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Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between fashion innovativeness opinion leadership and utilitarian hedonic shopping motivations. This study seeks to develop a better understanding of fashion leadership and determine the primary shopping motivations associated with fashion leadership.Design methodology approach - A survey was completed by a total of 150 students at a large university in the southeastern USA. Multiple regression analyses, MANCOVA, and ANCOVA were employed to test the research hypotheses.Findings - The results indicated that fashion innovativeness was significantly related to various hedonic shopping motivations; fashion innovativeness was positively associated with adventure and idea shopping motivations, whereas it was negatively associated with value shopping motivation. Fashion opinion leadership was positively associated with utilitarian shopping motivation.Practical implications - The results of the study help to suggest various marketing and retailing strategies to stimulate fashion innovative behaviors through adventurous, stimulating, and up-to-date new fashions. They also suggest that fashion opinion leadership could be activated by focusing proper shopping environments or advertising on information features for cognitive stimulation.Originality value - The study investigated a direct relationship between fashion leadership and shopping motivations for the first time. The findings of the study strengthen academic research on fashion leadership by identifying pre-positioned shopping motivations that trigger fashion leadership, as well as practical applications.

Purpose - Public pressure has been recognized as one of the most forceful factors underlying change in sweat shop conditions in the industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of public pressure perceived by top managers of US clothing and footwear firms and to examine effects of individual and organizational factors that may differentiate the level of perception.Design methodology approach - Data were obtained through a mail survey, with a total of 96 cases included in the analyses.Findings - Results of a series of t-tests revealed statistically significant influence of firm size, tenure, and firm ownership type on perceived public pressure for fair labor practices, while gender, age, education, business type, and percentage of foreign-sourced merchandise were not found to be statistically significantly related to perceptions of public pressure.Research limitations implications - The findings warn that the current public pressure is toward certain types of firms and their managements. Small and private firms that form the majority of the clothing and footwear sector need to be exposed to the pressure. Data consisted of a portion from a larger scale survey and may not represent a random sample. Further investigations could identify top-management's strategic actions and social performance of the firm as a response to such pressure.Originality value - Managerial perception of social pressure is likely to initiate social actions undertaken by the firms. The findings of the study produced valuable further discussions on the current states and directions of managerial reactions to the sweat shop issues.

This project investigates salient stakeholder forces of socially responsible supply chain orientation (SRSCO) in the apparel and footwear sector focusing on fair labor management issues. SRSCO was conceptualized as a composite of internal organizational direction and external partnership for a creation and continuation of fair labor conditions throughout the supply chain. Primary stakeholders identified were consumers, regulation, industry, and media. A total of 209 mail survey responses from sourcing managers of U.S. apparel and footwear companies were analyzed. Two dimensions of SRSCO were confirmed: internal direction and external partnership. Consumer and industry peer pressures were found significantly related to internal direction, while industry peers and media were significantly related to the external partnership. Regulation was not significantly related to either internal direction or external partnerships. Lack of regulation forces to govern labor issues and roles of consumers, industry peers, and media in promoting fair labor management are discussed in this article.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of technology adoption of Indian apparel manufacturing firms and the organizational factors that affect the level of technology adoption.Design methodology approach - Fourteen technologies applicable to apparel manufacturing were examined. A survey with an online questionnaire to apparel manufacturers in India was conducted to collect the data.Findings - The most frequently adopted technology was the internet. The least frequently adopted technologies found in this study were robot-related. The level of a firm's technology adoption was found to be significantly related to firm size positively and its export orientation negatively. It was also moderately related to competitive advantage. The effects of top management commitment, cost of capital, and technical skills were not significant.Research limitations implications - Generalizability of the results is cautioned because the data were from the firms in one industrial town. The results indicate that technology adoption is related to the recent, intensified trade competition. The relationships among export orientation, price competition, and technology adoption need to be studied further.Originality value - Given the importance of upgrading in today's competitive global trade environment, this study builds a knowledge base of the technology adoption in apparel manufacturing and influential factors in developing countries.

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the status of technology adoption (TA) among clothing manufacturers in Bangladesh and examine the influences of contextual factors on their TA level. Particularly, the authors examined the effects of export orientation, top management commitment (TMC), competitive pressure (CP), cost of capital (CC) and technical skills (TS).Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from Bangladeshi clothing manufacturer through an online survey. A firm was treated as a unit of analysis.FindingsThe results revealed that the most common technologies adopted were information technology and software related and the least common were automation related. Export orientation negatively influenced while TS and CP positively influenced the level of TA.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the difficulty in obtaining firm level data, data collection did not utilize a random sampling. Only firms that agree to participate were included in the data.Practical implicationsThe authors suggest the Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers to adopt selective technologies that complement the cost leadership strategy rather than immediate differentiation strategy or technology innovations.Social implicationsFocused investment in human capitals and knowledge transfer in Bangladesh, one of the newly classified developing country, should sustain their competitiveness in the global market. Further discussions provide various stakeholders with insights related to trade policies, international aids and the UN's sustainable development agenda.Originality/valueThis study tackles a void that exists in TA research within the labor intensive clothing manufacturing sector, especially in a lower-middle income country, which surprisingly became the second largest clothing supplier today. Unique nature of the sector as an entry to economic development process in connection to the sustainable development concept is discussed to generate implications for practitioners as well as policy makers.

With the strong growth of the organic market and continuous expansion of organic product categories, it is essential to understand the organic consumption of different product categories. Founded on the protection motivation theory, this study examined the effects of threat appraisal of conventional agricultural practices and two enablers, organic certification/trust and perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), on organic consumption (attitude and purchase frequency) beyond food. A total of 410 responses collected from adults residing in the US through an online survey were analyzed. The analysis showed that the influence patterns of threat appraisal, organic certification/trust, and PCE were similar in attitude formation, but they were different in purchasing behaviors across different types of organic products. PCE was found to be a powerful predictor of both attitude and behavior, and, particularly, it mediated the influence of organic certification/trust and threat appraisal on purchase behavior. The results also indicated that the impacts of threat appraisal and PCE differed across product types varying from plant- or non-plant-based, freshness, and product format alteration. The results highlight the importance of organic benefit messages that enable consumers to believe in their ability to fight environmental problems to promote consumers’ purchasing of diverse organic products. Our study contributes to the growing literature on organic consumption with unique findings related to the threat appraisal of conventional agriculture and diverse organic products beyond organic food or produce. The findings and discussions provide insights into organic product development and communication strategies to support an expanded array of organic products and future research.

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate the effects of brand reputations (high vs. low), evaluation of product attributes, and attitudes toward counterfeiting on the purchase likelihood of non-luxury counterfeit fashion products (shirts, handbags, shoes). A total of 121 female college students participated in a 2 (counterfeit vs. genuine purchasing situation) × 2 (brand reputation) laboratory experiment. In general, across the product types, effects of purchasing situation were slightly different across products types. Brand reputation was found significant affecting purchase likelihood for shirts and shoes. A pattern of the interaction between the purchase situation and brand reputation was detected, although not statistically significant. The effects of attitudes toward counterfeiting were generally unsupported, while the effects of fashion-related and value attributes were significant across the three products.