Hyejune Park’s research while affiliated with Oklahoma State University Oklahoma City and other places

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has been affecting consumer behavior in a significant way. The collaborative consumption businesses, such as online rental services, is one of those sectors that have been immensely disrupted by the pandemic because many ‘sharing’ services require high touch and human contact. The purpose of this study is to develop and test a comprehensive model of consumers’ acceptance of online apparel renting (OAR) that can also take account of the pandemic’s effect. To this end, a two-phase, mixed-method study was conducted to identify the specific determinants of OAR (Study 1) and to empirically test the model of OAR acceptance with the pandemic-related moderating variables (Study 2). This study identifies a series of consumer drivers of OAR including affordable access, shopping convenience, try before you buy, never wear same dress twice, and special occasion. It also demonstrates the significant moderating effects of two pandemic-related factors including perceived vulnerability to disease and desire for simplification. The findings provide practical managerial suggestions to OAR retailers and theoretical implications for future studies.

With the increased awareness about ecological concerns and the growing popularity of sustainable fashion, thrift retail stores are growing fast both in number and sales. However, limited research has examined thrift stores as a distinct retail sector from a general second-hand retail sector that includes both non-profit thrift stores and for-profit resale stores. To fill this void, this study identified the motivational antecedents of thrift store shopping behavior (TSSB) and profiled thrift shoppers by developing a decision tree predictive model of TSSB. The results provide the key driving factors of TSSB including self-oriented factors (treasure hunting, seeking name brand products) and others-oriented factors (responsible citizenship). Practical implications are also suggested for thrift store managers.

The purpose of this study was to understand the phenomenon of collaborative apparel consumption (CAC) by discovering the consumer motivations for engaging in collaborative consumption and comparing motivations across different modes of CAC. This study focused on the two types of online platforms for CAC that are most relevant to the current apparel industry including online apparel renting and resale sites. Using the grounded theory approach, 38 users of CAC platforms were interviewed. A variety of themes concerning consumer motivations for engaging in CAC emerged from the data. The final eight themes for renting and six themes for resale were categorized into five basic consumer motivations: saving money, saving time, finding desirable product assortment, utility, and no burden of ownership. Specific theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Collaborative consumption (CC) has significantly changed the way people consume resources from everyday goods to non-product assets. However, despite the rapid growth of CC, adoption has been slow in regards to apparel. Based on the endowment effect claiming that simply owning a good can enhance its perceived worth, this study proposes two deterrents of CC adoption including a sense of ownership and possession-self association, and hypothesizes that these constructs positively affect perceived risk of CC, which in turn impedes adoption intention of CC. Two additional moderators (consumers’ involvement with apparel products, consumers’ emotional attachment to apparel) in the relationship between possession-self bond and perceived risk were also suggested. An online self-administered survey was administered to 1,841 US respondents to test a research model including four different CC modes for apparel, finding support for the endowment effect as a potential barrier to consumer adoption of CC when ownership is removed. Specific managerial implications for CC retailers are provided.

This study examined whether consumer orientations differ among frequent shoppers of three types of second-hand clothing stores: consignment stores, online stores, and thrift stores. The literature suggests that second-hand clothing shoppers can be described by six consumer orientations: frugality, style consciousness, ecological consciousness, dematerialism, nostalgia proneness, and fashion consciousness. The data collected via online survey consisted of 600 consumers in the US (200 consignment store shoppers, 200 online shoppers, and 200 thrift store shoppers). The results from a profile analysis and ANOVA demonstrate that the three types of second-hand retailers have distinct profiles in consumer orientations and thus cannot be lumped together as one retailer group. Consignment store shoppers had higher scores on nostalgia proneness and fashion consciousness than thrift store shoppers; online shoppers had higher scores on nostalgia proneness and fashion consciousness than thrift store shoppers; and thrift store shoppers had the highest score on dematerialism. Specific implications for each second-hand clothing store are provided.

With a growing concern for the environment and social responsibility, the definition of apparel quality has changed radically over the last decade from the traditional product efficacy-based quality to the quality encompassing every process that is involved in the production and the consumption of a product, including social and environmental responsibility. To address this change in the apparel quality analysis (AQA) course, the author transformed the AQA course by (a) incorporating sustainability issues within the entire AQA course curriculum and (b) developing materials and resources for apparel quality learning exercises. This paper proposes a framework for teaching an AQA course that integrates sustainability and discusses how the ‘mainstream’ approach to integrate sustainability into the course curriculum can aid in better delivery of an AQA course. The pre- and post-course survey indicates the significant, positive changes in students’ view of apparel quality as well as their attitudes and behavioural intentions.

The aims of this study are to identify apparel consumer segments based on consumer attributes related to sustainability-related factors and traditional apparel shopping-related factors and to profile the identified segments in consumer characteristics. Using a sample of 754 US consumers, a factor analysis, a cluster analysis, χ² test, and ANOVA were used in identifying and profiling the segments for sustainable consumers for apparel. Four consumer segments were identified: Concerned Shoppers, Holistic Shoppers, Traditionals, and Apathetic Shoppers. Each consumer segment exhibited significant differences in sustainability-related attributes (i.e. sustainability knowledge, sustainability consciousness), traditional shopping-related attributes (i.e. fashion consciousness, price sensitivity, product quality), behavioral outcomes (i.e. ecologically-conscious apparel consumer behavior, socially-conscious apparel consumer behavior, purchase intention of fast fashion products), and demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age). The results provide marketing suggestions for each consumer segment.

While apparel businesses leveraging the sharing economy have begun to emerge in recent years, academic research on "sharing" consumption for apparel is extremely limited. To fill this research gap, the researchers analyze current literature to present a conceptual framework that offers a durable theoretical foundation about the concept of collaborative consumption for apparel. Using a metatheory approach, the researchers develop a framework that explores how two major Internet-supported collaborative consumption modes (utility-based non-ownership and redistributed ownership) manifest in an apparel context. Next, the researchers explore the implications of each consumption mode to understand the consumer's relationship with the product, peers, and businesses involved in these sharing schemes. A series of research propositions are also developed to stimulate discussion and future research about collaborative apparel consumption. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

The aims of this study were (a) to determine if the triple bottom line (TBL) model can serve as an accounting framework for consumers’ perceived sustainability of fashion brands; (b) to investigate whether TBL sustainability can be linked to brand relationships with fast fashion; and (c) to determine whether the predictive role of the TBL sustainability of fast fashion brands differs from that of sustainable fashion brands. Three research questions were formulated to achieve these goals. To this end, a series of statistical analyses were conducted on the consumer panel data (N = 732) gathered via a market research firm. The sample included US consumers who have shopped from either fast fashion brands or sustainable fashion brands. The results suggest that the TBL model is an effective tool for explaining a consumer’s perception of a fashion brand’s sustainability. The results also reveal disparate effects of TBL sustainability on brand outcomes between fast fashion brands and sustainable fashion brands. Detailed results with theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.