Ethics, Fast Fashion, and Green Marketing: Connecting the Dots

Abstract

Purpose – Literature exists surrounding the behaviour of Millennials towards fast fashion, but little exists on the attitude and behaviour of their younger generational counterpart, Generation Z. To address this absence, this research study discovers the ethical decision-making processes that young South African consumers—Millennials and Generation Z—experience when purchasing apparel. This research study also considers green consumer purchasing behaviour when studying and understanding the attitude-behaviour gap, which is explored in more detail in the literature review. For this reason, the application of the attitude-behaviour-context theory to achieve the purpose of this study is made clear as fast fashion is explored from a sustainable viewpoint and holistically linked to consumer ethics. Methodology – This research study adopted an interpretivist paradigm as the researcher aimed to gain a deeper understanding of consumers’ opinions on the fast fashion phenomena. Consequently, a qualitative research approach was applied in the collection and analysis of data in the form of semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, respectively. Because of the phenomenological research design of this research study, a small sample of 6 participants from the City of Cape Town was chosen by the researcher in an attempt to deeply understand the complexity between ethics, fast fashion, and green marketing. Findings – The findings from this research study proved the validity of the attitudinal-behavioural-context theory as the majority of participants displayed an eagerness to consume and support eco-friendly fashion items, however, this attitude towards eco-friendly fashion items is often not acted upon due to unaffordability and inconvenience. When provided with the option to purchase an eco-friendly fashion item and a fast fashion item, all of the participants would ideally purchase the eco-friendly fashion item, but due to external situational factors, this choice is seldom chosen. Furthermore, there appeared to be no distinct difference between the Millennial and Generation Z generations groups’ viewpoints on fast fashion; age, therefore, did not play an important role in this research study’s findings. Limitations and implications – The limitations of this study lie in its small sample size and specific target population. The use of purposive sampling also makes the sampling method less generalisable to the public and broader Millennial and Generation Z consumers. All participants were also educated and held a tertiary qualification, thus not representing the South African population well. For this reason, future research should aim to collect data from more participants from all educational backgrounds. However, many bodies of literature targeting the fast fashion phenomena were available to the researcher which allowed for them to formulate a clear direction of this research study’s contribution to science.