This study investigates the underlying rationale of environmentally and socially conscious young Swedish consumers for their continued consumption of fast fashion. Furthermore this study assesses influential factors that shape young Swedish consumers’ attitudes and beliefs towards fast fashion. The fast fashion business model is largely based on the exploitation of poor working conditions and lack of environmental protection laws in the production countries. However, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of this dark side of fast fashion and the retailers are addressing their concerns with selective organic clothing collections. In order to gain in debt understanding of young Swedish consumers rationalizations, I applied an inductive research approach based on the philosophy of interpretive social science. More specifically I conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Swedish participants between the ages of 18 and 25. The findings of this study show that the participants prioritize price, quality and how the clothes look over where they have been produced and under what circumstances. Furthermore, the interviewees indicate a high dependency on the Swedish government to punish misconducts of fast fashion retailers. Greenwashing, the Swedish school system as well as a green trend in contemporary Swedish society seem to shape young consumers attitudes and beliefs towards fast fashion. Future research could investigate how the Swedish government and the Swedish school system can take a more pro-active role in educating their citizens and students about the actual negative impacts caused by the overconsumption of fast and disposable fashion towards society and environment.

Referat: Unter den Stichworten "Ethischer Konsum", "Politischer Konsum", "Moralischer Konsum" o.Ä. lassen sich seit den letzten Jahren Konsummuster fassen, in denen neben der Erfüllung privater Wünsche und Bedürfnisse immer stärker die Frage danach aufgeworfen wird, inwiefern das eigene Konsumverhalten dazu beitragen kann, bestehende globale Verteilungsungerechtigkeiten/Umweltprobleme abzumildern oder ganz zu beseitigen. Unter anderem mittels verschiedener Siegel, die faire Arbeitsbedingungen oder eine nachhaltige Produktion (vermeintlich) garantieren, sollen Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten dabei mit dem für sie nötigen Wissen über die Herkunft der Waren ausgestattet werden. In vorliegender Arbeit wird die Frage gestellt, wie in Diskursen und Praktiken jener Formen kritischen Konsums gesellschaftliche Problematiken (z.B. die oben angesprochenen) in Probleme bzw. Aufgaben individueller Lebensführung übersetzt werden, mithin also von einer globalen Ebene auf eine lokale, körperliche herunterskaliert werden. Dabei wird kritischer Konsum als spezifisches Handlungsfeld verstanden, welches jenen Spielraum eröffnet, der für die Etablierung jeglicher aktiv gestalteter Lebensführung ("Selbsttechniken" im weitesten Sinne) notwendig ist, und damit die Konstituierung von "raumsensiblen" und "verantwortlich" agierenden Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten erst ermöglicht.

This thesis explores the role of the self-concept on ethical consumption behaviour within the Thai consumer context. Religiosity has an influence on a person’s self and morality as Thai people place high importance on religious values. Ten consumers are studied through in-depth, phenomenological interviews, focusing on ethical consumption experiences and meanings. The self-concept is viewed as an experiencer and a moral entity that is dynamic and contextual between internal and external values. The study has extended knowledge on the self-concept and self-image congruency in the context of ethical consumption. It found the existence of a self-ethics relationship through processes of internalisation and externalisation. Personal value, emotion, moral salience, religious beliefs and social values are internalised into the self-concept. On the other hand, externalisation allows consumers to express personal meanings onto society. Self-monitoring functions in these processes to control ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption helps consumers to construct and enhance moral identity, underpinned by the moral self. This thesis has found self-ethics congruency, where meanings of the self and ethical consumption are symbolised and encouraging ethical consumption. Moreover, the multidimensional self has emerged from the study. This finding offers insights on different aspects of the self-concept through ethical consumption. Consumers intuitively engage in ethical consumption when emotion is involved. The implications of this study suggest “who ethical consumers are” by looking at the consumer’s self. Organisations and marketers can use different selves and moral identity to segment and target potential ethical consumers while creating brand image corresponding to consumer’s self-image.

No description available.

Yes / The paper explores the discrepancy between attitude and behavioural intention in ethical consumption, focusing on the role of techniques of neutralisation. Drawing on findings of 251 respondents in the UK, results suggest despite positive attitude towards ethical consumption, consumers are also susceptible to the techniques of neutralisation. Hierarchical and moderated regression analyses reveal that inclusion of the neutralisation construct moderates the influences of attitudes on behavioural intention, and advances the model’s predictive capacity. In spite of suggested positive attitude towards ethical consumption, real existing behaviour is frequently filtered through the techniques of neutralisation. The sample is restricted to in size and location, however the study clearly establishes techniques of neutralisation as a construct in the decision-making process, further warranting examination of each of the techniques. Summary statement of contribution: The study confirms validity of the addition of the neutralisation construct into the modified TPB model noted by Chatzidakis et al. (2007). It suggests improvement in predicting behavioural intention and shows the moderating effects the techniques of neutralisation have on constructs in the modified TPB model. The neutralisation construct is itself found to have a significant impact on moderating purchasing intention in ethical consumption.

Yes / Ethical consumption is more likely when consumers are receptive to ethical product information and consider such information when making purchasing decisions. Building on communication theory, we develop and test a framework illustrating how different consumer values induce contrasting effects on consumers’ willingness to choose ethical products through affecting consumer receptiveness to ethical product information. We present an online survey with 590 US consumers, which was analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM). Results show that altruistic and biospheric consumer values increase consumers’ willingness to choose ethical products via trust in ethical advertising and ethical purchase decision involvement. In contrast, egoistic consumer values reduce ethical purchase decision involvement, and ultimately consumers’ willingness to choose ethical products. Thus, we illustrate the mechanisms through which contrasting values take effect. Results are discussed in light of theoretical and managerial implications and reemphasize the need for better adaptation of ethical marketing to individual consumer characteristics.

Within western societies the act of consumption is not merely concerned with satisfying basic human needs. Rather, consumption has become a source of leisure and self expression for the masses (Belk, 1988). This has meant that humankind’s wants have tended to outstrip the world’s finite resources available, leading to environmental damage, questionable farming practice and the widespread abuse of human labour. In response to these issues the phenomena of ethical consumption was born. Ethical consumption attempts to limit the environmental, human and animal costs of our spending via the favouring of products that are deemed to be for the betterment of wider society. At face value ethical consumption has been hugely successful in terms of market share, with sales of products stressing their ethical credentials having grown rapidly in recent years (Cooperative Bank 2011). However, despite this success, ethically branded products still represent a minority of purchases (Thøgersen, 2006). Psychological research exploring the reasons why consumers purchase ethically is dominated by papers focusing upon consumers’ attitudes, values and intentions (Andorfer & Liebe, 2012, Milfont & Duckitt, 2004). However, consumers’ attitudes do not always mirror actual spending (Auger, Burke, Devinney & Louviere., 2003; Auger & Devinney, 2007). Whilst one third of consumers describe themselves as being ethical spenders, only 1-3% of products purchased are Fair Trade certified (Cowe & Williams, 2000). The divergence between attitude and behaviour has been referred to as the ‘ethical purchasing gap’ (Andorfer & Liebe, 2012, Clayton & Brook, 2005). One factor that may be partially responsible for the divergence between purchase intention and actual behaviours is self-regulatory fatigue (ego depletion). Chapter one of the thesis presents the argument for ethical spending being affected by, amongst other things, our ability to suppress our impulsive desires via a process known as self-regulation (Bagozzi, 1992; Baumeister, 2002; Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). According to the self-regulatory fatigue literature, self-control requires the expenditure of blood glucose (Gailliot, 2008, Inzlicht & Gutsell, 2007). However, the available level of blood glucose temporarily diminishes with continued use of the self-regulatory system. In response to the lower availability of blood glucose, individuals begin to limit all non-essential cognitive expenditure, including further acts of self-regulation. Individuals who have exhausted their capacity for self control are said to be ego depleted or in a state of self-regulatory fatigue (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996; Hofmann. Friese & Strack, 2009; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) Chapter one argues that self-regulatory fatigue may restrict an individual’s capacity to consider the social and long-term impacts of their spending to resist the temptation of cheap consumer goods. As a result, it is predicted that ethical spending may be negatively affected by self-regulation fatigue. Following this theoretical foundation, Chapter two presents the methodological rationale for the research project that set out to test various aspects of this foundational hypothesis. Chapter three presents the findings of the first empirical study. The purpose of the study was to use open-ended questionnaires to explore the principles that guided participants’ spending, as well gaining an insight into instances where there was a discrepancy between spending and principle. The study is included within the thesis primarily to show the genesis of the research agenda. The study indicated that consumers within the sample were primarily concerned with traditional forms of ethical consumption, namely environmental, human and animal welfare concerns. Participants justified non-principled purchasing as being a result of financial consideration or impulsive urge. It was thus decided to explore the possibility that self-regulation fatigue may have a potentially negative impact upon ethical spending, due to its known relationship with impulsive spending (Vohs & Faber, 2007). Chapter four explores the effects of self-regulation fatigue upon socially-minded economic behaviour within the controlled setting of a social dilemma game. Ethical consumption can be considered to be a prime example of a ‘social dilemma’ in the sense that decisions relating to whether or not to consume ethically involve a direct conflict between an individual’s short term interests (e.g. to save money) and the collective interests of wider society (Gattig & Hendrickx, 2007; Milfont & Gouveiac, 2006). Therefore it was decided to measure the effects of self-regulatory fatigue within an experimental social dilemma task. The task used was based upon the forest game, which was first outlined by Sheldon and McGregor (2000), with the white bear thought suppression task (Wegner, Schneider, Carter, & White, 1987) being utilised to manipulate self-regulatory fatigue. The results revealed a clear divergence in behaviour within the game as a function of the manipulation of self-regulatory fatigue, with non-depleted groups sustaining the central resource longer than their depleted counterparts. Chapter five builds on the findings of chapter four through an exploration of the relationship between ego depletion and participants’ willingness to pay for ethical goods. The study utilised a discrete choice measure in order to measure participant’s willingness to pay for ethical goods. The findings did not show a significant effect of self-regulatory fatigue on the willingness to pay for ethical goods. However a potential explanation for this result was the fact that the decision-making processes involved in this study were less arduous than those required within a real-life shopping environment (or, for that matter, than the decisions required in the forest game reported in chapter four). It is possible that the complexity of the choice presented may have been insufficient for the decision to be negatively affected by self-regulatory fatigue. The study is thus included in order to illustrate the importance of utilising more realistic measures of spending that incorporate more of the complexity of decision-making required in real-world contexts. Chapter six presents four separate experiments exploring the relationship between self-regulatory fatigue and ethical spending. The first study utilised an online supermarket simulation and asked participants to go shopping for one week’s worth of groceries after either completing, or not completing, the white bear thought suppression task. The simulated supermarket allowed participants to select from a range of over 1900 products. The pattern of results indicated that participants in a state of self-regulatory fatigue spent significantly less on ethically branded products than their non-depleted counterparts. However, this was only true for individuals with a high food budget. Those with a low budget were not significantly affected, presumably due to having relatively little flexibility in terms of product choice and/or having established shopping habits focusing upon value. The second study in chapter six explored the ways in which social appeals interact with self-regulatory fatigue. Participants were presented with an attention control task before reading either an article praising students for their ethical behaviours or a control article. Participants were then asked to “go shopping” within the online store. Results once again indicated that self-regulatory fatigue reduced spending on ethically branded goods. However, contrary to predictions, the social appeal had no significant effect on levels of ethical spending either as a main effect or in interaction with self-regulatory fatigue.

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Consumers demand for sustainable and ethical products; products that protect the environment as well protect the well-being of workers in every way. Ethical products are a part of sustainability development where companies are obliged to follow guidelines and provide workers with good daily wages and various possibilities to enhance their life. The thesis focuses on ethical consumption and specifically takes a closer look at fair-trade tea. Fair-trade products are produced in a fair way and follow strict guidelines to make sure every worker is cared and provided a respectful life. Due to increase of sustainable products in the market, consumers have become largely aware of the consequences caused by products to the environment. However, when it comes to ethical products, consumers have a disbelief towards unfair situations workers experience. Some consumers believe labor malpractices are often exaggerated and some consumers believe that the victim actually deserves the situation. Even though some consumers would like to contribute, others tend to turn away with a thought that their purchase would not make any significant difference which leads them to not purchase fair- trade products. The thesis explores how and what factors influence such consumers’ minds, with the focus to increase PCE - Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (consumer’s belief that their purchase contributes to a positive outcome). The thesis further examines if PCE directly influences purchase intentions if Belief in Just World and empowering statements influence PCE. Results show that high belief in Just World negatively influences Perceived Consumer Effectiveness. Empowering statements increase awareness on ethical issues and decreases skepticism towards ethical products. The thesis contributes to the theory of PCE and in-store marketing techniques. Triggering PCE at the stores during the point of purchase influences consumers intentions to buy a certain product.

During the year of 2017 and 2018, the online magazine Teen Vogue saw an immense rise in reader statistic after laying all efforts on digital channels and increasing content about social issues to attract audiences of young people. Teen Vogue is a form of lifestyle journalism. This type of journalism is known for providing popular journalism, infotainment and human-interest stories with close ties to commercial interests. The target audience of Teen Vogue are adolescents or youth, which has for a long time been a group that often shows resistance and calls out for change. But, what happens when a magazine with close connection to commercial interests also aims to attracting a more socially conscious group? This research explores the connection between lifestyle media, consumption and social issues through a mixed method study of the articles in Teen Vogue. The first part of this research consists of a content analysis which identifies the main social issues within the content categories of the magazine and established the close connection between commercial issues and activism in the content. The second part of the study involves a critical discourse analysis which analyzes how language is used and how discourses of consumption interplay in the material. It was found that discourses of consumption as a means to extend one’s identity was intertwined with consumption as ethical or responsible, highlighting that being an activist is mainly a matter of consumption.