Lindsey Carey

Sustainable, hedonic and efficient: Interaction effects between product properties and consumer reviews on post-experience responses

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the influence of consumer reviews on the evaluation, post-experience, of products with a combination of sustainable, hedonic and utilitarian properties. Design/methodology/approach – In the first instance, consumer reviews for organic and non-organic cosmetics posted on the French Web site beaute-test.com were analyzed. Second, a full-factorial two product types (organic and non-organic) × three reviews (positive, negative and no reviews) experiment was conducted. Sixty French women tested a beauty product and evaluated it on hedonic and utilitarian (ambiguous and non-ambiguous) properties. In a second experiment, 132 English-speaking students evaluated an herbal tea at home, along a full-factorial two product types (fair-trade and non-fair-trade) × three product properties (hedonic, utilitarian ambiguous and utilitarian non-ambiguous) × two reviews (negative review and no review) between-subject design. Findings – First, consumers are significantly less influenced...

Ethical fashion dimensions: pictorial and auditory depictions through three cultural perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide the results of an exploratory study comparing attitudes of young fashion conscious consumers towards ethical fashion in Canada, France and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – The methods used in this research were qualitative with a mix of interviews and focus groups and a new application of a visual method widely used within design and fashion environments, the mood board. The study is based within the contrast of a growing trend towards sustainability and the rise of fast fashion where consumers are increasingly demanding cheaper items. The research is also grounded in cross-cultural research where the comparison of data emanating from different cultures and languages presents specific dilemmas for researchers. Findings – Results indicated that there were notable differences in the perception of ethical fashion between the respondents from these three cultures. In the representation and appeal of this fashion segment, in terms of its perceived availabi...

Vintage Fashion: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Fashion is often a personal representation and interpretation of a trend or movement; therefore, achieving a definition for a particular style is arduous and open to interpretation. However, vintage fashion has a time-bound delineation, which confines its representative fashion garments and objects to a specific era (defined as from the 1920s to 1980s, but also described as anything designed and produced at least 20 years before the current fashion trends). The additional impediment of the diverse terminology attached to fashion from the past, which is also categorised as ‘antique’, ‘retro’ even ‘secondhand’, adds to the complexity surrounding this context. Vintage fashion and its extended notions described above have primarily been investigated within the confines of a cultural and national context. This research uses visual and traditional interpretative methods to explore transcultural attitudes of students of fashion from France and the UK towards fashion garments, which are not produced or representative of current trends and offering. Graphical and DAP (Draw a Picture) inspired methods are used to elicit visual representation of the understanding of this style, and more traditional interviews explore the dimensions of the concept through the lense of divergent cultural backgrounds. The results inform the debate surrounding the boundaries of vintage fashion, in terms of its cultural heritage and place within different cultural contexts. The originality of this research is twofold: firstly, the cultural dimension of vintage fashion has been largely overlooked in past research, and the elicitation of this facet of the concept is valuable for academics, students and practitioners alike. Secondly, the use of visual methodologies within cross-cultural research adds to methodological advances for contexts, which are traditionally complex environments from which to extract meaningful data from.

I shop where I belong: The Influence of Self-monitoring on Fashion Retailer Choice

Current economic climate in the UK means that fashion clothing consumers are currently polarising into extremes of consumption between value and luxury clothing retailers. Self-monitoring is a personality trait, which enables the individual to interpret and contextualise their inner and outer self. Self-monitoring has previously been investigated to define its effects on consumption behaviour and high self-monitors appear to be concerned principally with the aesthetics of the self and are attentive to the messages that clothing and other outward physical representations send whereas low self-monitors are primarily attracted to the more utilitarian aspects of a consumption offering. Taking into account the current economic climate with which fashion retailers are faced and the continuing growth of value retailers, this exploratory research investigates the influence of the self-monitoring trait on fashion retailer choice. As indicated from the findings, self-monitoring theory was shown to play a significant role in the choice of clothing retailer among young student females (aged 18-24) participating in this research. Through associative statistical tests, this study concluded that low self-monitors will shop with value retailers in preference to any other area of the market whereas high self-monitors were shown to be motivated by a lifestyle dimension rather than price and did not shop frequently in value outlets.