Abstract

Purpose: Despite increasing awareness among fashion consumers about the positive environmental and societal impacts of sustainable fashion as a viable alternative to fast fashion, their actual adoption behavior often diverges. This study aims to empirically investigate consumers’ resistance barriers to sustainable fashion clothing. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes innovation resistance theory to examine the barriers to consumer intention to buy sustainable clothing. The study collected a large sample (N = 745) of fashion consumers from the USA and India to test a research model. Findings: The study finds that value, social risk, tradition and image barriers significantly reduce consumers’ intentions to buy sustainable fashion clothing. Additionally, the findings highlight that environmental concern moderates the relationship between social risk barriers and buying intentions. Originality/value: The study findings contribute to the existing sustainable fashion literature by highlighting the main barriers for sustainable clothing consumption and emphasizing the crucial role of social elements, economic values and the image of sustainable fashion products in shaping consumer behavior within the fashion landscape.

Keywords

Consumer resistance, Environmental concern, Innovation resistance theory, Sustainable fashion

Publication Date

2025-02-24

Publication Title

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management

Volume

29

Issue

3

ISSN

1361-2026

First Page

371

Last Page

394

Deposit Date

2025-09-15

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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