Scale Development of Sustainable Consumption of Clothing Products
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sustainability Article Scale Development of Sustainable Consumption of Clothing Products Sunyang Park 1 and Yuri Lee 2,* 1 College of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea; [email protected] 2 The Research Institute of Human Ecology, College of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +82-2-880-6843 Abstract: Researchers and companies are paying attention to consumers’ sustainable consumption of clothing products. Clothing industry and fashion consumers have been criticized for a long time due to endless mass production and overconsumption. Despite the efforts of corporations to use sustainability as a marketing tool and an expanding literature exploring consumers’ response to such marketing, the definition of sustainable consumption of clothing products (SCCP) remains unclear. Academic works lack comprehensive discussions regarding SCCP in the perspective of consumers’ awareness and behavior. Furthermore, no widely accepted measurement tool of this concept exists. The validated measurement instrument will eventually help the diagnosing of the mental and behavior status of clothing consumers’ SCCP and further support to establish consumer guidance aimed at resolving sustainability issues related clothing consumption. This study aimed to conceptualize, develop and validate a scale to measure SCCP from the perspective of general clothing consumers. Literature review and interview were used to collect qualitative data for scale item generation. Then, surveys were conducted two times to acquire quantitative data from respondents to purify and validate the scale items. Content analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis using MPlus were used to explore and predict the data. Based on reliability and validity check, the results are apparent that the scale shows good psychometric properties. Keywords: sustainable consumption; clothing products; scale development; measurement development Citation: Park, S.; Lee, Y. Scale Development of Sustainable Consumption of Clothing Products. 1. Introduction Sustainability 2021, 13, 115. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010115 Sustainability regarding production and consumption is a hot topic in various in- dustrial sectors. In the clothing industry, sustainability issues related to the production Received: 25 November 2020 and consumption of clothing products are also drawing attention. The problems of un- Accepted: 21 December 2020 sustainability related to clothing products exist typically in the production process of Published: 24 December 2020 clothing fabrics and textiles harming the ecological environment and they include labor issues of sewing workers in developing countries and the increase of the size of non- Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neu- biodegradable clothing waste. These issues are mainly understood as a duty of clothing tral with regard to jurisdictional claims companies, with examples of the industry leaders taking efforts in various ways to improve in published maps and institutional sustainability issues, developing and using eco-friendly materials, disclosing labor-related affiliations. information, recycling and upcycling or taking new business models that prevent clothing wastes. On the other hand, academia in clothing studies has been conducting various studies on sustainable consumption of clothing products (SCCP) from the consumers’ per- Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Li- spective. However, in many studies, when it comes to assessing how consumers are aware censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This of SCCP and how they actually involve in clothing consumption behavior, it was mainly article is an open access article distributed focused on measuring the purchase intention of sustainable clothing products or services under the terms and conditions of the offered by the industry [1–7]. The purchase is merely a partial behavior of the whole Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) consumption process, while the actual consumption stages are more complex including license (https://creativecommons.org/ consumer awareness and behavior in various domains and consumption stages. Thus, licenses/by/4.0/). there is a lack of research on the systematic consideration to measure the comprehensive Sustainability 2021, 13, 115. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13010115 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 115 2 of 20 concept of SCCP. In particular, scholars and practitioners are still uncertain when it comes to which domains and activities should be defined as measuring tool for SCCP. Then, in order to resolve these uncertainties, it is required to take conceptual approaches and reveal a measurement instrument. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a scale on SCCP. The necessity of developing the scale of SCCP stems from several reasons. First, sustainable consumption is an ambiguous concept itself. Sustainable consumption has not been conceptualized from in-depth discussions or conceptual exploration of it, but, is based on the concept of “sustainable development”, making it difficult to present clear definitions or concepts as they consist of incidental consumer practices. Sustainable consumption studies show a variety of definitions in each study [8] and it is considered difficult to present a universal definition of sustainable consumption that can be used in a multidisciplinary way [9]. In the same vein, the concept of SCCP is also unclear. It has been presented by researchers with respective definitions, being too general and difficult to measure. Second, SCCP was mostly measured by the intention of purchasing certain sustainable clothing products, limiting the role of consumers simply as “purchasers” [1–7] and over- looking the conceptual multidimensionality inherent in SCCP. When it comes to general green consumption, scholars have discussed various pro-environmental behaviors such as use, recycling, reuse, rental etc. [10–14]. Nonetheless, there is a lack of discussion on the impact of the use and disposal stages of “clothing products”. A comprehensive perspective of understanding consumer awareness and behavior in a sustainable clothing lifestyle is needed. Consumption includes the post-purchase stages such as use and disposal and con- sumers could refuse or refrain making purchases or make better choices than purchasing new merchandise. Therefore, dealing solely with “purchase” when measuring sustainable consumption behavior lacks understanding of various roles of consumers. In particular, recent consumers show a tendency of making consumption based on their values [15]. Collective consumption, boycotting and anti-consumerism were also notable [16–18]. Nevertheless, simply purchasing eco-friendly or ethical clothing products has been simply applied when measuring SCCP [19,20], other consumer behaviors than the purchasing stage have been neglected. Further discussion could be conducted about the impact of decreasing the size of consumption and behaving in the use, care and disposal of clothing products and anti-consumption movement. It is necessary to consider multidimensionality from the perspective that SCCP is not just a single entity or phenomenon. The consumer should be understood as an active entity with multifaceted roles. Third, sustainability issues of clothing products relate not only to the ecological aspect, but also to the social, ethical and cultural aspects. The previous studies under the topic of SCCP have heavily focused on the ecological aspects such as recycling, upcycling and consumption of eco-friendly clothing products [21–23]. Unlike other products, however, clothing products involve many other sustainability aspects besides ecological impacts. The characteristics of clothing products consumption include self-expression, aesthetics and functionality; thus, there is a wide range of related issues under ethical and cultural aspects. For example, consumers may express their support for beliefs or political opinions by adopting specific clothing design, color or brands that match their values. Furthermore, clothing products are understood as value-added products and there exist various attitudes about ethical perceptions towards design copyrights. In addition, the structural change in the clothing industry has raised the issue of the labor environment of sewing workers as manufacturing countries move to developing countries. Further, the issue of ethics in the use of animal fur in clothing is also a subject that has drawn constant attention. As such, the consumption of clothing products leads to in-depth discussions in terms of labor, animal, ethics and culture [24]. It is necessary to reflect these issues in many different aspects in conceptualizing SCCP and developing measurement tools. In other words, these aspects need to be expanded in regards of measuring SCCP. Sustainability 2021, 13, 115 3 of 20 One earlier article in the Sustainability journal has presented scale development study of sustainable consumption; Quoquab and Mohammad found cognitive, affective and conative domains of sustainable consumption [25]. Theory of mind (ToM) was used as their theoretical background, which enables understanding of individuals’ awareness, knowledge, convictions and preferences [26]. Quoquab and Mohammad pointed out previous scales of sustainable consumption are limited in a behavioral perspective. Then, their finalized scale of sustainable consumption was validated as multi-dimensional con- structs of three domains (cognitive,