Consumer behavior in sustainable fashion: a systematic literature
review and future research agenda
Busalim, AbdelsalamORCID: 0000-0001-5826-8593, Fox, GraceORCID: 0000-0003-1392-6833 and Lynn, TheoORCID: 0000-0001-9284-7580
(2022)
Consumer behavior in sustainable fashion: a systematic literature
review and future research agenda.
International Journal of Consumer Studies, 46
(5).
pp. 1804-1828.
ISSN 1470-6423
During the last decade, sustainable fashion has attracted increasing attention from
policymakers, firms, and consumers. This interest is also reflected in consumer behavior
research in this area. Notwithstanding this, there are few systematic literature reviews from a
consumer behavior perspective. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and
critically assess the studies on consumer behavior in sustainable fashion to identify the research
gap in this context and inform a future research agenda. A total of 167 journal articles were
identified, and a final sample of 88 articles synthesized. A descriptive analysis was performed
to examine the research methods, research trends, and theoretical underpinnings. Separately, a
synthetic analysis was performed using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework.
Findings reveal a significant increase in the volume of publications since 2009. Qualitative,
experimental, cross-cultural, and longitudinal studies are significantly less represented in the
literature. No evidence of research using big data techniques were identified. Much of the
research published is not adequately grounded in theory. The findings also suggest that the
consumer attitude-behavior gap requires further exploration. This review fills a need to
summarize the current state of consumer behavior in sustainable fashion literature and provides
valuable insights into the existing marketing corpus on the topic. Moreover, the review
identifies a number of outstanding research gaps that can inform future research.
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Sustainable fashion; Consumer behavior; Systematic literature review; Fast
fashion; Slow fashion; Stimulus-organism-response framework