Background: Given consumers’ rising awareness of the environmental damages caused by the fashion industry, brands now discuss sustainability in relation to their products often through using social media platforms. With the ambition to shift consumers’ purchasing behavior, firms strive to collaborate with influencers to endorse their sustainable products. Following the increased discussion about sustainability and sustainable fashion online, a new niche of influencers has appeared. However, it remains unexplored how the Swedish Gen Z perceives this category of influencers. Purpose: The purpose of the research is to understand how the Swedish Gen Z perceives sustainable [fashion] influencers on Instagram. More precisely, the study attempts to explore how this generation of consumers responds to these influencers with regards to their trustworthiness, expertise, attractiveness, brand fit, (un)sponsored content, and communication style.  Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of the research, a qualitative study was conducted. The research is of exploratory nature and empirical data was collected through four focus group interviews. The respondents were chosen through a purposive sampling technique, including Swedish Gen Zers who have an active Instagram account. Conclusion: The study found that the Swedish Gen Z responds favorably to sustainable influencers on Instagram. Particularly, this generation supports thrifting influencers the most as they foresee the future of sustainable fashion to be in the hands of this category.

Date:2022-06-02 Level:Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15cr Institution:School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors:Agostina Romano(92/08/23) Olivia Gurås (98/01/21) Title:Fashion shouldn’t cost the Earth: an exploratory study on small businesses driving sufficiency in the Swedish fashion industry Supervisor:Edward Gillmore Research Questions:RQ1: How do small firms management develop and implement strategies to promote sufficient consumption? RQ2: How do small firms implement stakeholder management to minimize the challenges caused by the promotion of sufficient consumption? Purpose:To provide a better understanding of the processes, factors and forces that enable companies to promote sufficient consumption, and how they manage to overcome challenges with internal and external stakeholders that are created by the implementation of sufficient consumption practices Methodology:Being an exploratory qualitative research, this study uses primary data collected through 6 semi-structured interviews with management roles of 4 sustainable companies, as well as secondary data obtained from official data bases, books, and websites. Conclusion:Small businesses in the fashion industry implement different sustainable strategies that promote sufficient consumption among others. Whether they are designed and implemented with sufficiency as a goal or not, these strategies bear challenges with multiple stakeholders that firms must face. Some of the main challenges are related to consumer and supplier resistance, as well as lack of awareness, challenging governance, and the internal sustainability vs. profitability debate. This study empirically contributes to past literature in terms of strategies and challenges, and it contributes theoretically in terms of solutions put in place through stakeholder management. Keywords:CSR, Stakeholder Management, Sustainability, Sufficiency, Sufficient Consumption, Sustainable Fashion

Background:           Today’s fashion industry is one of the most wasteful and polluting industries, which contributes to a global concern. A transition from a linear to a circular approach is needed, in which consumers play a key role. Clothing rental subscription is among the sustainable business models that aim to reduce the production and disposal of clothes by increasing their utilization and extending their lifetime. Based on the attitude-intention relation from the Theory of Planned Behavior and on current literature, we develop a theoretical framework. Purpose:                  The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of perceived sustainability, perceived enjoyment, perceived financial risk, perceived performance risk, fashion leadership, psychological ownership and perceived convenience on consumers’ attitudes towards clothing rental subscription services and their intentions to engage in this circular fashion business model. Method:                  To fulfill the purpose, we conducted a quantitative study. Primary data was collected through online questionnaires, resulting in 282 responses from German females. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to identify the influences of the above-mentioned factors on attitude and on intention. Lastly, a linear regression analysis was used to test attitude’s influence on intention. Conclusion:               The results show that consumers’ attitudes towards clothing rental subscription are positively influenced by the perceived sustainability and perceived enjoyment of the business model, and negatively influenced by perceived financial risk and perceived performance risk. Their intentions to participate in clothing rental subscription were shown to be positively influenced by perceived enjoyment and attitude, while negatively influenced by perceived financial risk. Focusing on one clothing rental business model, we contribute to research in the field and provide valuable implications for practitioners.

Background:  Distinguishing from competitors nowadays turns out to be more difficult as mass communication is a topical issue. Not only, but also in the fashion industry, sustainability is an upcoming topic, especially since this industry is deemed to be the second most polluting worldwide and strives for a change in consumerism. Particularly, millennials are perceived to be the generation being most aware of sustainable alternatives and aspire to protect the environment. Green Marketing is applied to thus promote green processes, products and the like to several customer segments.  Purpose:        The purpose of this thesis is to qualitatively explore the impact of green marketing on the purchase behavior of European female millennials in the fashion industry. Method:         The method chosen for this study were online focus groups with female informants from several European countries. Five online focus groups with a total of 31 informants were conducted. The qualitative study is based on an inductive and interpretivist approach. Due to the existence of known models, individual deductive elements were included for data collection. Finally, a theoretical framework was created. Conclusion:        The results show that green marketing is perceived in a diversified way. Positively, green marketing is creating awareness towards considering sustainable fashion and a possible future change in the purchasing behavior. Negatively it is said, that green marketing is often associated with greenwashing and dishonest pursuits of the companies. Due to sustainability becoming more important and popular, green marketing is also related to a trend in marketing to keep up with competitors. However, green marketing in this study was found out to have no significant impact on the purchase behavior. Overall, the impact of green marketing depends strongly on the knowledge level of the informants in this study. It is noteworthy, that informants with basic knowledge are most likely to be influenced by GM

Esta investigación tiene por objetivo analizar los criterios de diseño persuasivo que utilizan las marcas peruanas de moda sostenible durante el proceso de creación de la identidad visual para comunicar sus valores. Por consiguiente, se planteó como hipótesis que el diseño persuasivo se utiliza como base al momento de crear la identidad visual de las marcas de moda sostenible, puesto que facilita la comunicación y recepción de los valores sostenibles. Esta investigación es de tipo cualitativo, puesto que los datos a examinar son los elementos de la identidad visual de las marcas peruanas de moda sostenible. Los elementos analizados son: el logo, la tipografía, la paleta de color, el estilo fotográfico, el tono de comunicación y las figuras de soporte. Se trata de una investigación de alcance descriptivo en vista que el fin es examinar información con respecto a una gráfica visual. Los resultados obtenidos confirman que la identidad visual posibilita la comunicación efectiva de los valores sostenibles de la marca. Gracias a los elementos que componen la identidad visual, las marcas peruanas se dan a conocer ante su público objetivo. Se concluye que, el diseño persuasivo es apto para comunicar los valores de las marcas de moda sostenible, mas no es considerado al momento de crear la identidad visual. Sin embargo, este sí se evidencia en la comunicación de los valores sostenibles. Esto sucede porque las marcas optan por mostrarse ante sus consumidores de forma auténtica; buscan concientizar al usuario sobre el impacto de la industria de la moda. / This research aims to analyze the persuasive design criteria used by Peruvian sustainable fashion brands when creating their visual identity to communicate their sustainable values. Regarding the hypothesis, it was considered that persuasive design is used as the basis when creating the visual identity of sustainable fashion brands; since it eases the communication and reception of sustainable values. The research type is qualitative, since the data and elements to be analyzed on are graphic and not numerical. The content to be observed are those used by Peruvian sustainable fashion brands when creating their visual identity. This investigation has a descriptive scope since the purpose is to examine information with respect to a visual graph. The results demonstrate that the visual identity enables the brand to achieve an effective communication, and it is the elements that compose it that allow Peruvian sustainable fashion brands to achieve recognition between the users. Finally, although persuasive design is apt to communicate the sustainable values ​​of sustainable fashion brands, it is not considered when creating a strategy and designing visual identity; however, if it is evidenced in the communication of sustainable values. This happens because brands choose to show themselves as a genuine brand to their consumers. Its objective is not to impose sustainability but to make the user aware of its existence, and that from the purchase they choose responsible fashion consumption. / Trabajo de investigación

The fashion industry is one of the most challenging sectors for sustainable development, comprising numerous social and environmental challenges. The industry is based on a complex network of global and fragmented supply chains leading to a lack of transparency. Therefore, transparency and supply chain traceability are core priorities in order to increase the fashion supply chain visibility and enable accountability. A potential solution to this issue is the application of new technologies. Blockchain is an emerging technology that has a potential to address the current issues and make supply chain processes more transparent.The combination of the emerging blockchain technology with the concept of transparency in fashion supply chains constitutes the novelty of the research and the contribution to the current body of knowledge. The environmental and social challenges regarding transparency in fashion supply chains are analysed using the theories for Green Supply Chain Management and supply chain power structures. The study relies on interviews with blockchain professionals and industry experts in supply chains and sustainable fashion.The study finds that blockchain has the potential to become the single source of truth for the fashion supply chain and provide transparency across the supply chain. However, this advancement of transparency can only occur in a less complex fashion supply chain with a balanced power structure and more collaboration than the current standard.

This thesis contributes to Sustainable Interaction Design by exploring how an eco-feedback enriched design proposal may engage people to collectively reduce carbon emissions. Taking a participatory design approach, the project identified fashion consumption as an area of opportunity towards this aim and proposes a design concept as an alternative to resource and emission-intense consumption by engaging swapping and renting of fashion. Challenges found in field research with regard to re-using fashion were problematised, namely quality, trust and fairness. The project aimed to address these challenges by conceptualizing an engaging user experience that creates a community between people to share fashion with each other. Values and unique qualities of fashion were investigated as well as how visualizing the environmental impact of such activity affects user engagement. User testing suggests that such eco-feedback positively impacts engagement with the proposed concept.

La industria de la moda es la segunda más contaminante del mundo y se encuentra operando a expensas de factores ambientales y sociales. Debido a eso, la moda sostenible toma un rol importante al posicionarse como una alternativa para el futuro de dicha industria. Esta surge a partir de los años sesenta y se basa en el equilibrio de la Tríada de la Sostenibilidad, compuesta por el ambiente, la sociedad, la economía; y está relacionada a la economía circular o ciclo de vida del producto. Actualmente, la sostenibilidad en la moda ha adquirido mayor importancia y notoriedad en el Perú. No obstante, aún existen desafíos como el desconocimiento sobre cómo operar un negocio de moda sostenible y la comprensión de su concepto. Es por ello que la presente investigación tiene como objetivo general conocer cómo la marca Ayni trabaja la moda sostenible desde el año 2009 hasta el 2020 en Lima. Para ello, se elaborará un estudio de caso cualitativo de la marca mencionada, al ser una con gran reconocimiento y participación en el Directorio de la Asociación de Moda Sostenible del Perú. En este se recogerá información mediante diversas técnicas como la observación, entrevistas a profundidad, revisión de documentación de la marca y revisión bibliográfica para contar con diversos datos que proporcionen información profunda e integral sobre el caso por analizar. Es importante mencionar que este se abordará especialmente a partir del análisis de dos componentes: la Tríada de la Sostenibilidad y la economía circular. / The fashion industry is considered the second most polluting in the world and is operating at the expense of environmental and social factors. Because of this, sustainable fashion takes an important role in positioning itself as a worldwide alternative to the future of this industry. It arises from the sixties and is based on the balance of the Triple Bottom Line, which includes environmental, social and economic factors; and its related to the circular economy or product lifecycle. Currently, sustainability in fashion has become more important and is constantly evolving in Peru. However, there are still challenges such as the lack of knowledge about how to operate a sustainable fashion business and understanding its concept. The present research has as general objective to know how Ayni has worked sustainable fashion from 2009 to 2020 in Lima. For this objective, a qualitative case study of the mentioned brand will be developed, being Ayni one with great recognition and participation in the Board of the “Asociación de Moda Sostenible del Perú”. The information will be obtained through techniques such as observation, interviews, review of brand documentation and bibliographic review to have various data that provide in-depth and comprehensive information on the case to be analyzed. It is important to mention that this will be approached especially from the analysis of two components: The Triple Bottom Line and the circular economy or product lifecycle.

Background, Problem Statement and Gap - Political agendas informed by the negative impacts of increasing consumption (including fashion consumption) have allocated major parts of the responsibility to contribute to sustainable development to individual consumers. These agendas subsequently highlighted the need to provide more information, including through media and social media, about the negative impacts of fashion consumption - and consumption at large - to the consumer. Within our paper, this depicted approach, which is sometimes criticized by scholars, is conceptualized as ‘Consumer Responsibilization’ and viewed through the theoretical lens of discourse. However, despite consumers having increased access to information, products, and services related to sustainability and sustainable fashion (SF), changes of consumption habits are stagnant. This phenomenon, which is a serious problem hindering sustainable development, is widely defined as the knowledge-to-action-gap (KAG) within the literature. Scholars whose studies were limited to the offline world have criticized Consumer Responsibilization and have linked this approach to the KAG. There exists a gap in knowing which role the social media platform Instagram, plays for the Consumer Responsibilization approach in SF communications and it’s potential to expedite the KAG. Consumption from the perspective of culture is understood in this research as socially integrated, complex, and not always rational. Purpose - Our research purpose is to fill the identified gap and investigate the Consumer Responsibilization discourse on Instagram used within SF communications. We want to find out which actors are taking advantage of this discourse, the way it is represented and how users of Instagram react. We also investigate how the unique affordances of Instagram and its potential as a site for discourse affect the discourse in question and could influence the KAG. Method - Multimodal discourse is the theoretical perspective used to detect and understand the representation of consumer responsibilization on Instagram. Meaning that we, informed by literature, see discourse as not only communicated through entities of text but also through other semiotic elements called modes. We adopted a culturalist perspective situated within qualitative marketing research and followed passive and immersive netnographic procedures, whereby ethnographic approaches are adapted to observe social media data. Our ontological and epistemological framing of this research is within interpretivism and constructivism, as we acknowledge that our role as researchers involves constructing meaning through subjective analysis. Through exploratory and iterative understanding, we followed abductive logic and hermeneutic philosophy to produce knowledge. We followed exploratory and selective sampling to find publicly accessible Instagram posts that used SF-related hashtags and communicated Consumer Responsibilization. Triangulation developed through the quantification of follower counts, likes and comments, reinforced patterns in our findings. Additionally, each researcher contributed an immersion journal of rich descriptions of our experiences navigating Instagram as users. Through multimodality, all the different elements of a post were analyzed as contributors to the discourse (e.g., text, image, and engagement). An iterative combination of Descriptive coding, Initial coding and Axial coding were applied for analysis and synthesis of themes from patterns that emerged in the data (Saldaña, 2009). Findings - Consumer Responsibilization discourse is being represented by SF communications on Instagram by various actors, through posts following the logic of rationalization, sharing call to actions, compelling imagery and self-auditing tools (such as checklists or bullet-point step-by-step guides). We identified categories of prominent account types, namely individuals or groups of individuals with the status of Opinion Leaders, Brands/Businesses, NGOs / Activist Organizations, and News or Media accounts. The majority of collected posts address consumers with a call to action to contribute to SF, through multimodal elements, and they follow either an Information Approach, Activism / Charity Approach or Consumption Approach with their suggested actions. According to the literature, Instagram's unique affordances as a social media platform favors visual content, which is deemed more effective with persuasion and gaining attention among users (Laestadius, 2016; Russman and Svensson, 2016; Schroeder and Borgerson, 2005). While we found patterns of visual communication which are typical of an account type, there are other patterns of engagement from users observed throughout the data which indicate the tone and intended message of a post influences the public’s response. Discursive polyphony and confusion, terms coined by Markkula and Moisander (2012), seem to arise from varying conflicting messages and SF principles, highlighting the ambiguity of SF discourse. This can, according to Markkula and Moisander (2012), be a contributor to KAG. Our data, based on the responses found in the comments, hints towards users experiencing feelings of conflict and confusion when being confronted with the different SF discourses. Users typically respond to SF posts framed by Consumer Responsibilization and rationalization with resistance, defensiveness, justification, support, gratitude, criticism, or skepticism. While reacting to SF discourses, users also replicate and further contribute to them. Practical implications and Theoretical limitations - Our thesis contributes to research of cultural forces that contribute to KAG, by locating our observations from Instagram, which is a compelling site to observe SF discourse. Previous research in this field has been conducted offline, with primary input from consumers, whereas our research gathered deep cultural insight from secondary data posted publicly online. As such, our findings are limited by users who post publicly not being representative of the public who are not active on Instagram, are unfamiliar with SF discourses or have set their accounts to be private. Our findings contribute to cultural marketing and SF research and elaborates on criticisms of Consumer Responsibilization. In future campaigns, social media managers, marketing managers and policy makers must consider the complex, overlapping and contradicting messages with SF discourse, and how they contribute to KAG. Discursive confusion, few suggestions of manageable solutions, and limited scope of information are risks to worsening the KAG. Our findings indicate that consumers also require public support from businesses and governments to tackle collective systemic issues.

This Master’s thesis aims at defining the opportunities and barriers to fashion entrepreneurship and sustainable practices in Mexico. Using the recent development in the studies regarding barriers and opportunities to entrepreneurship and innovation, this investigation seeks to expand on the topic and shed some light on how a particular context can affect the success of entrepreneurs in the fashion industry. After all, understanding the external and internal factors Mexican venture creators in the world of fashion encounter, will make it possible to explore the reasons for the current socio-economic situation in the country.  For entrepreneurs acting locally, Mexico offers plenty of opportunities (Ayuso and Naberrete-Baez, 2017). However, despite the high rates of entrepreneurial activity, most projects are necessity-driven, which results in a limited impact on the country’s economic vitality (Pinazo Dellenbach and Castello Servant, 2020). The Mexican fashion industry consists of around 20,000 companies, 90% of which are small and medium enterprises (CEMDA, 2019), making it an interesting industry to focus on to understand the current levels of entrepreneurship in the country and assess the efforts of people seeking to create local brands while engaging with sustainability.  Understanding the socio-economic context is crucial to assessing the direction of entrepreneurs. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed during the investigation. The findings confirm the presence of cognitive-psychological, socio-institutional, and economic-operational constraints that limit opportunity discovery and opportunity realization among Mexican entrepreneurs (Khanin et al, 2021). However, they also help to expand on the current framework, by finding the connections between such constraints within each other and how they relate to engagement with sustainability and social entrepreneurship. In conclusion, the barriers and opportunities to entrepreneurship depend on the context and determine the types of projects and also their success. The same applies to the engagement with sustainability and social entrepreneurship.          KEYWORDS: fashion industry, entrepreneurship, sustainability, barriers and opportunities.