intellectual property or that of the company I worked with, I need to file
a Bar on Access according to thesis guidelines.”

Date: 03/01/2021

Name: Mira Bocti

Signature:

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank first and foremost my thesis supervisor, Roberta Giannini,
for her support and guidance throughout this study. Without her assistance this
dissertation would not have been thoroughly and consistently carried out. I
would also like to thank my parents for providing me with the opportunity to
accomplish a Master’s degree, and for their encouragement throughout. This
thesis would also not have been possible without the constant support from the
Geneva Business School committee.

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 List of Tables

Table 1 Participant’s Demographics

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Table of Contents

Declaration of Authorship 2
Acknowledgements 3
List of Tables 4
Table of Contents 5
Abstract 7
1. Introduction 8
2. Literature Review 11
2.1 Ethical Consumerism 11
2.2 Sustainable Fashion Consumption 11
2.3 Exploring the Attitude-Behavior Gap 12
2.4 Holistic Theoretical Framework 13
2.4.1 External Limitations that Interfere With Ethical Purchasing 14
2.4.2 Individual Limitations that Interfere With Ethical Purchasing 15
2.5 Bridging the Attitude-Behaviour Gap: Marketing Strategies 16
2.5.1 SHIFT Framework 17
3. Methods 19
3.1 Research Method 19
3.2 Sampling Method 20
3.2.1 Sample Demographics 22
3.3 Data Collection 23
3.3.1 Structure of Interview 23
3.3.2 Interview Procedures 25
3.4 Data Analysis 26
4. Findings 28
4.1 The Attitude-Behaviour Gap in Sustainable Fashion Consumption 28
4.2 The Impeding Factors and Attitudes 29
4.2.1 Price 29
4.2.2 Lack of Presence 30
4.2.3 Information 31
4.2.4 Fashionability 32
4.2.5 The Self Over Sustainability 32
4.2.6 Powerlessness 33
5. Conclusions, Limitations, and Recommendations 33

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 5.1 Discussion 34
5.2 Bridging the Gap 35
5.3. Limitations & Recommendations 37
References 37
Appendix A 43
Appendix B 45

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Abstract

Climate change has become a major concern in today's society, which in turn
has led to an emergence of environmentally friendly market trends, such as ethical
consumerism. Yet despite the fact that most consumers intend to purchase in a more
sustainable manner, their actual purchasing behaviour proves to do the exact opposite.
This phenomenon, commonly known as the attitude-behaviour gap, has been an
ongoing topic in many research papers. Yet this gap with regards to sustainable fashion
consumption has scarcely been studied, and very few have looked at marketing tactics
to bridge the gap. The first purpose of this study is to then gain insight on the reasons
behind the attitude-behavior gap within the sustainable fashion consumption in
Germany using a qualitative approach. This information was then used to layout the
relevant marketing tactics that could help minimize this gap. In order to do so, 14
interviews were conducted on German consumers to better understand their attitudes
towards sustainable fashion as well as the influential factors that impede this behaviour.
The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using an inductive approach, within
the principles of a grounded theory method. The findings revealed the following
intervening factors: price, lack of presence, information, fashionability, self-over-
sustainability and powerlessness. These themes were then taken into account within the
marketing tactics that could potentially influence sustainable fashion consumption.
These tactics can be useful for marketers and brands within the sustainable fashion
sector.

Key Words: Attitude-behaviour gap, sustainable fashion, consumer behaviour,

marketing strategies, ethical consumerism.

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1. Introduction

The concerns related to the environment have become an urgent and significant
issue in this modern day and age. According to a survey, since 2014 the global concern
for the environment has increased 6% in 2019 (Lampert, Metaal, Liu & Gambarin,
2019). Furthermore, the conducted survey also indicated that 77% of people worldwide
are concerned about the environment (Lampert et al., 2019). This rise of concern has
contributed to the emerging trend of ethical consumerism, whereby ethical
consumerism is an intentional form of consumption that is based on an individual's
personal and moral beliefs (Carrigan, Szmigin & Wright, 2004). This emerging trend
has in turn yielded growth in sustainable industrial sectors and processes, one of which
is the sustainable fashion industry (Lundblad & Davies, 2015). Unlike fast fashion, in
which its production methods harmfully impact the environment and its short-term
usage becomes a crucial issue, sustainable fashion aims to do the exact opposite
(Böstrom & Micheletti, 2016). To further elaborate, the characteristics of sustainable
fashion is that it employs ethical conduct, reduces the fast fashion industry and its
impacts, uses organic materials and avoids damaging the environment in its production
process (Henninger, Alvizou & Oates, 2016; Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018).
Although ethical consumerism is an up and coming trend, there exists a gap
between consumers’ attitude towards the environment and their actual purchasing
behaviour, whereby environmentally concerned consumers continue to purchase
brands that have a negative impact on the environment regardless of their intention to
purchase more eco-friendly alternatives (Devinney, Auger & Eckhardt, 2010). To
further demonstrate, a recent survey states that 65% of consumers claim they would
purchase brands that are sustainable and environmentally friendly, yet only 26%
actually end up doing so (White, Hardisty & Habib, 2019). This phenomenon,
commonly known as the attitude-behaviour gap, can particularly be noticed within
fashion consumption (McNeill & Moore, 2015). Although numerous theoretical studies
have aimed to understand the gap in terms of ethical consumerism (e.g. Auger &
Devinney, 2007; Carrigan & Attalla, 2001; Johnstone & Tan, 2015), very few have
looked at understanding the attitude-behavior gap within sustainable fashion
consumption (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). Moreover, Papaoikonomou, Ryan &
Ginieis (2011) suggest that it is quite significant to study the underlying causes of this
gap. Hence, studying the underlying causes and factors that impede sustainable fashion
consumption behavior is deemed necessary.
Some argue that the attitude-behaviour gap could be caused by the behavioural
frameworks used to investigate the consequential barriers (Carrington, Neville &
Whitewell, 2010 ; Hassan, Shiu & Shaw, 2016; Govind, Singh, Garg, D’Silva, 2019).
Specifically that of Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour, the most frequently
used behavioural model to understand the gap. This model assumes that intentions lead
to behaviour, and those intentions are influenced by social norms, perceived behavioral
control and attitudes. Yet many studies have shown that in most cases attitudes are a
poor indicator for behavior as they do not include other external situational contexts
(Hassan et al., 2016). Thus a holistic approach that incorporates external and internal
factors has been shown to yield more accurate results. Apart from the frameworks used,
other studies have also suggested that specifying the sector when investigating the gap
could perhaps provide more specific determinants that cause the gap (Johnstone & Tan,
2015; Liobikiené & Bernatoniené, 2017). Hence, despite the numerous developed

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research on the attitude-behavior gap, there is still limited amount of research pertaining
to the attitude-behavior gap within the sustainable fashion industry (Lundblad &
Davies, 2015; Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018 ; McNeill & Moore, 2015). In addition
hardly any research focuses on tactics to mitigate this gap within sustainable fashion
purchasing (Mckeown & Shearer, 2019).
This gap then remains a concern for not only policymakers but most importantly
for marketers because nowadays the majority of purchasing behaviour is not
environmentally sustainable, hence changing this behaviour is deemed necessary
(Johnstone & Tan, 2015). This is especially relevant in the fashion sector since fast
fashion industries are one of the most polluting industries in the world (Böstrom &
Micheletti, 2016). Thus the need to alleviate this strain on the environment through
sustainable fashion purchasing is necessary. It is then imperative to construct a better
understanding of the reasons behind this gap in order to provide marketers with
effective tactics that can persuade consumers to purchase sustainable alternatives,
which in turn can help minimize the environmental impacts of the clothing industry.
Hence, the first aim of this research paper is to understand the consumer’s attitudes and
main barriers that take part in the attitude-behaviour gap within sustainable fashion
consumption. Subsequently, this study allocates the relevant marketing strategies that
can neutralize the barriers within the findings of this research.
The structure of this study begins by defining the emergence of ethical
consumerism and sustainable fashion. Once these terms have been examined the study
will need to acknowledge and understand the reasons behind this gap. This will be
achieved by examining the different literature that study the gap, specifically with
regards to the different behavioral models used. Furthermore, the study has found that
using a holistic behavioral framework to understand the gap within ethical purchasing
is more appropriate. Thus the following section includes a detailed holistic framework,
in which perceived external and individual factors hinder an ethical purchase. In
addition, the study has identified the distinctive marketing strategies found in literature
that are effective in influencing ethical behaviour. These marketing strategies will then
be placed specifically with regards to sustainable fashion within the findings of the
research.
With regards to the methodology, a qualitative approach using snowball
sampling to acquire participants for the interviews was employed. Moreover, the
interviews conducted considered German consumers’ actual purchasing behaviour,
their personal circumstances, values and emotional affinities towards the environment
(Johnstone and Tan, 2015), as well as their perceptions towards sustainable fashion.
The participants ranged in age, gender, and occupation, as the objective is to attain a
general understanding of consumer’s attitudes. Yet the criteria for the participants used
within this study is that they held some form of academic background and that they are
somewhat ethical consumers. The data obtained through the interviews were then
transcribed, analyzed and categorized into different themes. Using grounded theory
principles, the factors and themes found were described in more detail.
Once these factors have been established and analyzed, the study moves
forward into defining the most suitable and relevant marketing strategies that could be
implemented in order to bridge the attitude-behavior gap. This part uses the findings of
the research and combines the relevant marketing strategies discussed. By doing so, the
research paper was able to identify the appropriate marketing methods that can
persuade consumers to purchase sustainable fashion. Overall, the finding of this

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research contributes an effective marketing strategy that may be implemented by
sustainable fashion brands. This may help increase demands within the sustainable
fashion industry and in turn help mitigate the attitude-behavior gap. Nevertheless, some
limitations prevailed, and further suggestions for future studies were recommended.
Yet despite these limitations, the contribution of this research still provides relevant
implications that can be used to help minimize the un-environmentally sound behaviour
of purchasing clothing.

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2. Literature Review

2.1 Ethical Consumerism

Consumption patterns today have become unsustainable and environmentally

damaging (White et al., 2019). Yet, due to a wide range of factors consumers are
becoming more aware of how their purchasing behavior can impact both the
environment as well as societies (Auger & Devinney, 2007; Moser, 2016). These
factors include the rise of media coverage on ethical and social issues, the emergence
of activist groups and the increase of ethical and sustainable products in the market
(Carrington et al., 2010; Auger & Devinney, 2007). Subsequently, this gave rise to
ethical consumerism, whereby consumers with an ethical mindset hold a sense of
responsibility towards the environment and society, and wish to express their values
and beliefs through their purchasing behavior (Carrington et al., 2010). More
specifically, ethical consumerism is composed of individuals that take into
consideration the greater impacts of their consumption towards animals, the
environment and other individuals (Barnett, Cloke, Clarke & Malpass, 2005). For
example, if an individual is concerned for animal welfare, they would choose products
that do not harm animals and might even boycott brands that have mistreated or tested
on animals.
Studies (Markovic, Iglesias, Singh & Sierra, 2018; Govind et al., 2019; Carrigan
et al., 2004) have further shown that consumers tend to positively engage with
companies that are ethically and socially responsible, and negatively engage when they
are not. To further elaborate, a study that surveyed 30,000 individuals within 60
countries found that 55% of them would pay more for commodities from companies
that act socially and environmentally responsible (Johnstone & Tan, 2015). A higher
demand from ethical consumers has in turn influenced companies to incorporate
environmental and social responsibilities within their businesses (Johnstone & Tan,
2015) as well as creating a new market share that caters to the ethical consumers
(Moser, 2016).
Although ethical consumers hold strong attitudes towards the need for
sustainable products, these attitudes do not translate into their actual purchasing
behavior (McNeill & Moore, 2015). This phenomenon, commonly known as the
attitude-behaviour gap, can specifically be noticed within sustainable fashion
purchasing behaviour (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). In order to examine the attitude-
behavior gap within sustainable fashion consumption, the study will first need to define
sustainable fashion consumption and what it entails.

2.2 Sustainable Fashion Consumption

There are various terms that describe sustainable fashion, such as ethical-, eco-
, or green- fashion, and are used interchangeably in different literature (Henninger et
al., 2016). Each term aims to highlight the perceived wrongdoings of the fashion
industry such as environmental impacts and workers rights (Lundblad & Davies, 2015).
Yet for the purpose of this study, the term sustainable fashion is categorized as fashion
that uses environmentally friendly and biodegradable material, reduces water

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consumption in their production, avoids harmful substances and neutralizes fast fashion
and its impact (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018).
Studies that examine purchasing behaviour have found that consumers are
increasingly showing interest with regards to the ethical and environmental concerns in
fashion consumption (Niinimaki, 2010; Lundblad & Davies, 2015). Despite this
interest, there is a lack of consumer demand within the sustainable fashion market
(Jacobs, Petersen, Hörisch, & Battenfeld, 2018). For instance, a survey showed that
around 34% of Germans find sustainability in clothing important (Splendid Research,
2016). Yet, the sustainable fashion industry is still a niche market, whereby the market
share takes up 3.7% (Jacobs et al., 2018). Thus there exists a gap between the
consumer's attitudes towards the environment and their actual consumption. This
attitude-behaviour gap, has been a frequent topic within literature, specifically with
regards to ethical consumption (Carrigan & Attalla, 2001; Johnstone & Tan, 2015;
Carrington et al., 2010; Davari & Strutton, 2014). Many of those studies have sought
to discover the barriers that impede sustainable purchasing, such as price
(Papaoikonomou et al., 2011; Chang, 2011), convenience and availability (Johnstone
& Tan, 2015; Carrigan & Attalla, 2001), and perceived quality (Newman, Gorlin &
Dhar, 2014).
Yet despite the vast research on the attitude-behaviour gap, many contributions
claim that further research is needed in understanding the gap (Jacobs et al., 2018),
especially with regards to the factors that impede ethical purchasing. Liobikiené and
Bernatoniené (2017) further claim that specifying the industry with which the gap takes
place provides more distinctive factors that may help in understanding the gap. While
there are many studies that have focused on certain sectors, such as household cleaning
products (e.g. Johnstone & Tan, 2015; Bodur, Duval, & Grohmann, 2015) or food
industries (e.g. Davari & Strutton, 2014; Gifford & Chen, 2017; Shepherd, Magnusson,
& Sjödén, 2005) a scant amount of research has focused on the consumption of
sustainable fashion ( e.g.Lundblad and Davies, 2015; Wiederhold & Marinez, 2017 ;
McNeill & Moore, 2015). In addition hardly any research focuses on tactics to mitigate
this gap within sustainable fashion purchasing (Mckeown & Shearer, 2019). Thus it is
important to further investigate the factors that cause the attitude-behavior gap within
sustainable fashion consumption, as well as finding the right marketing strategies that
could reduce the gap. The following section will then be examining the ways in which
existing studies have seeked to understand the gap. Proceeding this, the research will
then take a look at the existing marketing strategies aimed to influence the purchase of
ethical and sustainable products.

2.3 Exploring the Attitude-Behavior Gap

Many studies have sought to understand the possible factors that could cause
the attitude-behavior gap within ethical consumerism with the help of certain attitude-
behavioral frameworks (e.g. Boulstridge & Carrigan, 2000; Hassan et al., 2016;
Papaoikonomou et al., 2011). The most frequently used model is the theory of reasoned
action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and its revised edition, the theory of planned behaviour
(Ajzen, 1991). According to Ajzen’s theory, intention is the main motivation that can
influence behaviour, it indicates the extent that can influence how far someone is
willing to go in order to act on the behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). Furthermore, he states that

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subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and attitude towards the behaviour are
the main factors that construct the intention (Ajzen, 1991). Whereby perceived
behavioral control consists of controllability (e.g. finance, knowledge, habits) and self-
efficacy (e.g time, will power, skills, and abilities) of the act (Carrington et al., 2010).
However, even though Ajzen’s theory is useful in predicting behaviour it
assumes that individuals behave rationally (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Many
theorists have criticized this model, claiming that it does not consider other factors that
may affect behavior, suggesting that this could perhaps be one of the underlying causes
of the gap (Papaoikonomou et al., 2011; Carrington et al., 2010; Caruana, Carrington
& Chatzidakis, 2016). Joshi and Rahman (2015) also agree to this point claiming that
the theory of planned behaviour disregards environmental and situational factors during
a purchase. Ajzen’s framework also suggests that intentions lead to behaviors, which
has been shown to be a poor indicator for actual behavior (Govind et al., 2019).
Furthermore, most theoretical approaches tend to focus specifically on the relationship
between attitudes and behavior rather than the actual behavior itself (Carrington et al.,
2010). In response to these issues, theorists have reconceptualised the elements of
Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior and constructed a holistic approach that
integrates other factors that have been found to impede consumer ethical behavior
(Carrington et al., 2010).
The idea of using a holistic framework to investigate the gap is highly relevant
within sustainable fashion consumption, as many complex factors come into play with
regards to fashion and pro-environmental behavior. For instance, Lundblad and Davies
(2015) researched female sustainable fashion consumers to explore their reasons for
purchasing such fashion. They found that the attitude-behaviour gap in the sustainable
clothing industry could stem from consumers feeling of disempowerment, their limited
awareness of its impact, the availability in the market, limited fashionable choices as
well as the credibility of information that is provided. Similarly, Jacobs et al. (2018)
used a quantitative method to explore female fashion consumers, and claimed that
transparency, availability and information within the sustainable fashion industry has
shown to be impeding factors. In addition they also found that consumers care more of
self-benefits and perceive sustainable fashion as not so durable. Taking a different
approach, Wiederhold & Martinez (2018) looked into the younger generation of both
females and males to understand the gap within sustainable fashion and found that
price, availability, transparency, image, enertia and consumption habits acted as
barriers towards sustainable fashion consumption. McNeill & Moore (2015) also found
that consumers’ level of concern for the environment, their previous experiences, as
well as their preconceptions can influence sustainable fashion purchasing.

2.4 Holistic Theoretical Framework

Based on the mentioned literature, it becomes clear that there are many different
factors that can influence sustainable fashion consumption. Thus this study will lay out
a more holistic framework that will help compare the findings within this research. This
holistic framework is specifically that of Papaoikonomou et al.’s (2011) framework, as
it takes a holistic approach in which they not only combine commonalities within other
theoretical frameworks, but they also researched actual ethical behavior and integrated
the common factors found that influence those behaviors into a single framework.

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These factors were characterized into perceived external and individual limitations,
which will further be explained in more detail.

2.4.1 External Limitations that Interfere With Ethical Purchasing

This section describes the external limitations that could explain why ethical
consumers might not act according to their ethical beliefs. With regard to the theory of
planned behavior, the external limitations would be equivalent to the perceived
behavioral controls. According to Papaoikonomou et al. (2011), the perceived external
limitations include: lack of availability, inefficient ethical alternatives, keeping up with
social obligations, information and its legitimacy, and limited budget and high prices.

Lack of Availability. The lack of availability is said to interfere with a

consumers intention to purchase a sustainable product. To further elaborate, if the
consumer’s intention to purchase sustainable products exists, yet it’s availability is
lacking or inconvenient it will constrain the consumer's final decision to an item that is
immediately available (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). Accordingly, the lack of
availability in sustainable clothing has also been a commonly found barrier (Shaw,
McMaster & Newholm, 2016; Hassan et al. 2016). However, Papaoikonomou et al.
(2011) claim that their study was based in Spain whereby the ethical market was still
developing. Yet other countries that have a variety of ethical products, such as
Germany, may not have the same issue (Papaoikonomou et al., 2011). Furthermore,
Jacobs et al. (2018) also argue that sustainable clothing can be easily purchased online.
Thus availability of sustainable fashion posing as a barrier is contended, yet should be
further investigated.

Inefficient Ethical Alternatives. The point on availability also correlates to the

lack of ethical alternatives. To further elaborate, Papaoikonomou et al. (2011) state that
many of their participants were not satisfied with the existing ethical products in the
market. Thus, even if ethical products were available, the lack of alternatives could also
impede the purchase. This is especially concerned with sustainable fashion purchasing,
as studies show that there exists a stigma towards the fashionability of sustainable
clothing (Jacobs et al., 2018). Thus when a consumer chooses an ethical alternative
they sometimes feel that they need to compromise on other criterias such as
“functionality or style and design” (Papaoikonomou et al. 's, 2011, p.84) or even quality
(Jacobs et al., 2018). Bray, Johns & Killburn (2011) further expand this point by
claiming that consumers might want to buy sustainable apparel, yet colour and style are
usually more important. As Boulstridge and Carrigan (2000) note that when consumers
have to choose between personal and social, the personal always wins

Keeping up with Social Obligations. Another important factor that impedes

consumers ethical behaviour is keeping up with the social obligations. This relates back
to the pressures of social norms, whereby people feel they need to comply with what
others are doing (Papaoikonomou et al., 2011). This concept has been reinforced by
many studies, indicating that social norms have a great effect on consumers' ethical
purchasing behaviour (Bucic, Harris & Arli, 2012; Peattie, 2010; Ottman, 1992). These
constructs, in particular, have a great impact on purchasing clothing items as fashion

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provides consumers with a sense of belonging and allows them to gain acceptance from
others (Lundblad & Davies, 2015). Thus fashion purchasing tends to be linked to
fashionability self-expression/self-identity and adhering to social standards (Lundblad
& Davies, 2015), which can sometimes outweigh one’s ethical standards (McNeill &
Moore, 2015).

Lack of Information and Its Legitimacy. In relation to the lack of information

and its legitimacy, Papaoikonomou et al. (2011) claim that consumers find it difficult
to inform themselves with factual information on ethical products. Furthermore,
Birtwistle and Moore (2007) find that consumers tend to have low awareness of the
environmental impacts the fast fashion industry creates, which leads them to carry on
with this behavior regardless of their ethical attitudes. Yet recent findings show that
possessing information has little impact on consumers' ethical decisions (Johnstone &
Tan, 2015). Regardless, the main issue in both cases was that the consumers had a
mistrust towards the legitimacy of the information provided. This could partly be due
to greenwashing, whereby companies place false claims about the environmentally
friendly attribute of a product (Lane, 2013). This pushes consumers to feel that
companies place environmental claims as a marketing ploy rather than providing
relevant and truthful information (Bray et al., 2011). Hence, the trust of information
provided and the knowledge gained by consumers could be factors that diverge
consumers from purchasing sustainable clothing.

Limited Budget and High Prices. The last factor regards the premium price
consumers pay for ethical products. This has been a common barrier found in research
papers (e.g. Shaw et al., 2005; Chang, 2011; Bruder, Feldmann & Hamm, 2014),
whereby consumers find it too expensive to act ethically which in turn pushes them to
buy the cheaper non eco-friendly product. Furthermore, Bray et al. (2011) found that
when consumers do pay the higher price for an ethical item, they sometimes
experienced “post-purchase dissonance” (p. 601) which made them avoid purchasing
ethical products afterwards. In the sustainable clothing industry, items tend to be higher
priced as higher quality of raw materials and better standard of labour costs are used
(Jacobs et al., 2018), hence price could pose as a barrier to sustainable fashion
purchasing.

2.4.2 Individual Limitations that Interfere With Ethical Purchasing

While there are external elements that hinder ethical purchase, Papaoikonomou
et al. (2011) also claim that individual limitations exist, whereby consumers show
inconsistencies within their actual behavior. These individual limitations include:
opting for the easy choice, compromise in everyday life, and change takes time.

Opting for the Easy Choice. A common barrier with regards to the attitude-
behavior gap is the concept of time and effort. Some consumers find that consuming
ethically requires more time and energy (Papaoikonomou et al., 2011). This factor of
opting for the easy choice is all about the convenience of purchasing a sustainable
product, especially since finding such products is sometimes found to be time
constraining and effortful. Thus most consumers tend to choose whatever is available

15
and come to terms with the fact that sometimes such unsustainable actions are
inevitable (Papaoikonomou et al., 2011). Wiederhold and Martinez (2018) further
explain that since consumers are faced with a myriad of products with different
attributes, they tend to focus on fewer attributes such as price and disregard the ethical
side. Hence the effort and time needed to research, find and analyse information on
sustainable clothing could hinder a consumers motivation to purchase such items and
furthermore, push them to opt for whatever is readily available (Papista, Chrysochou,
Krystallis & Dimitriadis, 2017).

Compromise in Everyday Life. The compromises in this case could also relate
to the time and effort it takes to act ethically, yet it also relates to a consumer's
motivation and willingness to act ethically. The question here is: are consumers willing
to compromise on certain aspects for the greater good? This could also be connected to
a consumer's loyalty towards a brand, as a strong loyalty towards a brand makes
individuals less motivated to break that loyalty regardless of their concerns (Bray et al.,
2011). Moreover, consumers with strong loyalty towards a brand could result in a
biased perception, such as ignoring negative information on their brand (Wiederhold &
Martinez, 2018). This is highly related to fashion consumption, whereby ethically
consumers still purchase from brands that have been connected to sweat-shops (Hassan
et al., 2016). Thus brand loyalty can also be a hard process to break away from, causing
a change in behaviour to be more difficult to implement.

Change Takes Time. The last perceived external factor is that change takes
time. This factor relates to breaking old habits as purchasing ethical products can be a
relatively new inclusion in consumers’ usual purchasing methods (Carrrington et al.,
2001). Thus when thinking about changing one’s habit and purchasing ethical
alternatives, it all comes down to an individual's willingness to change that habit
(Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). Furthermore, changing habits comes gradually which
means that every individual could be in the process of changing their habits and
mindsets (Papaoikonomou et al., 2011). Thus a consumer could be in the process of
wanting to purchase ethically, yet has not fully transformed into an ‘ethical consumer’.
Therefore, taking into consideration the consumers transitional stage is important, as it
can also determine their values and motivations.

Overall these are the common barriers that have been found to impede ethical
consumption and perhaps even sustainable fashion consumption. The first aim of the
research paper is to further investigate the barriers that could cause the gap by
examining consumers’ interactions, attitudes and conceptions of sustainable fashion
consumption. By doing so this study hopes to find unanticipated factors. The second
aim of this research paper is to find the strategies that could potentially neutralize the
barriers found within this study. The following paragraph then outlines the marketing
strategies that claim to be effective in mitigating the gap within ethical consumption.

2.5 Bridging the Attitude-Behaviour Gap: Marketing Strategies

As mentioned earlier, the second part of the research is to correlate the barriers
that will be found within this study with suitable marketing strategies. The reason for

16
this is that, the gap between consumers’ attitudes towards environmental issues and
their conflicting consuming behavior is a major concern for policy makers and social
marketers (Moraes, Carrigan & Szmigin, 2012), especially since the current
consumption patterns are not environmentally sustainable. Furthermore, research
suggests that companies that promote their social and environmental responsibilities
are gaining positive attitudes from consumers, which can in turn increase profitability
(White et al., 2019). Thus it is quite important for companies that are sustainable and
environmentally friendly to be able to find the right tactics to promote their ethical
attributes and in turn increase consumer demands.
In relation to the attitude-behavior gap, some theorists have recommended
marketing strategies that can help mitigate the gap. For example Davari and Strutton
(2014) aimed to find out which of the four green marketing mix elements (price,
product, place and promotion) had a greater impact on the four dimensions of
consumer-based brand equity (brand association, trust, loyalty and perceived brand
quality) (Davari & Strutton, 2014). They did so by conducting a quantitative study
using questionnaires that focused on five-well known brands in the food sector.
Accordingly, the main findings show that consumers are affected with a firm's green
marketing strategies, however promotional activities fail to influence consumers trust
as well as perceived quality on a certain brand. Whilst their findings provided insight
on which marketing element is best fit to influence ethical consumption, it focuses
mainly on the food sector. Yet marketing strategies that can neutralize the gap in
sustainable fashion consumption has scarcely been focused on in studies.
However, one study that has focused on a marketing method that can influence
sustainable fashion consumption is that of Mckeown & Shearer (2019). Their research
sought to examine the influence of celebrity institutional entrepreneurs on the
awareness of the sustainable fashion concept. Their findings found that celebrity
influencers promoting sustainable fashion partially impacted consumers' awareness on
the issues of the fashion industry, yet no significant changes on purchasing sustainable
fashion were found. Thus their study does confirm that celebrity endorsement can
change consumers’ attitudes towards sustainable fashion, yet further research is needed
to determine what other tactics can influence purchasing behaviour.
Consequently, one way for this study to find relative marketing strategies that
can influence sustainable fashion purchasing is by looking at all the tactics that have
shown to influence ethical behavior. White, Habib and Hardisty (2019) conducted a
review of a variety of studies that tackled marketing and ethical consumerism and
devised a comprehensive framework that can be applied as technologies and societies
evolve as well as in any situation (White et al., 2019). Their framework can thus help
address the attitude-behavior gap, specifically with regards to the sustainable fashion
industry. The framework is represented by using the acronym SHIFT standing for:
social influence, habit formation, individual-self, feeling and cognition, and tangibility.
Each category provides tactics that influence a consumers ethical purchasing behavior
(White et al., 2019).

2.5.1 SHIFT Framework

With regards to social influence White et. al (2019) examined three different
aspects: social norms, social identities and social desirability. They further suggest
three tactics within social influence that can increase sustainable behavior. The first

17
suggestion is to form or construct social norms, such as sharing what other people are
doing. Secondly, creating a healthy competition between social groups, as groups do
not like to be outperformed by other groups. Lastly, with regards to social desirability,
consumers are more likely to purchase sustainable items when the action can be
observed by others.
In relation to habit formation, White, Hardisty and Habib (2019b) found three
techniques to be most effective in changing habits into sustainable ones. One way is by
using prompts that remind people to act in a certain way; this can help improve self-
efficacy, allowing consumers to feel competent in acting sustainably. Another way is
by providing positive feedback on an individual’s action. Lastly, providing incentives
to act sustainable is also shown to improve sustainable behavior and help form new
habits.
In order to improve sustainable behavior within the individual self, White et al.
(2019) claim that individuals can easily be threatened by changes to the individual self.
For that reason they suggest associating sustainable behaviors with the self-concept can
remove the threat (2019). Another strategy is to place more emphasis on the self-
benefits of sustainable behavior: what can this purchase provide the customer? Lastly,
making ethical consumption effortless for the consumer is key, that way consumers will
more likely repeat that behavior (White et al., 2019b).
The next factor White et al. (2019) discuss is feeling and cognition. Marketers
either use emotional or rational massages. When marketers use emotional messages,
White et al. (2019b) claim consumers are more likely to act on a behavior if the emotion
is positive. With regards to ethical consumerism, hope and pride have been found to be
most effective in influencing sustainable consumption (Antonetti & Maklan, 2014;
Rowe, Wilson, Dimitriu & Charnley, 2019). On the other hand, when marketers use a
rational appeal, framing the message in terms of loss will more likely increase ethical
behavior (Trudel, 2019). Another aspect within rational massages is the use or lack of
information. White et al. suggest using information that explains why a certain behavior
is beneficial for the environment.
The last factor in the SHIFT framework is tangibility. One of the common
themes within ethical consumer literature is the fact that eco-friendly behavior can
sometimes seem abstract and distant from the current situation (White et al., 2019). One
solution to this is to provide consumers with the future benefits of sustainable behavior
(White et al., 2019). Another tactic is to make the environmental issues more current
and concrete (White et al., 2019).
To conclude, White et al. suggest that the best way to use this framework is to
first understand the specified behavior, the situation in which it takes place, and the
barriers that exist (2019). Afterwards, they recommend using the barriers and selecting
the most relevant tactics within the SHIFT paradigm. Thus after understanding the
barriers that exist within purchasing sustainable fashion, the paper will be suggesting
the best marketing tactics with regards to the SHIFT framework. These tactics can be
useful in encouraging ethical consumer behavior within this industry and in effect can
perhaps reduce the attitude-behavior gap.

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3. Methods

This first purpose of this study aims to understand the attitudes and motives
behind sustainable fashion purchasing as well as finding the common barriers that
impede this behaviour. This will further explain the reasons behind the attitude-
behaviour gap within sustainable fashion purchasing. In order to find these attitudes
and impeding factors, the study takes an inductive approach using a qualitative research
method. Data was collected using open-ended and semi-structured interviews. This
data was then categorized and coded into common themes using a grounded theory
approach. By categorizing and analyzing the factors of consumers’ different
perceptions and reasons behind purchasing or not purchasing sustainable fashion, the
study can then provide the relevant marketing strategies that may bridge the attitude-
behavior gap. The following section then takes a closer examination of the research
method used, the sampling obtained as well as the data collection and data analysis
procedures.

3.1 Research Method

As mentioned above the chosen approach for this research is inductive and uses
a qualitative method. The reason behind using a qualitative approach is because
research on the influencing factors and attitudes towards sustainable fashion
consumption is limited (Wiederholen & Martinez, 2018), and by looking at these
attributes, a qualitative approach is deemed more appropriate. To further elaborate,
qualitative research attempts to “make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the
meaning people bring to them” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011, p. 3), it provides a detailed
understanding of the issue, which can only be found by an in-depth discussion with
people (Creswell, 2013). In line with this statement, the research question within this
study also aims to make sense of the attitude-behavior phenomenon in sustainable
fashion consumption by using in-depth interviews with individuals. Using a qualitative
approach has also been shown to provide more valuable and unique factors that can aid
in understanding the attitude-behavior gap (Hassan et al., 2016). Hence, a qualitative
approach is then more appropriate in this case.
Furthermore, a common concern shared among researchers has been the
quantitative methodological approaches that have been used to investigate the gap
within ethical consumption. Moreover, researchers claim that these methodological
flaws could be one of the reasons behind the gap (Shaw et al., 2016). This concern
stems from the fact that most quantitative studies that aim to understand the attitude-
behavior gap employ self-reporting methods or survey instruments, which can often
lead to social desirable answers (Govind et al., 2019). Social desirability bias can be
explained as responses that express what respondents believe to be socially acceptable
rather than expressing their true opinions (Shaw et al., 2016). This type of bias is more
likely to occur with regards to ethical consuming, which can distort the measures of the
consumers’ true intentions and behaviors (Carrington et al., 2010). Auger and Devinney
(2007) further investigate this issue and claim that simple survey methods “are too
noisy” to provide true answers with regards to consumers' ethical purchasing behavior.
For these reasons this study has adopted a qualitative approach over a quantitative one
to understand the gap within an ethical context.

19
 Apart from the importance of using a qualitative method, this study has also
applied an inductive approach using grounded theory techniques to interpret the data.
Adopting this type of approach allows the study to decipher meanings and theories
behind the raw data (Charmaz & Bryant, 2010). Accordingly “grounded theory aims to
generate a substantive theory that will explain a phenomenon in a specific context”
(Cho & Lee, 2014, p. 5). As this study aims to find the factors that disrupt the behavior
towards sustainable fashion consumption, using grounded theory to conceptualise these
factors into themes will further aid in understanding the reasons behind the attitude-
behavior gap. This is again relevant within this study, as very little studies have looked
into the common themes that cause the gap within sustainable fashion consumption.
Moreover, unlike deductive analysis that set out to test hypotheses based on previous
theories this study utilizes an inductive analysis, whereby a detailed and rigorous
analysis of the primary data found will aid in deriving the common themes present
within the gap in sustainable fashion consumption (Thomas, 2006). Using an inductive
approach allows this research to then identify unanticipated factors and perhaps can add
to the limited yet existing literature (Thomas, 2006).
This study is then qualitative in nature and depends on in-depth interviews to
gather primary data. The data inquired will further provide insight into the perceptions,
opinions and experiences with sustainable fashion consumption. This data will later be
used to conceptualise the common themes that act as the barriers that fuel the attitude-
behavior gap within sustainable fashion consumption. By doing so the paper aims to
then formulate relevant marketing strategies that can perhaps mitigate the gap. Thus
using an inductive approach is further proven to be necessary within this research. The
following section will examine the sampling methods, size and backgrounds of the
participants which have been used within this study.

3.2 Sampling Method

In order for the study to obtain information regarding consumer’s attitudes and
behavior towards sustainable fashion purchasing, semi-structured in-depth interviews
were conducted on German citizens, whereby snowball sampling was used. In relation
to the setting, the study focused on German cities, including Frankfurt and Hamburg.
The reason for this is that a majority of Europeans are concerned about the environment,
including Germans (European Commission, 2019, p. 8). Moreover, in a survey on
German citizens’ general attitude towards the environment, 71% of Germans disagreed
that “clothes should be available at the lowest price regardless of the impact to the
environment or the working conditions under which they were made” (European
Commission, 2019, p. T40), insinuating that Germans consider price to hold value with
regards to ethical conduct. The survey further found that 82% of Germans are also
interested in how environmentally friendly their clothes are (European Commission,
2019, p. T44). Another survey also showed that the market for sustainable fashion is
increasing in Germany, whereby three quarters of Germans find the importance of
sustainability within the fashion industry (Splendid Research, 2016). All this
information implies that Germans have a strong attitude towards protecting the
environment, and tend to care how their fashion consumption could impact the
environment. Thus examining whether these concerns actually lead to a change in
behavior with regards to fashion consumption could prove to be insightful to

20
understanding the attitude-behavior gap. Furthermore, the interviews can further
conceptualise the relative factors that contribute to the gap.
Apart from the setting whereby the interviews took place, this study utilized a
snowball sampling method. This form of sampling method depends on participants or
informants providing the researcher with access to other participants, thus creating the
so-called snowball effect (Noy, 2008). The reason this study employed this method is
partly due to the fact that this research took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During this time, there were strict measures on interacting with individuals as well as
lockdowns. This further constricted the ability to gain access to participants. With
regards to the method, snowball sampling is usually an alternative when other forms of
gaining information are not feasible (Noy, 2008), thus it was deemed necessary to use
this technique.
Another main reason for using snowball sampling within this research is that
this study did not want to exclude participants regarding certain demographics, as
demographics are less important than knowledge in understanding eco-conscious
behaviour (Laroche, Bergeron & Barbara-Forleo, 2001). Furthermore, other studies
that have looked into understanding the gap within sustainable fashion consumption
have excluded certain demographic attributes within their study, which could have
affected or limited their results. For instance, Wiederhold and Martinez’s (2018) study
excluded the older generation within their study. Yet a study showed that older
consumers could be a potential target group within the ethical market (Carrigan et al.,
2004). Another example is that both Jacobs et al. (2018) and Lundblad and Davies’
(2015) research excluded the male perspectives within their study on understanding
attitudes towards sustainable fashion purchasing, which could have limited their scope.
Occupation was also sought after to further understand the participants situational
backgrounds, which could affect their purchasing criteria. Yet there was no specific
criteria in this case as the study wanted to draw out a generalized perception and
behaviour of sustainable fashion Thus the participants within this study ranged in age,
gender and occupation. By doing so the research assured that there was a semi-
proportional representation of the greater population.
However, certain criterias were implemented in order to find the most
appropriate participants within this study. The first criteria required that the participant
had some sort of academic background. The reason for this is that some studies have
shown that the typical ethical consumer tends to be highly educated (Jacobs et al.,
2018). This criteria is also interrelated with the second criteria, whereby the participants
had to be somehow concerned about the environment and have slightly changed their
behaviour with regards to it. The reason for this is that this research aims to understand
why consumer’s that profess to care about the environment, and intend to change their
behaviour, do not do so with regards to shopping for clothing. Inorder to ensure these
criterias existed, two procedures took place. On one hand the participants were told
beforehand that the interview was targeted to those who are interested in sustainable
fashion as well as those who are not. This allowed the participant to answer in a non-
social desirable way when it came to their own purchasing behaviour. On the other
hand, the structure of the interview questions were done in a way that allowed the
participant to answer first and foremost what their concerns and natural behaviour tends
to be. This will be further discussed within the data collection section. Nevertheless, by
doing so, the answers provided from participants reflected an honest answer regarding
consumers who are concerned about the environment, but may or may not tend to

21
purchase sustainable fashion items. Using snowball sampling was also useful in
attaining ethically minded consumers as it ensures that the individuals that are
recommended are information-rich with regards to this topic (Creswell, 2013). To
further elaborate, once interviews were conducted, participants were asked if they knew
anyone else who would be interested and willing to participate. These participants
suggested other willing participants whom they know tend to be ethical consumers. The
study then found 14 participants who fit the criteria. The following part will give an
overview of the participants backgrounds that were used within this study.

3.2.1 Sample Demographics

Overall, the study conducted in-depth interviews with 14 participants in

Germany. The participants consist of nine females and five males. The average age
range is 41, ranging from 21 to 58 years old. All participants either had or were in the
progress of getting an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, whereby 29% of the
participants hold an undergraduate diploma, 21% were in the process of getting one and
50% have a postgraduate diploma. The participants, however, ranged in occupation,
including students, teachers, managers, sales associates, software developers, and IT
department employees. Table 1 provides the overall demographics of the participants.
Because of the small sample size, this study does not assert to represent a general
representation of a population, yet the findings could still prove insightful with regards
to the study. The participants names and personal details have also been excluded to
respect their privacy and instead are named as P1, P2 and so forth. The data collected
was done through in depth interviews, which will be described in more detail in the
following section.

Table 1: Participant’s Demographics

Participant Gender Age Education Occupation

P1 Female 25 Undergraduate Student

P2 Female 55 Undergraduate Teacher

P3 Male 34 Postgraduate Unemployed

P4 Female 24 Undergraduate Student
P5 Female 57 Postgraduate Project Manager

P6 Male 53 Undergraduate Teacher

P7 Male 51 Postgraduate IT Department
P8 Female 49 Postgraduate Financial Manager

P9 Female 21 Undergraduate Student

P10 Female 55 Postgraduate IT Department
P11 Male 35 Undergraduate Sales Associate

P12 Female 33 Postgraduate Project Manager

22
P13 Female 58 Postgraduate Teacher
P14 Male 29 Undergraduate Software Developer

3.3 Data Collection

As mentioned this study takes a qualitative approach to understanding the

attitudes and impeding factors behind the attitude-behavior gap. As this is the case, the
best form for collecting primary data within this study is by using semi-structured, in-
depth and open ended interviews. Contrary to quantitative methods of collecting data,
the qualitative method of using interviews provides a deeper understanding of a
phenomena (Gill, Stewart, Treasure, & Chadwick, 2008). Barriball and While (1994)
further claim that there are many advantages for using interviews, including that they
allow the researcher to observe non-verbal communications which can be useful in
evaluating the validity of the responses and that the respondents are unable to gain
assistance from others while answering questions. Hence using an interview is best fit
to understanding the attitude-behavior gap.
There are also different ways to structure interviews, such as structured or semi-
structured interviews. This study decided to rather use semi-structured interviews. This
form of data collection has been shown to play a central role in qualitative research, as
semi-structured interviews can provide information on people’s attitudes, opinions,
values, motives and beliefs (Barriball & While, 1994). Moreover, semi-structured
interviews are versatile and flexible (Kallio, Pietilä, Johnson & Kangasniemi, 2016),
meaning that they enable the researcher to probe insightful and diverse perspectives
from participants. Accordingly, Kallio et al. (2016) further elaborate on the advantages
of using semi-structured interviews, claiming that they enable “the interviewer to
improvise on follow up questions based on participant’s responses” (p. 2955). These
follow-up questions allow greater access to respondent’s perceptions that may not have
previously been thought of by the researcher (Gill et al., 2008).
These advantages also parallel the required needs for this research paper, as it
wishes to understand the underlying attitudes and opinions towards sustainable fashion
purchasing. Thus delving deeper into the participants responses with the use of semi-
structured and follow up questions as well as the dialogue that comes forth is important.
Using this method also provides the means to find new or surprising data that has not
been found before. Now that the reasons for using semi-structured and in depth
interviews has been established, the proceeding step is to examine the way in which the
interview questions were structured.

3.3.1 Structure of Interview

According to Kallio et al. (2016), once the researcher has evaluated the
appropriateness of using a semi-structured interview and previous knowledge on the
subject is well comprehended, the following step is to formulate a guided structure of
the interview questions. The questions in this case must be well-formulated, use clear
non-leading wording and be open-ended (Kallio et al., 2016). Furthermore, the
interview guide should consist of two leveled questions: the main themes which relates

23
back to the research question and the follow-up questions that spontaneously ensue
(Kallio et al., 2016). The order of the main questions is also relevant as it is best to start
the interview with easy and relatable questions before proceeding to the difficult ones
(Gill et al, 2008). As for the follow up questions, they could be for example to expand
a certain point the participant made or asking them to provide an example.
These guidelines were followed within this studies’ interview outline, whereby
the structure and chronology of the questions were done in a deliberate way. To further
demonstrate, the main themed questions were divided into three categories, which all
served a purpose for the research at hand. The first category looked into the
participants’ past and actual clothing purchasing behaviour. This provided an unbiased
general background of the participants normal behavior, such as where they usually
buy their clothes from or what attributes are important to them. Another reason for
starting with the more generic questions is that it provided a means of easing into the
more in-depth questions, allowing the participant to warm-up to the following
questions.
The second section aimed to understand participants ethical concerns and
ethical behaviours. The purpose for this was to see whether the participants have
already changed any aspects of their consumer behaviour and whether they have
concerns for the environmental impacts. As the study aims to understand why
consumers who claim to care about the environment and intend to purchase
environmentally friendly products don’t do so with regards to sustainable fashion, this
section also served as a screening criteria for the sample of the study. Thus, if a
consumer has not shown any concerns or change in behaviour with regards to the
environment they were not taken into account within this research. Inorder to avoid
social desirability bias in this section, especially as it relates to ethical stances, the
participants were told that this section is asking about their general outlooks and not
specific to clothing and the questions also began by asking for their personal concerns,
without any leading questions.
Now that the questions looked into participant’s past behaviours and whether
they are an ethically concerned consumer, the last section then moved on towards the
subject of sustainable fashion. This part delved into the participants notion of what
sustainable fashion means to them and their attitudes and opinions towards it. Before
doing so, the definition for sustainable fashion was also provided to the participants
after they described their own concepts. This further allowed a common understanding
for the following questions regarding sustainable fashion. This section then focused on
past behaviours with regards to purchasing sustainable clothing items, as mentioned in
the literature review, taking into consideration past behaviour is crucial to
understanding the actual factors that impeded this behavior (Papaoikonomou et al.,
2011). Hence, the last category provided more insight into the perceived factors that
could disrupt behaviour and further explain the attitude-behaviour gap within
sustainable fashion. Moreover, the chronological order of these themes played an
important role in avoiding socially desirable answers. This was done so that the
interviews began with more general questions regarding consumer’s actual clothing
purchasing behavior, then moved on to their ethical stance and concerns and later on
were narrowed down to discussing the subject of sustainable fashion.
Apart from strategizing the structure, other techniques were implemented
within the questioning methods. First, personal questions regarding the participants' age
and gender, for example, were asked towards the end to assure confidentiality. Second,

24
before the interview concluded, the participants were asked whether they have anything
they would like to add or comment on. This method allows the participants to elaborate
on ideas they have discussed or add information that has not been dealt within the
interview, leading to discovering unanticipated information (Gill et al., 2008). Lastly,
some questions were done using projective techniques, whereby questioning why the
participants think “others”, for example, don’t purchase sustainable clothing. This
technique is useful because projecting questions towards the “other” allows the
participant to provide their own thoughts and feelings towards another person, which
enables them to express themselves more freely (Johnstone & Tan, 2015).
These guided interview questions can further be looked at in Appendix A. The
follow-up questions, however, were different depending on the participants.
Nevertheless, the overall techniques and deliberate organization of the interview
questions all aimed to understand the true attitudes and factors behind purchasing
sustainable fashion. The proceeding process of this research was to interview
participants. The next section will then look more into the interviewing process.

3.3.2 Interview Procedures

As mentioned 14 in-depth and semi structured interviews took place in

Germany, some were done face-to-face and others over the phone. Even though face-
to-face could provide more understanding of the participants social cues, that otherwise
by phone won’t be noticed, phone interviews also have its advantages. One advantage
being that participants would be in a comfortable setting during the phone call, which
helped create a non-threatening environment and allowed them to provide deeper
reflections (Creswell, 2013). Another advantage is that the phone interviews allowed
access to individuals in other German cities, such as Frankfort, thus increasing the
scope of the study. In total six interviews were done face-to-face and eight were done
by phone.
The procedure for taking the interviews began by informing the participants on
a general overview of the topic, the interviewers background, and a brief explanation
of what and how information will be used (Gill et al., 2008). To ensure all the above
information was provided to all participants, a script was at hand as to not mislead or
misinform participants (See appendix B for the interview script). This was an important
step as it assures the participant confidentiality and anonymity. It furthermore provides
the respondents with a notion of what to expect which can increase the probability of
honest answers (Gill et al., 2008). Furthermore, to ensure confidentiality and follow an
ethical procedure, participants were given consent forms to read, sign and handover. A
copy was also handed to them in case they had any doubts or concerns later on in the
process. This ensured that their personal information will remain confidential and that
they consent to using their comments and opinions within the research.
Once the process of informing and consent was established, interviewers were
also asked beforehand for their permission to record the interview. Once permission
was granted, the interviews began and were recorded. The total duration of the
interviews lasted between 20 to 30 minutes, which gave enough time to delve deep into
participants' perceptions. One challenge that perhaps could limit the research was the
language barrier. As the interviews were undertaken mostly in English, a second-
language to most participants, some participants could not fully express themselves.

25
Nevertheless, the questions were carefully and clearly explained and if further
clarification was needed the interviewer was able to translate.
Apart from the language barrier there were also certain techniques that proved
to be helpful in providing honest and valid answers. One method was the use of verbal
probing, such as verbal agreement, encouraging clarification of a raised comment, or
asking for further elaboration (Barriball & While, 1994; Kallio et al., 2016). These
tactics could also reduce the risk of social desirability bias as well as providing an
opportunity to explore a certain topic (Barriball & While, 1994). Another method was
using non-verbal probing, such as the use of silence so that the participant had time to
think, formulate their answers and elaborate (Kallio et al., 2016; Gill et al. 2008).
Once the interviews were concluded, the last step was the transcription of the
data. To ensure maximum validity within this step, the transcripts were carefully and
accurately written. This is important because if the transcripts themselves do not
accurately represent what was said, then the data analysis cannot be properly
conducted. Thus after the interviews were properly transcribed, the data was then used
to find the common themes described within each participant's responses, which will
be used for the data analysis procedure and findings that follow.

3.4 Data Analysis

As described earlier, the semi-structured interviews were recorded and carefully

transcribed. There were 14 transcriptions in total. The following steps were to analyse
the data in order to find the common factors that impede ethical consumers’ from
purchasing sustainable fashion clothing. The analysis was done through an inductive
approach using grounded theory methods. The grounded theory analysis process
generally “involves the concept of labelling, categorizing, identifying core categories,
finding relations among categories and generating a theory from such relationship”
(Cho & Lee, 2014, p. 8). These steps within a grounded theory method are each derived
through coding, whereby coding is the process of categorising and grouping data into
categories (Cho & Lee, 2014). Additionally, there are three coding steps within
grounded theory: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding (Creswell, 2013).
Accordingly, the codes are then verified through different processes and are later on
used to formulate and describe a theory based on the findings. This research has then
taken this analytic procedure of a grounded theory method, and has described the theory
that explains why there is the attitude-behavior gap within sustainable fashion
consumption. This theory will help establish marketing tactics that could perhaps
bridge the gap. The following paragraphs explain each step taken in more detail.
Open coding is the initial step within a grounded theory analysis approach. In
this step the researcher builds a detailed description of what they initially find when
carefully reading the data as well as interpreting based on their own views and previous
knowledge on the subject (Creswell, 2013). They furthermore categorize the
information, and then label them with a short name that summarizes the data obtained
(Cho & Lee, 2014). This part focuses on the major categories found within the data,
and depends on the researcher carefully reading the transcripts several times,
immersing themselves in the details (Creswell, 2013). Writing notes and memos also
aids in this process. Accordingly, through careful and articulated readings and
interpretation of the interview transcripts, this studies analysis has then identified the
first set of codes by combining and comparing the common themes found.

26
 The next stage within the analyses process involves axial coding. Within the
process of axial coding, the researcher correlates and explores the relationship among
the categories found in the initial stage (Cho & Lee, 2014). To further elaborate, the
investigator relates the main categories to their subcategories, finding the similarities
between the themes and forms a visual model that identifies the central phenomenon
(Creswell, 2013). Hereby, this model provides the most saturated or frequently
discussed factors, including what caused the phenomena (Creswell, 2013). This study
then employed this method and identified a conceptual model that identifies the
generalized and common factors that impede purchasing sustainable fashion. This was
done by linking and finding the relationships within the previously found themes.
The final stage was selective coding, whereby the researcher uses the model to
assemble a story that explains the correlation between the different themes within the
model (Creswell, 2013). This is the part where the theory is articulated, and can be in
the form of a visual picture or a descriptive statement (Creswell, 2013). This study has
used the form of description to further express the different influential factors that
disrupt sustainable fashion consumption found within this study. These will further aid
in finding the relevant marketing tactics to bridge the gap. After the three stages have
been conducted however, it is important to ensure credibility within this process.
One method this study employed to ensure credibility was by correlating it back
to a few participants that were interested in the findings. This method of member
checking, seeks to gain the participants opinions and credibility of the interpretations
(Creswell, 2013). Furthermore, Lincoln & Guba (1985) find this technique for gaining
credibility to be a critical one. Thus the analyses and themes found were shared with
participants. By doing so the study enhances credibility within the findings as it allows
the integration of the participants' perception and their approval (Thomas, 2006). It is
also important to note that during the process of analysis, this study did not take into
consideration the previously mentioned theories. They were however considered after
the analysis was conducted. This is important as grounded theory relies mainly on the
primary findings to deduce a theory. Moreover, using categories previously found
within the literature could limit the analysis to those codes rather than reflecting the
actual participants conceptions (Cerswell, 20013).
Overall, the open coding, axial coding and selective coding analysis procedure
allowed the study to find the factors that cause the attitude-behaviour gap within
sustainable fashion consumption. These findings further contributed to the previous
studies within this field. Hence the following step will describe the findings within this
research, which will be further elaborated in the following chapter.

27
4. Findings

This section describes the findings of this study. The first part examines the
findings that prove that there is an attitude-behavior gap within sustainable fashion
consumption. The following section presents the common factors found within this
study that impede sustainable fashion purchasing. Those factors include price, lack of
presence, information, fashionability, the self-over-sustainability, and powerlessness.
These factors provide an explanation for the reasons behind the gap within sustainable
fashion consumption, which can further on aid in finding the relevant marketing tactics
to bridge the gap.

4.1 The Attitude-Behaviour Gap in Sustainable Fashion Consumption

In order for the study to examine the reasons behind the attitude-behavior gap
within sustainable fashion consumption it is necessary to first investigate whether this
gap exists. This was achieved by questioning participants on their ethical concerns,
their purchasing response to these concerns and their actual purchasing clothing
behavior. With regards to their environmental concerns participants were asked what
their major concerns are in today’s society. Their mutual responses all agreed that the
ways in which society is consuming, the lack of resources and climate change are major
concerns. With response to these concerns some felt that they themselves are
responsible for their purchasing behavior. They do so by reducing their consumption,
recycling, choosing environmentally friendlier alternatives and sometimes by
boycotting companies that have acted unethically.

P1: “I mean, if we don't take care now, then there's no going back. There's
not going to be any resources for us, let alone animals, let alone the
plants, let alone just Mother Nature in general.”

P3:“I reduce the amount I consume because I think that's the most
important. I don't think that we need to buy so many things. I think I can
repair a lot of my things and reuse a lot of my things.”

Apart from the participants ethical stance and change in behaviour, when it
came down to their actual clothing purchasing behaviour, it seems the majority of
participants do not tend to purchase sustainable clothing. This was shown by the fact
that most participants favor fast fashion brands such as H&M, Zara, Bershka, Uniqlo
or Esprit. These participants' habits and brand loyalty was also found to play an
important role when purchasing clothes, whereby they go to certain shops, such as
H&M, because they are accustomed to going there and they trust that they will find an
item they like and that suits them. Furthermore, the common criterias they look for
when purchasing clothing are price, convenience, and whether they can find their style
preferences or designs. Surprisingly however, the majority of participants claim to be
purchasing less clothing and only when necessary. The reason for doing so was, as
mentioned earlier, they feel responsible for their purchasing behaviour. Since they aim
to purchase less, they also claim to try and find durable or organic materials. Yet the
claim for purchasing less was also used to justify buying from their preferred brands,
which they even claim might not be sustainable.

28
 P9:“I think I just go to H&M and Zara very often because they are near
me...They are affordable for me”

P5:“It's a taste thing, you know, if you have a brand which has things you
prefer, then you buy there”

Hence the findings show that the participants have changed their behaviour by
limiting their consumption’s environmental impacts. Yet there seems to be no major
changes in behaviour with regards to purchasing sustainable clothing items, apart from
perhaps not over purchasing clothing. This further proves that there exists a gap
between their ethical concerns and their actual purchasing behavior, specifically in
relation to sustainable fashion purchasing. The next section examines what causes this
disparity, by looking at common barriers and attitudes found that prevent purchasing
sustainable fashion.

4.2 The Impeding Factors and Attitudes

With regards to sustainable fashion, all the participants understood the meaning
behind sustainable fashion. Yet there were common barriers and attitudes found that
hinder the purchase of sustainable clothing. These common factors and attitudes
include price, lack of presence, information, fashionability, the self-over-sustainability
and powerlessness. The following sections will go more in depth into each of these
findings.

4.2.1 Price

The most frequent emerging theme was the concept that sustainable fashion is
not affordable. On one side, these conceptions were said to be due to the fact that most
sustainable alternatives are higher priced, so they correlate that with all sustainable
items. On the other side, the relatively small number of participants that have actually
sought out sustainable clothing items, found them to be too expensive and not worth
purchasing.

P7:“I think all this stuff like Bio things in the supermarket, the organic
things, are more expensive. And that's why I think maybe other things
which are sustainable are more expensive. That's my connection.”

P4:“I went to the store that was sustainable, and I went in there and the
T-shirt was 35 euros, it was like a plain white t-shirt. A plain white t-shirt
but like 35 euros and a long sleeve t-shirt like 50. I was just like we gotta
get out of here, you know?”

The findings also showed that the older aged participants with higher income would
rather purchase items that are durable, and in a sense sustainable, regardless of the price.
The younger generation with lower income, however, were reluctant to purchase such
items due to the high prices.

29
 P10: “Let's say, sometimes it's really better, when you buy something that
costs a bit more, but you wear it maybe for three years or so.”

P3: “Even though I know that in the long run, it's better for me to buy the
sustainable stuff, I'm gonna go buy the cheaper stuff.”

4.2.2 Lack of Presence

The lack of presence within the market was another major barrier, whereby the
lack of availability made the act of purchasing sustainable clothing in-convenient, time
constraining and effortful, which further prevented the purchase. Many participants,
apart from P11 and P9, claim that they never find sustainable brands or are even not
aware of sustainable brands in Germany. This was especially said to be due to the lack
of presence and availability in the places in which they usually go shopping.

P4:“Having it in more stores, be more accessible, so people don't have to

go to a specific store to get a specific thing that they can get more than
one type of clothing item in that way.”

P13:“First, you don't find the places, then there's not much awareness of
it and three it's more like easier to go to one place where you have all the
shops where you can buy things.”

Due to the lack of presence or availability, many participants also find that it becomes
difficult and inconvenient to actually purchase such brands. Further claiming that it
takes time and effort to actually have to do the research and find sustainable brands,
whereby most participants would rather not go through all the hassle and instead go to
their preferred and easily accessible shops.

P6: “Why should I go through all the trouble and get these sustainable
clothing?”

P10:“The problem is if you want to buy, people just go to the market and
the market is full of non-sustainable products. Sustainable products are
in the shops less likely to be found. And it's more convenient for people
just to buy what they see in the shops, you know, instead of taking a long
way, going to a shop that's far away ”

Interestingly, however, the findings show that the majority of the participants above 30,
prefer to purchase their clothing in store rather than online. Which also explains why
the presence in the market space is quite relevant. Yet the younger generations that do
purchase online, still find some issues with regards to the presence and awareness of
sustainable brands, which relates to the preceding factor of information and trust.

P8: “Yeah, I think what I would need personally is really that it's a bit
more easy to get because I'm absolutely not an online shopper, so I really
like to go to the stores and put my hands on the stuff to feel it, to see it and
to try it.”

30
 P11: “If you look for it, it is easy, but most of the stuff you find online”

4.2.3 Information

With regards to information, the participants have two different perspectives.

On the one hand, some participants that hope to find sustainable products claim that
there might be an overload of information, which makes the purpose of purchasing
clothes more difficult. This is especially relevant to the online stores.

P12: “I think online, the problem is there is just too much information, I
would say an overload of information, there are so many links that I am
opening in a new tab and I want to look at them later, that those
information saying hey you can save some plastic here or you can buy this
nice pullover that is sustainable here, those just get lost in all this
information.”

On the other hand, the majority of participants wish to attain more information on
sustainable brands, specifically how they are produced and help the environment.
Accordingly, the participants have further stated that there are certain labels that signal
how environmentally friendly a brand is, yet these labels are limited. Due to this, the
participants requested that such information should be more present, such as in the news
or on advertisements. They further state that providing such awareness and information
can perhaps alter their purchasing decisions.

P9:“I think maybe you should like show them more of the pros of it like
you should really show how the people that make the clothes, get better
money and like how the water is saved and how the chemicals are not
getting into the water”

P5:“This is of course very very important to know how it was produced

and if the brand informs or advertises how things are done and how
sustainable they are, would definitely be a thing where I would prefer to
buy from them.”

However, with regards to trusting such information, surprisingly the majority trust that
German system provides accurate information. Nevertheless, they state that gaining
more transparency on the conduct of all companies should be available.

P3:“But the process by which the items are produced, need to be clarified,
and need to be as well made much more transparent to the people.”

Overall the lack of information was found to be more prevalent within this study, and
only a few contended about the overload of information. Moreover, ensuring
transparency is also relevant in this case, as most participants hope to attain more
factual information of where and how their clothes are made.

31
4.2.4 Fashionability

As mentioned earlier, most participants find fashionability and style to be a

defining purchasing criteria. Yet the majority of participants held a negative attitude
towards the fashionability of sustainable clothing. Some claimed that they imagine
them to be very basic, with neutral colors and not so trendy. Yet all participants
illustrated that they presume sustainable clothing would be more durable and better
quality. There is also a stigma in which people that purchase sustainable fashion brands
have a special look, termed “Oeko'' in Germany.

P12: “The idea that I have for sustainable fashion would be that they have
the basic clothing, like not the fashion items like skirts for summer and
scarves for winter, but the basic clothing from a more resistible material
made to last longer”

P7: “I had the image in my mind over a model wearing environmental

clothes. In German, we have the Oeko lot, we call them...they wear more
cotton clothes and then the very typical kind of sandals they wear.”

Yet the other younger participants who have actually seen sustainable clothing
brands have found that they actually are modern and fashionable. They further insinuate
that many people have a wrong perception towards sustainable fashion, thinking that
they are typically cotton and plain.

P9: “Well, I think nowadays, sustainable fashion is like, very much, I

would say, the normal fashion. So I don't think there is that much of a
difference”

Hence there seems to be a negative association between sustainable fashion and

style, specifically with those who have no previous knowledge on sustainable brands.
Therefore, this could also be partly due to the lack of presence and awareness of
sustainable fashion.

4.2.5 The Self-Over-Sustainability

The last aspect is the self-over-sustainability which also relates to the concept
of style. However, this concept was a recurring theme, whereby the participants felt
that they never correlated sustainability to their clothing. To further elaborate, when it
comes to purchasing clothing the majority found that the style, fit, quality and material
are more important criterias than whether the item was made sustainably.

P2: “I never thought about it. It's just an instinct you go with, that you do
think of the environment, you do think of the product, but each one has his
own way of choosing their clothes.”

P1:“I don't process that before I go shopping, or if I see something on the

street walking, the thing that's on my mind is, will it look good on me?

32
 Will it fit me? Not, is it made this way? Do they not harm anything? So in
my mind, I don't think of that.”

P13:“Well because I was not aware of sustainable fashion, and when I

buy things, I only think this would look nice here, this would be nice there,
this suits me, this looks good on me, not that it is sustainable.”

This issue seemed to be a major contradiction towards their ethical stance and
is specifically seen with the female participants. Thus even though these participants
considered themselves to be environmentally conscious and responsible consumers,
when it came down to clothing their ethical stance was neglected.

4.2.6 Powerlessness

A few participants have also illustrated that sometimes making a difference is

not in their hands, and that perhaps the responsibility should not always fall on them.
Thus even when they have changed certain behaviours with regards to the environment,
they also feel that the responsibility shouldn’t be one sided. They further claim that
politicians and companies should also incorporate social and environmental
responsibilities, that way having an impact does not only fall on the consumer.

P14: “If I'm not given reasonable options by companies that already don't
care, there's only so much I can do as a consumer to look for alternatives”

P1: “But as a consumer, I do think more of the quality of clothes than I

do, of how it's made because, like I said before, I don't feel like I have a
big influence on that.”

33
5. Conclusions, Limitations, and Recommendations

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the factors that cause the
attitude-behaviour gap within sustainable fashion purchasing and consequently find the
relative tactics that can neutralize the gap. This chapter aims to further discuss the
findings and correlate them to the previous studies mentioned in the literature review.
The following section then moves on to describe what tactics could be used to bridge
the attitude-behaviour gap, using the SHIFT theoretical framework (White et al., 2019).
By doing so, this research contributes to the existing literature. Nevertheless, there were
some limitations that prevailed, thus different methods to understand the attitude-
behavior gap in future studies are recommended.

5.1 Discussion

The findings of this research share commonalities with the other studies that
have seeked to understand the attitude-behavior gap in sustainable fashion
consumption. With regards to the first finding, price, mostly all participants claimed
that price is one of the major barriers to purchasing sustainable fashion. Yet the study
found that the participants that gain higher income, specifically those from the older
generation, have no problem with paying more for better quality. The aspect of price
being a factor is commonly found in previous studies as well (Johnstone & Tan, 2015;
Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018) and Papaoikonomou et al. (2011) further claimed price
to be a major decisive factor.
With regards to the lack of presence, it seems many of the participants are
unaware of sustainable brands within their city, and if they are aware they find it
difficult and inconvenient to find. Many studies have also found availability to be a
common factor that impeded ethical purchasing (Lundblad & Davies, 2015; Jacobs et
al., 2018). According to Jacobs et al. (2018) online shopping could perhaps make
availability more present, yet the findings show that most participants prefer in-store
shopping. Furthermore, when it came to online shopping, some of the participants
found the process to be overwhelmed with unnecessary information that distracts them
from the online experience. The fact that most sustainable fashion brands seem to not
be easily accessible, the participants preferred to take the easy way and stick to their
old habits of purchasing. This also relates back to Papaoikonomou et al.’s (2011)
concept of lack of availability and opting for the easy choice.
Nevertheless, the lack of presence has also contributed to the lack of awareness
on sustainable fashion brands. As such many participants wished to gain access to
information when it comes to how and where their clothes are made. Yet others also
claimed to want less information, and instead focus more on the attributes of the
clothing themselves. This aspect of too much information or lack thereof has also been
prevalent in other studies (Lundblad & Davies, 2015; Papaoikonomou et al., 2011).
Surprisingly however, the German consumers trust that their government provides them
with trustworthy and transparent information, especially with the labels they place on
environmentally friendly products.
Apart from the information, the stigma around the fashionability of sustainable
clothing was found, whereby the sustainable fashion was seen as basic and was also
correlated to the “Oeko” people, the ones who care too much for the environment.
Jacobs et al. (2018) have also expressed this concept, yet in their study most participants

34
expected sustainable clothing to have undurable attributes. This study however, found
that durability was the one positive attitude towards sustainable clothing, yet the
negative preconceptions of its style disrupted their purchase. This also relates to
Papaoikonomou et al.’s (2011) concept of inefficient ethical alternatives as well as Bray
et al.’s concept that style and design outweigh sustainability. Moreover, the pre-
conceptualized notion that sustainable clothing is unstylish could also be due to the lack
of presence.
Yet when it came to social obligations, many of the male and some of the female
participants within this study purchase more out of necessity rather than wanting new
outfits, which comes as a surprise. Nevertheless, the concept of self-over-sustainability
was found to be more important. In this case, the self, or as Jacobs et al. (2018) terms
it, the self-benefits, of wanting an outfit that is comfortable, affordable, fashionable
would always outweigh whether it was sustainable. This is especially relevant within
clothing purchasing, as most participants had no issue in purchasing the sustainable
alternatives when it came to other items such as food or household items.
Lastly, the concept of powerlessness was also a common factor. Wiederhold &
Martinez (2018) termed this as inertia, the amount of energy the consumer is willing to
give to actually make a difference. Some of the participants in this study felt that the
responsibility to make a difference should not fall completely upon the consumer but
also on the people in power and companies. This was also caused by the fact that some
participants felt that making such big differences can sometimes not make a great
impact. This also relates to Papaoikonomou et al.’s (2011) concept that change takes
time, perhaps those participants were still in the process of changing their habits and
needed to further understand why these changes can help the environment.
In conclusion, these findings prove to be insightful in understanding the
attitude-behavior gap within sustainable fashion consumption. The theory that emerges
in this case is that the high prices, lack of presence and information, untrendyness
assumptions, self needs over sustainability and the feeling of powerlessness all
contribute to causing the gap within sustainable fashion consumption. Even though the
findings are commonly shared with previous studies, this study contributes by
providing new perspectives such as male perspectives and different age groups. This
study however aims to go one step further, by correlating these findings with relevant
marketing tactics that can bridge the gap, which will be discussed in the following
section.

5.2 Bridging the Gap

As mentioned earlier, this research aims to find the relevant marketing tactics
in relation to White et al.’s (2019) SHIFT framework. The ways in which to use this
framework was to outline the barriers and find which of the mentioned strategies are
best suited to influence behaviour. Hence, in relation to the first barrier, price, one
strategy within the SHIFT framework is to add certain incentives such as discounts and
rewards, this can also be paired with providing feedback. In this case the consumer will
gain incentives to repeat the purchase and can provide feedback to how their
contribution has impacted the environment (White et al., 2019). Using loss-framing
messages to persuade purchasing sustainable clothing items has also been shown to
influence behaviour (White et al., 2019). Here White et al.(2019) state that focusing on
what the consumer will lose rather than what they will gain is more effective at

35
changing behavior, thus focusing on how much money they will lose in the long run
could be effective. The marketer can then focus on the durability of the clothing item,
and depict how purchasing the cheaper item could be more expensive compared to
purchasing the sustainable alternative.
With regards to the lack of presence, it is important to ensure that the product is
not only available but easy to purchase. White et al. (2019) claim that making the
process easier and simpler will persuade consumers to break their old habits. In this
case there are two options, firstly, with regards to online-shopping, perhaps making the
process user-friendly and focusing less on information is more effective. With in-store
experiences it would be more ideal to have sustainable brands within the main shopping
areas, as this will make the presence more knowledgeable and can also be more
accessible.
Having shops in main shopping centres can also change the negative attitude
towards the fashionability and style of sustainable clothing. By doing so the brand
becomes more socially accepted, focusing more on reconstructing social norms.
Furthermore, making such behaviours public where others can observe and evaluate
their actions can increase social desirability (White et al, 2019). Another way to isolate
the stigma that sustainable clothing is unfashionable is by also using descriptive norms,
whereby marketers can portray what other people are doing (White et al., 2019), and in
this case could even be celebrity endorsements.
As for information, since there tends to be a two sided discourse on either
having too much or too little information, it is important to find the right method of
providing information that falls in between those two lines. White et al. (2019) suggests
highlighting why the behavior is sustainable could already provide the required
information. However, they further claim that providing information should also be
combined with other tactics in order to be more effective. Hence, in this case also using
the loss-framing messaging technique mentioned earlier can also be useful when
combined with information. Yet in order to have a balance between little information
and too much information, it is important to also focus information towards self-
benefits (White et al., 2019).
This strategy of depicting information with self-benefits can also help remove
the unequal power dynamic between choosing self-over-sustainability. In this regard,
appealing to what a consumer will gain from a certain purchase can counteract the
barrier. This can be done by focusing more on the aesthetics of the clothing, or it's
health benefits. Within the study for example, many participants claimed to purchase
natural materials because it allowed their skin to breath or because they get reactions
to synthetic materials. Thus focusing on how natural materials are better for your skin,
for example, can persuade consumers to purchase for their self benefit rather than its
sustainable attributes.
The strategy of focusing on the self benefits can also decrease the feeling of
powerlessness. White et al. (2019) also find that focusing on self-efficacy can make
consumers more confident that their actions make a difference. Self-efficacy can be
achieved by communicating the positive effects a consumer's actions can have on the
environment. They furthermore stress that since consumers are more present focused,
the positive consequences of their actions can be communicated in terms of the
immediate outcomes within a specific region or city. For instance, to make the
outcomes of consumers actions more tangible, marketers can specify how purchasing
sustainable fashion items within a certain region can reduce environmental impacts

36
within Hamburg. This also plays on the emotion of pride, by increasing a consumer's
feeling of pride, they will be more likely to act sustainably in the future purchases
(Antonetti & Maklan, 2014).
The above mentioned strategies are suggestions that could perhaps diminish the
attitude-behavior gap within sustainable fashion consumption. Hence, usings incentives
and feedback, framing messages in terms of loss, providing information on impact of
behaviors, making in-store experiences available and online experiences easier, using
descriptive norms, showing present outcomes and focusing on self benefits and self-
efficacy are all tactics that can influence sustainable fashion purchasing. These tactics
may help contribute to the previous studies and will also be beneficial for marketers
within this field as well as policy makers.

5.3. Limitations & Recommendations

Overall previous studies have sought to understand the attitude-behaviour gap

within ethical purchasing. Nevertheless, a scant amount of research focuses on the gap
within sustainable fashion consumption, and very little have seeked to find relevant
marketing strategies to bridge the gap. Hence this study has not only contributed to
providing a better understanding of why this gap exists within sustainable fashion
consumption but has also described relevant marketing strategies that can perhaps
neutralize the gap. These strategies can then be beneficial for both policymakers and
social marketers, specifically in the sustainable clothing industry. Despite the
contributions there are a few limitations that prevailed within this study.
One limitation is that the study focuses only on German consumers. Hence the
marketing strategies found could perhaps not be as effective in other countries with
different cultures and attitudes. Further research can then be conducted by cross
examining different cultures, that way the gap in sustainable fashion can be understood
in a general manner. Apart from the setting this study also aimed to gain male
perspectives, as some previous studies within this field have neglected this gender.
Including males has proved to be insightful, as the men provided a different aspect to
sustainable purchasing, yet this study was unable to attain a large sample size within
this category. It would be interesting then for future research on sustainable fashion
purchasing to specifically look into male participants, especially since fashion
purchasing differs in gender (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). Lastly, another limitation
within this research is that a qualitative method was used, meaning that the results
within this research are based on perceptions and attitudes. Further research can perhaps
use a quantitative approach to find which of the marketing strategies described are most
effective or least effective in persuading sustainable fashion consumption.
Nevertheless, this study has still contributed relevant marketing tactics which is
important for not only marketers but also for the future of this planet, as change can
occur through an individual's personal purchases (Todd, 2004). It is up to policymakers
and social marketers to then trigger this change in behaviour. This study has thus
provided the means to trigger such change. After all, the climate crisis has an effect on
all beings, whereby consuming and producing in a sustainable manner can bring about
a decline in this crisis and provide a better future for the planet.

37
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Appendix A

Interview Guided Questions and Layout

General Questions on past behaviors

1. Can you recall the last clothing item you bought and from where?
2. What was the reason for purchasing this item?
3. On average could you tell me how many clothing items you shop for each
month? Even the smallest items.
4. What brands do you prefer buying your clothes from?
5. Why do you purchase from these brands?
6. Could you describe what important criteria you seek for when shopping for
clothing?
7. When looking for these attributes, how do you go about finding this
information?

Ethical Stances

8. What would you say are your major concerns in today's society?
9. Why do you think those concerns are important?
10. As a consumer, do you feel you carry any responsibilities towards your
purchasing behavior?
11. Have you changed any aspects of your consumer behaviour with regards to
environmental impacts?
12. Have you ever boycotted a brand for any reason?

Sustainable Fashion

13. How would you describe sustainable fashion?

(if the interviewer doesn’t know the definition is as follows: sustainable

fashion uses environmentally friendly and biodegradable materials and
processes, reduces water consumption and harmful substances in their
production, and neutralizes the fast fashion industry and its impacts.)

14. What image comes to mind when talking about sustainable fashion?
15. Have you ever bought second-hand or recycled clothing? why/why not?
16. Would you know where to find sustainable brands in your city?
17. Could you name any clothing brands that are eco-friendly or sustainable?
18. In your opinion, do you think you already purchase sustainable fashion? Why?
Or Why not?
19. If yes, what attributes do you look for when buying sustainable fashion
clothing?
20. What are the reasons you could think of that stop other people from
consuming sustainable fashion?

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 21. What attributes would you change in order for you to purchase more of
sustainable fashion?
22. What do you think would encourage other people to buy sustainable fashion
clothing?
23. Before we conclude, are there any questions or comments you would like to
add?
24. To conclude I would like to ask for your: Age, Gender, Occupation, and
Highest level of your Education

(Interview transcripts available at requests)

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Appendix B

Interview Introduction Script

First of all, I would like to thank you again for willing to participate in my
Masters’ thesis research. As I have briefly mentioned, I am a master student from
Geneva Business School and I am required to conduct research for my Digital
Marketing course. My study seeks to identify consumer attitudes and behaviour
regarding sustainable clothing. Yet I am interested in people who do as well as do not
purchase sustainable fashion.
This interview will last around 20 to 30 minutes in which I will just be asking
you questions on your shopping behavior, ethical concerns and attitudes. If it is ok with
you, I will be recording the interviews. The reason for this is that I need to gather all
the details of our conversation but at the same time I would like to have an attentive
conversation with you. I assure you that all your comments will remain confidential. I
will only be compiling a report which will contain your comments without referring to
individuals. Before we commence, do you have any questions? And if at any point you
do feel the need to ask questions, please feel free to do so. I will be more than happy to
answer your question.
One last thing before I start, could you please take a few moments to read and
sign this consent form? It ensures that your information will remain confidential and
that you allow me to use your comments for my research. Also, if you ever feel the need
to withdraw from this research, you can do so anytime.

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