The following section illustrates how the TBL model explicates the three dimensions of fashion brands’ sustainability perceived by consumers, and whether and how the TBL sustainability predicts brand relationships such as brand trust and brand loyalty. The illustration of TBL sustainability is approached from a customer-centric sustainability (Sheth et al. 2011) and applied to fast fashion brands as the central focus of this study. Thus, the following literature review depicts fast fashion paradox in relation to its unsustainable nature, followed by TBL of sustainability and its application to fast fashion brands. At the end, three research questions are formulated to achieve study objectives.
Fast fashion paradox
… while concerned about the environmental and social impact of their non-fashion purchasing decisions, [consumers] did not apply such principles to their consumption of fashion. They talked in general terms of saving the environment, were committed to recycling, and expressed dedication to organic food… Yet, these very same consumers routinely availed themselves of trend-led fashionable clothing that was cheap: i.e., low cost to them, but high cost in environmental and societal terms. (Joy et al. 2012, p. 280).
As described in the finding of Joy et al. (2012), consumers’ environmental and social concern do not necessarily reduce their fast fashion consumption. Why do many consumers, despite their awareness of sustainability challenges facing in the current society, still develop a positive attitude toward fast fashion brands? Literature suggests several reasons. First, consumers may perceive that the benefits offered by fast fashion brands outweigh the negative aspects in terms of the unsustainable nature of fast fashion business (e.g., poor quality, resource depletion) (McNeill and Moore 2015; Morgan and Birtwistle 2009). Fast fashion brands offer products that mimic current fashion trends in an affordable price almost every few weeks. Low cost, fresh designs, and quick response times allow for greater efficiency in meeting the demand of fashion-conscious consumers, especially those who cannot afford high-fashion products. Consumers’ desire for fast fashion is coupled with the lack of alternatives offering similar benefits in the market (Kim et al. 2013). Second, there is a general lack of understanding among consumers about the impact of unsustainable production and consumption created by fast fashion products. Although the media covering the negative aspects of fast fashion brands (e.g., sweatshops, depletion of resources) have increased awareness of sustainability challenges, the highly fragmented and complex nature of the apparel supply chain (Kilduff 2005) makes it extremely difficult for average consumers to understand the cause and effect of fast fashion brands’ businesses.
While empirical evidence of this paradox of fast fashion consumption is still limited, several researchers have explored a discrepancy between consumers’ awareness of sustainability and their desire for fast fashion brand products. For example, McNeill and Moore (2015) argue that even those consumers who express strong concern about environmental and social issues admit that they continuously engage in the consumption of fast fashion products due to their desire for updated fashion. Similarly, Park and Kim (2016) argue that, despite their awareness of the negative aspects of fast fashion products, consumers may still enjoy stylish, inexpensive fashion items. The current study builds upon these previous findings and investigates potential linkage between consumers’ perception toward a fast fashion brand’s TBL sustainability and their brand relationship with the fast fashion product.
Triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability
The concept of sustainability in its contemporary form stems from the Brundtland Report, which was published in (1987) by the United Nation’s (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). This report proposes long-term strategies for achieving sustainable development by addressing three key elements: ecological environment, economy, and social equity (Edwards 2005). The environmental dimension of sustainability requires the long-term viability of resource use and emphasizes the issue of environmental degradation and resource depletion (Sheth et al. 2011). Economic sustainability refers to a dynamic economy that endures for a long period of time, while also recognizing the importance of providing secure, long-term employment (Edwards 2005). The social dimension of sustainability refers to the well-being of people and the community and equity/equality issues (Edwards 2005). Elkington (1998) incorporates these three facets of sustainability into actual business performance and argues that businesses should look not only at the traditional measures of economic performance (i.e., profits) but also consider the measures of social and environmental performances, reflecting “triple bottom line” (TBL) of sustainability.
Customer-centric sustainability (CCS)
The customer-centric sustainability (CCS) stems from the stakeholder perspective wherein firms integrate stakeholder expectations into their business actions and thereby resolve different perspectives on sustainability issues and outcomes (Kozlowski et al. 2012). While a firm-centric view of sustainability is often criticized as having a lack of a long-term perspective and a genuine effort for societal and environmental values (Molthan-Hill 2014), a customer-centric view of sustainability puts customers in the foreground and seeks the viability of both consumers and businesses. Based on the norm of business-consumer reciprocity, Sheth et al. (2011) argue that sustainability outcomes must result from consumer-directed business actions if companies plan to make sustainability an integral part of their business strategies and operations. This argument is also in line with several other researchers’ consumption-based view of sustainability (e.g., Huang and Rust 2011; Ramirez 2013). In a nutshell, from a CCS perspective, sustainability is viewed as “a joint product of marketing actions and consumer behavior” (Sheth et al. 2011, p. 24) and it can be achieved through the mutual effort of both companies and consumers. The following section reviews the three dimensions of CCS in the context of fashion brands including fast fashion brands.
CCS: economic dimension
While the economic dimension of sustainability is often considered merely as the conventional bottom-line of financial profitability (Slaper and Hall 2011), CCS extends this dimension to broad-based improvement in economic well-being and standard of living (Donaldson and Preston 1995). In this regard, Sheth et al. (2011) relate economic sustainability to the “economic well-being of consumers associated with financial aspects such as debt-burden, earning pressures, and work-life balance” (p. 24). These researchers also contend that improving the well-being of consumers does not conflict with maximizing a firm’s financial benefits because implementing CCS and facilitating sustainable consumption can avoid hidden costs, such as the costs associated with producing excessive amount of merchandise and doing wasteful advertising. These efforts can also result in increased market share and more profits, as consumers reward firms for these efforts (Cronin et al. 2010).
Central to the effort for firms to facilitate sustainable consumption is offering quality products (Hanss and Bӧhm 2012; McNeill and Moore 2015). Specifically, Gruber et al. (2014) indicate that while the concept of sustainability itself is ambiguous, sustainability in consumers’ minds is strongly connected to their perceptions of product quality (e.g., “if it is a high quality product, it should also be sustainable”). Thus, when fashion brands offer quality products, they can not only help their consumers achieve sustainable consumption but also communicate their “contribution to the sustainability of a larger economic system rather than focusing on their own financial success” (Fulton and Lee 2013, p. 355). Thus, this study will focus on the consumer’s perception of the extent to which a brand offers quality products that help the consumer achieve sustainable consumption.
Fast fashion products are often criticized for being made with poor-quality materials and construction (Joy et al. 2012). Cline (2012) argues that apparel quality has been indeed eroded in the era of fast fashion. She maintains that, due to the disposable nature of fast fashion, low prices and trendy styles instead of craftsmanship and durability have become more important decision criteria for purchasing fashion products. In other words, consumers may still shop fast fashion products despite their perception of low product quality (“If it’s under $20, honestly I don’t mind spending it”) (Cline 2012, p. 16). Therefore, the adverse impact that the fast fashion system has had on consumers’ perceptions of product quality needs to be considered when examining the economic dimension of CCS of fast fashion brands.
CCS: environmental dimension
Environmental sustainability from a CCS perspective involves making responsible choices that will reduce the negative impacts of businesses on the ecological environment. With the growing movement toward ethical consumerism, consumers have become aware of the environmental damage caused by fashion businesses and have expressed their concerns over the negative impacts these businesses have made on the environment. While strong commitment is still rare (Plieth et al. 2012), there has been an increase in the initiative of fashion brands to improve environmental sustainability in such areas as use of environmentally friendly materials (e.g., organic cotton) and conducting a life cycle analysis on the materials used (Curwen et al. 2012).
Fast fashion brands also have implemented a variety of sustainability initiatives. For example, H&M offers the Conscious Collection made mostly out of recycled polyester and organic cotton and promote the idea of sustainable fashion through its advertising campaign (Dishman 2013). However, researchers argue that the sustainability approach taken by fast fashion brands is fundamentally different from that taken by sustainable fashion brands that operate to a triple bottom line. According to Park and Kim (2016), fast fashion brands’ environmental sustainability efforts are largely reactive in that they attempt to merely satisfy a segment of environmentally conscious consumers by marketing their sustainable alternatives offered often in a limited quantity. They further argue that this reactive approach is in contrast to sustainable fashion brands’ proactive approach toward environmental sustainability to transform the whole industry by taking a leadership in sustainable development (e.g., Patagonia’s effort to develop a tool to measure the environmental impacts of apparel businesses).
CCS: social dimension
The social dimension of sustainability adds a sense of community to sustainable development in that it emphasizes cooperation and concern for others, which ultimately contributes to the well-being of a larger community (Edwards 2005). On a micro-level, social sustainability addresses how the product and its production processes affect people’s lives. On a macro-level, it relates to how society as a whole (e.g., human health, traditional culture) is impacted by type of business (Waage et al. 2005). In the fashion apparel industry, the social aspect of CCS often relates to fair trade and ethical sourcing practices during the manufacturing phase because human right issues such as sweatshops, child labor, and poor working conditions are particularly pervasive (Fulton and Lee 2013). The increasing manufacturing flexibility that is required in the current fashion industry has exacerbated working conditions in garment factories (Gardetti and Torres 2012).
It goes without saying that fast fashion has significantly increased the pressure for flexibility. Under the fast fashion business system, retailers place small, more frequent orders with a short turnaround time and lower manufacturing costs (Parker and Dickson 2009). To deal with this demand for low-cost and flexibility, many manufacturers rely on sub-contracting (i.e., outsourcing temporary workers), which has resulted in instability in employment in many of the developing countries and increased their workers’ overtime (Gardetti and Torres 2012). The recent factory collapse in Bangladesh that resulted in the death of over 1000 workers demonstrates the urgent need for improved working conditions and better human rights that is facing the current fashion industry. Given this situation, it is apparent that fast fashion brands must incorporate social sustainability into their standard business practices (Stern 2007).
The impact of customer-centric sustainability on brand relationships
The literature provides evidence that sustainability of fashion brands as perceived by consumers positively influences their perceptions, attitudes, and behavior toward the brands. As early as in the 1990s, researchers found the tendency of apparel consumers to exhibit socially responsible consumption and environmental consumerism (e.g., Dickson and Littrell 1996; Kim and Damhorst 1998). Since then, researchers have found that consumers are increasingly concerned about the sustainability of apparel firms. Specifically, researchers find that consumer perceptions of apparel firms’ business transparency positively influence brand trust, brand attitude (Kang and Hustvedt 2014) and purchase intention (Bhaduri and Ha-Brookshire 2011), and that consumers have favorable attitude toward environmentally sustainable fashion brands or products (e.g., organic cotton, cotton grown using sustainable farming practices) (Norum and Ha-Brookshire 2011; Hustvedt and Dickson 1996). Corresponding to these findings, researchers conclude that integrating sustainability into a business strategy not only improves a firm’s brand image, but also elevates the level of product credibility, which leads to a deeper and stronger relationship with its customers (Molthan-Hill 2014; Schmitt and Renken 2012).
This study examines whether a fashion brand’s perceived sustainability positively influences two brand relationships, brand trust and brand loyalty. Of the many brand-related outcomes, brand trust and loyalty were selected because these two constructs are often found as the outcomes of consumer perceptions of a firm’s sustainability (Bhaduri and Ha-Brookshire 2011; Kang and Hustvedt 2014). This study proposes that the significant impact of a brand’s sustainability on positive brand relationships may not hold for fast fashion because consumers may still develop brand trust and loyalty toward fast fashion brands even though they do perceive the negative aspects of those brands’ sustainable management. Further, Park and Kim (2016) recently found that the approach to sustainability taken by fast fashion brands is fundamentally different from that of sustainable fashion brands such that the former is reactive in their sustainability initiative while the latter is proactive by taking a sustainability leadership in the entire fashion industry. Thus, recognizing the two different modes of approaches to sustainability taken by fast fashion brands and sustainably produced fashion brands (“sustainable fashion brands” hereafter), it is argued that consumers’ perceptions of brand sustainability may be more strongly linked to their positive brand relationships for sustainable fashion brands than for fast fashion brands. While the TBL sustainability model and the impact of sustainability on brand relationships are theoretically established in many research studies (McNeill and Moore 2015; Sheth et al. 2011), there is limited empirical evidence in the literature to support the specific propositions made in this study (i.e., the applicability of the TBL model to fashion brands, and the weak association between the brand’s sustainability and brand relationships for fast fashion brands). Therefore, the following three exploratory research questions are formulated:
RQ1: Does the TBL model serve as an accounting framework for consumers’ perceived sustainability of fast fashion brands as well as sustainable fashion brands?
RQ2: Do the three dimensions of sustainability (i.e., economic, environmental, social sustainability) of fast fashion brands as perceived by consumers predict brand relationships such as brand trust and loyalty?
RQ3: Does the predictive role of the TBL sustainability of fast fashion brands differ from that of sustainable fashion brands?