Factors Influencing Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Co-branded Products with Eco-labels

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence consumers’ purchase intention of co-branded products with eco-labels in the clothing industry and to what extent these factors affect consumers’ purchase intention. The study fills in a research gap by also investigating the result of the co-branding on the purchase intentions of the consumers. The aim is to explore how the original clothing brand and eco-label brand influence purchase intention both directly and through several mediators such as perceived fit, ease of transfer and product evaluation. Methodology A quantitative research method was performed on two clothing and eco-label brands to test the model that we have created in this study. An online survey was created and delivered to 630 the students in the Master Programs of the School of Business, Economics and Law in Gothenburg in 2020. The collected data was processed in SPSS and AMOS. Results and Findings Our research shows that the model we have built to explain how the eco-labelling of clothes influences the customers’ intentions to purchase them is valid. Our findings indicate that the current theory cannot completely explain the roles played in the eco-labelling by the different analyzed factors. A significant part of the previous theory could not be confirmed in the context of our study. The research also demonstrates that all the analyzed factors have a positive influence on the purchase intentions. The influence of the product evaluation on the customers’ intentions to purchase eco-labelled clothes is moderate and twice as big as the weak influence of the other four factors. Implications Our research has both theoretical and practical implications. From the theoretical perspective, we clarify how co-branding differs from other brand alliances. In addition, we extend the existing theory and take a step further by also investigating the result of the co-branding on the consumers’ purchase intentions. From a practical perspective, both high and low equity clothes brands have the same incentives to eco-label their products. The clothes manufacturers can potentially choose an “easier” eco-branding and even create their own eco-labels. The organizations that manage audited eco-labels will therefore face difficulties to partner with clothes companies. Making the eco-labelled product highly evaluated by the customers should be the focus of the clothing companies.