Sustainability through online renting

clothing: Circular fashion fueled by

instagram micro-celebrities
Journal of Cleaner Production (2021)
Archana Shrivastava, Geetika Jain, Sachin S. Kamble , Amine Belhadi
Source Credibility Theory
The Source Credibility theory states that people are more likely to be
persuaded when the source presents itself as credible.
The literature identifies that the extent of influence the influencer’s
messages have on the users is dependent on factors including;
1. Trust,
2. Attractivenes and,
3. Competence/Expertise.
ASSUMPTIONS
• Trustworthiness signifies honesty and believability ((Erdogan et al., 2001; Korotina
and Jargalsaikhan, 2016). It represents reliability, dependability, and sincerity (Ahmed
et al., 2014). Trustworthiness is one of the most significant factors associated with a
celebrity. Low trust levels by a target group ofconsumers on a celebrity will result in
less influence of that celebrity on the user groups (Moynihan, 2004)
• Expertise refers to how much experienced, knowledgeable, qualified, or skilled a
person is (Bergkvist et al., 2016). The expertise and trustworthiness of an influencer
have a considerable impact on the effectiveness of an advertisement (Gupta et al.,
2015)
• The attractiveness refers to what extent the audience likes the message source. The
source attractiveness is related to the similarity, familiarity, and likeability of an
endorser
Purpose of Research
• Celebrity endorsement is a highly credible source of information for
Instagram followers. Therefore, in this study, we have used the Source
Credibility theory to investigate the influence of micro-celebrities on
Instagram followers in the context of online renting of clothes).
• Based on their reach, the influencers can be classified as celebrities,
executives, and every day. Celebrities have the most substantial
influence and are a brand themselves. Their range is broad, with
approximately one million-plus followers. They are mainly actors,
sportspersons, music stars, and social media masters.
Hypothesis
• H1. Attitude positively influences the behavioral intention to adopt OSCRP
• H2. Performance Expectancy is positively related to behavioral intention to adopt OSCRP.
• H3. Effort Expectancy is positively related to behavioral intention to adopt OSCRP.
• H4. Social Influence is positively related to the behavioral intention of OSCRP adoption
• H5. Facilitating conditions are positively related to the actual use of OSCRP.
• H6. Behavioral intention is positively related to actual usage.
• H7. The trustworthiness of Instagram micro-celebrities positively influences the behavioral
intention to adopt OSCRP.
• H8. The expertise of Instagram micro-celebrities positively influences the behavioral intention
to adopt OSCRP.
• H9. The attractiveness of Instagram micro-celebrity influences the behavioral intention to
adopt OSCRP.
Conceptual Model
Research Methodology
• The respondents for the study were drawn from India. They included women
customers in the age group of 18e40 years as the online renting clothing is an
emerging market that is mainly dominated by women designer ethnic wear
(Reportbuyer, 2019)
• These scholars approached the respondents, and the questionnaire was
administered by them on the respondents satisfying the following pre-qualifying
criteria:
• iThe respondent must have performed an online apparel purchase in the last
three months. ii. The respondents were aware of the online renting platforms for
used clothing. iii. The respondents were active users of Instagram and followed
micro-celebrities. iv. The respondents were planning to buy or have purchased
second-hand clothing on a rent basis
Descriptive
Statistics
Model Fit
Indices
Summary of Results
Theoretical implications
• Prior studies on sustainable fashion have focused on reuse and recycling of apparels (Niinimaki, 2017
€ ).
• The literature lacked adequate research studies to understand the factors that influence consumer
behavior towards circular fashion.
• This study has supplemented the existing literature in several ways.
• It investigates the influence of the micro-celebrities on the promotion of online renting of fashion
clothing and establishes the linkage between the role of social media platforms and circular fashion.
• The study also links the constructs of the UTAUT model with SCT in the form of a novel comprehensive
adoption model that may be used in future studies to investigate the adoption of new technologies
that are influenced by the social media celebrities.
• The results emphasize that the trustworthiness and attractiveness of micro-celebrity influence reuse
and collaborative consumption.
• The study offers a valuable theoretical base to understand the modalities of consumer behavior in the
adoption of fashion sustainability through circular fashion.
Social implications
• Reducing waste through circular fashion initiatives helps to achieve fashion
sustainability goals.
• The study of our finding reveals that the consumers are highly oriented towards
using the OSCRP soon and believe that the online renting of second-hand clothes
is an effective way to promote circular fashion.
• It is therefore implied that the clothing manufacturers and retailers should
consider launching OSCRP’s to overcome the shrinking margins on the new apparel
and remain competitive to face the challenges that will be posted by the second-
hand clothing industry.
• The behavioral intention to adopt the OSCRP indicates that the consumers are
becoming more environmentally conscious and expect the apparel manufacturers
and retailers to remain socially relevant
Managerial implications
• First, the proposed model for the study is developed on the existing
literature in the field of technology adoption and marketing
communication that is further adapted to the OSCRP fueled by the
influence of social media celebrities (specifically, Instagram).
• Second, our findings reveal the significant drivers to behavioral
intention to adopt OSCRP for making purchases. For instance, the
attitude of the consumers (H1), performance expectancy (H2), effort
expectancy (H3), and social influence (H4) were found to influence
the behavior intention to adapt the OSCRP
• Third, the facilitating conditions were found to be having an insignificant
effect on the actual usage behavior (H5). The interactions with selected
respondents revealed that the primary reasons being less exposure to
buying secondhand goods, the social barrier to ask purchase support, or
discuss the buying experience with friends and colleagues.
• Fourth the study investigated the extent to which the Instagram micro-
celebrity influences the consumer’s behavioral intention to use OSCRP,
which is linked to the promotion of circular economy and sustainability
in the fashion industry. Instagram microcelebrity’s trustworthiness and
attractiveness were found to influence the consumer’s mindset to adopt
the OSCRP (H6 and H8