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Reviews an case study on the Gap Inc and it's ethical policies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The article focuses on the ethical policies of The Gap Inc. and studies consumer opinion on the use of ‘sweatshop’ activities.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format. It is a very interesting read, even to the casual observer, and offers interesting points on just what consumers judge to be important factors influencing their purchase decisions. It would be especially appropriate to those dealing with marketing and labor policies, as well as those studying corporate policy, particularly in the fashion / apparel industry.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the issues currently involved in social and environmental sustainability in the clothing industry.

The paper adopts a case study approach to investigate a business that operates successfully in this challenging market.

As a consequence of increasing demand for ethical clothing, it has become standard practice for UK clothing retailers to develop CSR policies which impact upon their methods of garment sourcing and partnerships with suppliers. There is also a significant trend for retailers to offer ethical clothing ranges made from organic cotton or produced by Fair Trade manufacturers. The paper includes a case study on People Tree, which sells Fair Trade clothing sourced from developing countries. People Tree is rare amongst clothing companies in that it provides customers with a transparent view of its production sources via the internet. The company provides an example of how socially responsible and environmentally sustainable global sourcing can be applied in practice.

The study focuses on aspects of sustainability in an individual retailer. This could be extended to other ethical retailers in different countries, and a longitudinal study of such companies could be conducted.

Literature on ethical fashion companies and their use of socially responsible strategies is sparse, and there is a lack of research that covers both social and environmental sustainability in this market. This paper fills some of the gaps.

To explore the extent to which consumers' ethical concerns impact upon apparel purchase decisions and highlight the value of The Gap's corporate code of conduct in meeting these concerns.

Face‐to‐face questionnaires were conducted with Scottish consumers in February 2003. Respondents were recruited from central shopping areas using a convenience sampling method.

Despite consumers possessing a high level of awareness of ethical issues, results reveal that factors such as price, quality and style have a greater influence on their apparel purchase behaviour than their concerns about the ethical practices of the supplier.

As the study was exploratory in nature and consisted of Scottish consumers only, generalisations of the results should be approached with some caution.

Provides a useful insight into The Gap's corporate code of conduct and the extent to which such codes meet the ethical concerns of consumers in relation to their apparel purchasing decisions.

The emergence of the ethical consumer has been much discussed, particularly in relation to global food markets (e.g. food miles, fair trade, organics, etc.). However, little agreement exists surrounding the ethics of apparel production. This study aims to contribute to this research gap by exploring consumer influences upon the apparel purchase decision‐making process.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the results of an exploratory study comparing attitudes of young fashion conscious consumers towards ethical fashion in Canada, France and the UK.

The methods used in this research were qualitative with a mix of interviews and focus groups and a new application of a visual method widely used within design and fashion environments, the mood board. The study is based within the contrast of a growing trend towards sustainability and the rise of fast fashion where consumers are increasingly demanding cheaper items. The research is also grounded in cross-cultural research where the comparison of data emanating from different cultures and languages presents specific dilemmas for researchers.

Results indicated that there were notable differences in the perception of ethical fashion between the respondents from these three cultures. In the representation and appeal of this fashion segment, in terms of its perceived availability, the transfer of meaning connected with the observation of higher price points and in the use of ethical purchases in the fashion arena as an offset or redemption for unethical behaviour in other contexts.

The originality of this paper lies in the innovative use of the visual qualitative methods which contributes to the debate concerning the research methods associated with cross-cultural research and extends the restricted body of literature which compares cultural attitudes in this area by offering key insights into the complex issues surrounding ethical fashion consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Gen Y consumers' responses to American Apparel's use of two advertising message strategies – fair labour and sex appeal, using the theory of reasoned action to predict intent to patronize American Apparel and comparing the utility of the classic reasoned action model with an extended model that included variables external to the theory.

A questionnaire was administered to 425 consumers, who were randomly assigned to one of four advertisement exposure groups. Group 1 evaluated an American Apparel ad (Ad No. 1) that promoted fair labour practices. Groups 2, 3, and 4 evaluated Ad No. 1 as well as one of three additional ads that featured messages employing sex appeal of varied intensities.

Participants' attitudes toward American Apparel were more positive when they were exposed to the fair labour message, only, than when they were exposed to the fair labour message in conjunction with one of the three sex appeal messages. In the classic reasoned action models, intent to patronize American Apparel was consistently predicted by attitude toward the retailer. Extending the models increased the explained variance for Groups 1, 2, and 3, with several variables adding predictive utility.

A fair labour message may contribute to positive evaluations of apparel advertisements and may build positive attitudes toward apparel retailers. Thus, when appropriate, apparel retailers might consider using a fair labour message strategy, rather than a sex appeal message strategy.

The study explores consumer responses to two distinct advertising message strategies not often used simultaneously by a single company within the contemporary marketplace and examines the influence of these responses and other variables on patronage intention.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumers’ responses to prosocial marketing claims presented on apparel hang tags. Guided by the theory of reasoned of action, this study examined the impact of varied prosocial claims (environment, labor, cancer charity) upon college students’ evaluations of hang tags used to promote university-branded apparel (i.e. t-shirts) as well as their attitudes and patronage intentions toward the apparel.

An intercept survey approach, with an experimental design component, was used to administer a written questionnaire to 262 college students. The experimental design component required participants to examine a university-branded t-shirt and to read the information provided on the product hang tag attached to the t-shirt.

In total, 60 percent of college students read apparel hang tags on a very frequent or frequent basis to gain information about brand name, care instructions, and fiber content. Further, college students evaluated apparel hang tags featuring prosocial marketing claims more positively than they evaluated hang tags with no prosocial marketing claim. In turn, these evaluations positively predicted the amount of money students were willing to pay for a university-branded t-shirt as well as their attitudes and purchase intentions toward university-branded apparel.

Findings suggest that apparel companies engaged in socially responsible business practices may wish to develop hang tags that address both desired product attributes as well as company engagement in prosocial initiatives.

This study extends the understanding of the role that prosocial marketing claims play in informing consumer's attitudes and behaviors relative to apparel.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perceptions and understanding of sustainable concepts within the context of fashion consumption.

Phenomenological interviews provided a platform to explore fashion sustainability and garment labels from current UK high street fashion retailers were used to stimulate discussion.

The findings identify confusion of how sustainability applies to fashion, particularly for environmental issues and there was scepticism regarding higher pricing for organic cotton. However, motivation to avoid fashion produced under exploitation resulted in avoiding retailers alleged of such practice, paying more for garments and purchasing from established UK retailers.

The idiographic nature of a phenomenological approach may be considered as a limitation, yet this in-depth exploration of participants with similar socio-demographics enables a rich understanding of the discourse experienced within their lifeworlds.

The findings illustrate that consumers are transferring sustainable principles from one context to another, and that by addressing sustainability, fashion retailers could obtain a competitive advantage.

The findings demonstrate consumers’ increased involvement with sustainability and the role expected from fashion retailers.

The research uniquely positions consumers’ reliance on heuristics to guide sustainable preferences, due to the lack of information and this implies that sustainable concepts are increasingly incorporated into everyday behaviours.

Extending the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this paper aims to measure the relative importance of different barriers to sustainable fashion consumption (SFC).

Existing studies have mainly adopted a qualitative methodology for identifying barriers to uptake of SFC, this study uses six of the main identified barriers: environmental apparel knowledge, perceived value, price sensitivity, product attributes and variety, availability and scepticism into the TPB framework to test and reveal which barriers have the greater impact on the TPB cognitions and consequently on building intention towards SFC. To test this model a survey study among 669 consumers from Europe, Asian and North America was conducted, structural equation modelling is used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings confirm the role of TPB cognitions on predicting intention and show that the proposed barriers provide a satisfactory explanation of the TPB model. Furthermore, results show that product attributes and variety and environmental apparel knowledge have the greatest impact on the TPB cognitions and on building intention towards SFC. Differences were found between the impacts of the price for the three continents.

This research contributes to the emerging sustainable fashion literature by examining the impact of different barriers to SFC in an extended TPB framework. To the best of our knowledge price sensitivity, availability and scepticism have never been studied in the context of sustainable fashion. It also provides a multifactor group analysis which uncovers differences among consumers from different continents.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is a strategy to address companies’ goodwill to the society. Based on the institutional theory suggesting the influence of environmental factors of companies’ country-of-origins on their marketing practices, the purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the CSR communication practices of apparel firms from different countries.

As a case study approach, this study investigates six apparel firms’ CSR communication disclosures on the official websites using a content analysis method and the Global Reporting Initiative’s categorial CSR reporting guidelines.

Findings revealed that the six firms’ CSR communication adoption levels and focusses varied; the USA firms largely focussed on labor issues, while the European firms focussed on environmental issues and the Asian firms centered on social issues.

Although this study has limitations that pertain to case studies in general, this study provides academic contributions to the literature and managerial implications about different CSR focusses and communication activities across countries.

CSR is especially important for the apparel business that highly involves social issues such as labor-intensive production. However, limited research showed how apparel firms are actually communicating CSR. This study was one of the early attempts on this topic.

The fair trade system was established as an alternative to the free trade system. In the case of fair trade apparel, certification standards are nascent and there is no consistent logo or labelling to aid consumers in their quest to purchase fairly‐made garments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the practices and marketing strategies of three fair trade apparel businesses based in a metropolitan city in the USA, where there are no clear standards to follow. The interviews taken for these case studies were conducted before the launching of a certification program for fair trade apparel by TransFair USA.

This research comprised three case study fair trade apparel companies – two wholesale and one retail. The case studies are based on in‐depth interviews, the examination of documents provided by business owners, and publicly available information on each of the companies.

These three case studies revealed differences in fair trade practices. The wholesalers communicated that they perceived a hierarchy of importance in fair trade practices, placing an emphasis on labour standards and workers’ rights and considering environmental standards to be secondary. The lack of a standardized logo for labels on fair trade apparel has meant that the businesses have had to find creative ways to communicate their fair trade practices to consumers. None of the participants felt that this lack of standardization negatively impacted their businesses.

There is need for a standardized label to make fair trade apparel easily identifiable for consumers and for the further development of standards for fair trade apparel and the marketing of fair trade apparel.

Standards for fair trade apparel are currently being developed and the paper provides valuable information about the process by which fair trade standards are formed and marketed in practice.