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Literature review
This chapter gives the reader an overview of existing research and literature that are central to this study. This will allow the reader to understand and follow the empirical data and analysis in chapter four and five.
Literature Collection
Information for the literature review has been gathered from Primo library system, Google Scholar and Web of Science. The key terms stated above were used as search words. To reduce the risk of acquiring outdated information primarily as recent studies as possible were used.
The Fashion Industry
The fashion industry is associated with short product life cycles, product variety and complex supply chains (Şen, 2008), and thereby the industry has problems keeping up to the sustainability aspect (Bruce & Daly, 2006). In 2004, 75% of all clothes were outsourced to developing countries such as Bangladesh and India where wages are low and then shipped as fast as possible to the west-world countries to minimise costs (Ozdamar Ertekin & Atik, 2014;Bruce & Daly, 2006). Consequently, this is fuelling the globalisation of international fashion retailers, hence the knowledge and willingness to produce the garments have moved away from the western countries (Tokatli, 2008). It is argued that the fashion company Zara had their competitive advantage in the owning of production plants, designers, and all parts of the supply chain, but as competition has risen, the company operations started to spread parts of the production outsourced to low-cost countries. This change is supposedly derived from the trend of the fashion industry, aiming to speed up all processes to provide clothes that mirror the latest fashion trends shown on the catwalks around the globe (Reinach, 2005). It can be supported by the evidence that previously, there were four fashion seasons: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. Today most retailers have multiple seasons which pushes further consumption (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). The fashion giant Zara launches new clothing lines twice a week, building their business model on rapid stock turnover (Bruce & Daly, 2006). Another giant, HM, competes with receiving shipments with new styles on a daily basis (Ozdamar Ertekin & Atik, 2014). Further, it is stated that the companies put big money into need creating promotion of the apparel to encourage customers to buy these new trendy clothes (Ozdamar Ertekin & Atik, 2014).Klepp & Storm-Mathisen (2005) argues that consumers as individuals have no power to decide on trends as the fashion industry creates attitudes and tastes, which in its turn forms social status. In contrast, other authors believe that consumers have a greater ability to impact production within the industry (Iran & Schrader, 2017; Becker-Leifhold & Iran, 2017; Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). Several studies conclude that fashion helps with portraying social status, gender and class.Even the intimate elements of feeling sensual can supposedly be strengthened by wearing the “right” fashion (Klepp & Storm-Mathisen, 2005). When it comes to social status and fashion, there has always been a contradiction between sustainability attitudes and actual consumer behaviour (Kilbourne & Beckmann, 1998; Székely & Knirsch,2005; Van Wijk & Persoon, 2006). Finding that customers in general are price sensitive, the prices should be kept low (Joy et al., 2012). However, there is a gap between the claimed consumer attitudes towards sustainability and the actual consumption patterns (Schill & Shaw,2016; Young, Hwang, Mcdonalds & Oates, 2010; Phipps, Ozanne, Luchs, Subrahmanyan,Kapitan, Catlin, Gau, Naylor, Rose, Simpson & Weaver, 2013). Research done by Ciasullo,Mainone, Torre and Troisi (2017) supports the gap aforementioned, showing that customers are willing to pay 20% more for a product from a sustainable fashion brand. This portrays the consumer ability to impact the trends, opposing to the Klepp & Storm-Mathisen arguments.The gap suggests that Fast Fashion brands aim to sell more low-quality clothes for a low price,rather than to sell high-quality clothes at a higher price. Furthermore, clothes that are trendy are one of the most important aspects of the customer purchase decision, and even though an organic cotton t-shirt can be worn in the daily life, it might not meet the style of other social
occasions (Joy et al., 2012).
Fashion Consumption
The consumption patterns in the fashion industry have over decades changed. Nowadays, fashion consumption has increased all over the world and an average adult has in general 95 pieces of clothing in their wardrobe (Iran & Schrader, 2017). Becker-Leifhold & Iran (2017) argue that 30% of clothes that an individual owns has not been worn in the past year and a portion never being worn at all, suggesting that consumption patterns indicate that consumers are buying more clothes than they are going to use. Quantitative studies measure that 83% of the respondents identify their image with their apparel. 33% of the sample focus their consumption based on quality, whereas 33% focused on status (Ayman & Kaya, 2014). The same study shows that men are more likely to identify with sincere, high-quality brands (Men 60% vs Women 40%), eg. Adidas, while women are more likely to identify with fashion and trendiness which is in line with brands such as Zara and Top-Shop (Men 40% vs Women 60%),which business models are based on a fast fashion strategy. Bhardwaj & Fairhurst (2010) suggests that there is lack of empirical understanding how consumer motivate their purchase decision when buying clothes that need to be investigated, while Becker-Leifhold & Iran (2017) argue the opposite, saying that the research focus should be on sustainability and the life cycle of clothes. All authors agree that consumers are the biggest factor for a future sustainable fashion industry in order to reach sustainability within consumption. (Iran & Schrader, 2017; Becker-Leifhold & Iran, 2017; Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010).
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem
1.3 Purpose
1.4 Target Audience
1.5 Key Terms
2. Literature review
2.1 Literature Collection
2.2 The Fashion Industry
2.2.1 Fashion Consumption
2.3 The Role of Promotion
2.3.1 Fast Fashion Promotion
2.3.2 Slow Fashion Promotion
2.3.3 Demarketing
2.3.3.1 Green Demarketing
2.4 The Customer Perception
2.4.1 The Customer Purchasing Decision
2.5 Competitive Advantage
2.5.1 Factors Generating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
3. Methodology and Method
3.1 Methodology
3.1.1 Ontology
3.1.2 Epistemology
3.2 Research Philosophy
3.3 Research Approach
3.3.1 Deductive Approach
3.4 Research Strategy
3.5 Method of Data Collection
3.5.1 Semi-structured Interviews
3.5.2 Sampling Method
3.6 Participating Companies and Interviewees
3.6.1 Asket AB
3.6.2 Blankdays AB
3.6.3 Company X
3.6.4 Soot Sthlm/Legnology
3.6.5 Experts
3.6.5.1 Expert Ann-Sofie Bergort
3.6.5.2 Expert Maria Lagerman
3.7 Empirical Data Collection
3.7.1 Interviews
3.8 Ethical Considerations
3.9 Data Reductions
3.10 Data Analysis
3.11 Trustworthiness
4. Empirical Findings
4.1 Companies And Experts
4.2 The Industry
4.2.1 View On The Fashion Industry
4.2.2 Consumption of Fashion
4.2.3 Slow Fashion As Business Model
4.3 Customer
4.3.1 Target Audience
4.3.2 Brand Perception
4.4 Product Perception
4.4.1 Functional or Symbolic
4.4.2 Pricing Strategy
4.4.3 Quality and Sizes
4.4.4 Design
4.5 Promotion
4.5.1 Slow Fashion Promotion Today
4.5.2 Promotional Strategies
4.5.2.1 Awareness and Education
4.5.2.2 Transparency
4.5.3 Green Demarketing
5. Analysis
5.1 Promotional Strategies
5.2 Information
5.2.1 Promoting Sustainability Through Transparency
5.2.2 Promoting Quality
5.3 Concern 5.3.1 Promoting Anti-consumption
5.3.2 Corporate Promotion
5.3.3 Promoting Education and Information
5.4 Action
5.4.1 Promoting Repair Shops
5.4.2 Creating Communities
6. Conclusion
7. Discussion
7.1 Discussion of Empirical Findings
7.2 Contributions
7.3 Limitations
7.4 Further Research
References
Appendices
Appendix 1. Interview Questions
