Gargi Bhaduri

Do Transparent Business Practices Pay? Exploration of Transparency and Consumer Purchase Intention:

Information transparency has mostly been associated with financial institutions, and little is known about its application in the apparel supply chain. The aim of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that may influence consumer attitude and purchase intention with respect to apparel products from businesses that are transparent about their supply chain. An interpretive analysis, through interviews with consumers, revealed that attitude and intention seemed to be affected by prior knowledge about the apparel industry, distrust on the business’ efforts, values (hedonic and social responsibility value) gained by consumers by consuming transparent products, as well as price and quality of the product. The study uses the theory of reasoned action to explain the relation between attitude and intention and combines with the concepts of consumer value and price and quality. Implications, limitations and scope of further research are also discussed.

Gender Differences in Information Processing and Transparency: Cases of Apparel Brands' Social Responsibility Claims

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to understand how male and female consumers differently evaluate sustainability claims from brands and how brands’ sustainability efforts and the presence/absence of information transparency in the claims affect their brand schemas differently. Design/methodology/approach – Five hundred participants were recruited for an online experiment implementing both treatment and message variance. PROCESS, a recently developed regression-based bootstrapping technique was used to test the hypotheses. Findings – Males were more likely than females to rely on their existing schemas for judgment in case of Made in USA but not Fair Labor claims. The presence of information transparency in claims reduced participants’ reliance on their schemas. Practical implications – The findings might be helpful for brands to design marketing claims with specific customer segments to stand out amidst advertisement clutter. Especially, brands targeting male consumers might try to build strong bra...

Evaluation of absolute luxury: Effect of cues, consumers’ need for uniqueness, product involvement and product knowledge on expected price

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of product description cues as a way to differentiate luxury products for the absolute luxury consumer and the effect of individual traits such as need for uniqueness, product involvement, and product knowledge on consumers’ perceptions of expected price. Design/methodology/approach An adult sample of 253 female US consumers were recruited for an online survey. Findings Consumers’ need for uniqueness was related to their level of clothing involvement, which in turn was related to clothing knowledge. Fashion clothing involvement was positively related to participants’ product knowledge which in turn positively influenced participants’ perceived change in expected price of products in response to various product descriptors or cues related to absolute luxury products. In addition, younger consumers were found to be more involved in fashion clothing than older consumers. Originality/value This study extends the research into the luxury market and identifies elements of the marketing mix which might be manipulated to better inform potential customers about the luxury product. The study further emphasizes that product descriptors or cues can have an impact on price judgments, especially for highly involved and knowledgeable consumers. This is especially important to academicians as well as marketers since high fashion involved consumers have often been seen as drivers, influential, and legitimists of the fashion adoption process.

To (or not to) label products as artisanal: effect of fashion involvement on customer perceived value

Purpose This paper aims to understand whether product descriptor cues related to artisanal qualities can help marketers to delineate their clothing product offerings to consumers by influencing consumers’ perceived product values and the effect (if any) of consumers’ fashion clothing involvement on such value perceptions. In today’s intensely competitive market environment marked by minimal product differentiation, marketers are often using the terms artisan, handcrafted or similar to indicate that their products are different, produced with care, are of higher quality and even premium. Design/methodology/approach For the study, a 2 (Involvement: High/Low) × 4 (Cues: Control/Artisan-made/Part of a curated collection/Handcrafted) × 2 (products replications: Jeans/Handbags) mixed model repeated measures experiment was designed. A sample of 487 adult female US consumers was recruited using a market-based research firm. Findings Results indicated that framing luxury products as artisanal using product descriptor cues influenced the perceived value of these products. Moreover, consumers’ fashion involvement positively influenced their perceived value for artisanal luxury products. Originality/value The study is one of the few attempts in understanding the value of artisanal luxury products. Given the importance of the artisanal luxury industry to the global economy, focusing on how consumers perceive the value of artisanal luxury products is important to marketers and practitioners as well as academicians. From a theoretical perspective, the study indicates fashion involvement as a predictor of consumers’ perceived value, thereby filling a gap in literature. The study used two different product categories to aid in generalizability of the results.

Influence of consumers’ brand expectations on apparel brands’ US-based sourcing strategy

Purpose This study aims to understand how consumers evaluate Made in USA messages that are congruent/incongruent to consumers’ prior expectations about the brand’s US-based sourcing initiatives. Design/methodology/approach Two separate studies were conducted. Online experiment was designed implementing both message and treatment variance to increase internal and external validity of the study. Data collected from two distinct samples were analyzed using MANOVA and ANOVA. Findings Findings from Study 1 indicated that consumers’ perceived message credibility, attitude toward message and attitude toward brand were highest for congruent messages, followed by when incongruity was resolved and lowest when incongruity was not resolved. Further, consumers’ brand attitudes before and after message exposure were different, with change being most positive for incongruity resolution, followed by congruity, whereas negative for incongruity non-resolution. Findings from Study 2 indicated that consumers’ general attitude toward brands’ US-based sourcing strategies influenced their brand attitude, as well as moderated the relation between schema congruity/incongruity resolution/incongruity non-resolution and brand attitude. Originality/value The findings are helpful for brand managers and sourcing personnel to better invest their resources in US-based sourcing strategies. In addition, the findings of the study contribute and extend theory by identifying a boundary condition.

Too Good To Be True? Effect of Consumers’ Brand Schemas on Apparel Brands’ Fair Labor Marketing Messages

In this study, researchers provide a comprehensive model of how consumers process, remember, and evaluate positive fair labor-related brand messages that are congruent/incongruent to their existing brand expectations using both psychophysiological and self-reported measures. Data were collected across two different studies. Results indicated that consumers paid more attention to and better remembered messages for incongruity than congruity. Also attitude toward message was highest for congruent messages, followed by incongruity resolution and lowest for incongruity nonresolution. The combined study findings bridge the gap in literature between human attitude and cognition, helping both brands and consumer researchers understand consumers’ reaction to brands schema-message congruity/incongruity and guide decisions when brands hope to revitalize or reinvent a brand’s image.

Disheartened consumers: impact of malevolent apparel business practices on consumer's heart rates, perceived trust, and purchase intention

In response to consumers’ increasing desires to know about apparel businesses’ ethical/responsible practices and the importance of trust between a firm and its consumers in today’s marketplace, this study investigated how distrustful messages, specifically malevolent messages, affect consumers’ perceived trust and purchase intention. The results of 67 participants’ heart rate deceleration patterns and psychometric responses from a randomized experimental design showed that participants experienced greater heart rate deceleration during exposure to messages about a firm’s malevolent business practices, than during messages about benevolence. Indeed, consumers seemed to get more disheartened when they were exposed to messages about malevolent business activities, and these messages seemed to affect consumers’ perceived trust and purchase intention. The study concludes with important business implications for building and strengthening trust, or reducing and eliminating distrust, with consumers.