The Impact of Slow Fashion Orientation (SFO) on Socially Responsible Apparel Consumption (SRC): Moderating Effects of Industry Irresponsibility and Consumer Irresponsibility
Raye Carol Cavender, Ph.D; Min-Young Lee, Ph.D; Scarlett Wesley, Ph.D

Abstract
This research seeks to uncover inconsistencies in consumers’ awareness of irresponsibility by separately examining the moderating effects of company and consumer irresponsibility on the relationship between consumers’ slow fashion orientation (SFO) and their socially responsible apparel consumption (SRC) motivation. The survey instrument for this research was a self-administered online questionnaire. Scale items were adapted and expanded from the extant literature. Data were collected from a convenience sample of retailing students at two U.S. universities, yielding 405 usable responses. The partial least squares method was employed for data analysis to explore the relationship between SFO and SRC and to test the moderating effect of irresponsibility on the original relationship. The five hypotheses are discussed, and confirm that consumers still do not recognize the impacts of industry irresponsibility (i.e., environmental, social), yet they do recognize the impact of their own irresponsible consumption behaviors (i.e., purchase, use, disposal) to some extent. Using fast fashion as the focus, two measures of irresponsibility (i.e., industry, consumer) are introduced and investigated. To the author’s knowledge, no research has yet investigated awareness of industry irresponsibility and awareness of consumer irresponsibility as separate influences. The discussion highlights implications for slow fashion companies and other institutional actors (e.g., NGOs) who seek to further engage consumers in the slow fashion movement, a necessary step to transition to a collective sustainability-oriented identity within the fashion system.

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