An Innovation Resistance Theory Perspective on Sustainable Fashion

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to explore the relative importance of the eight psychological Active Innovation Resistance (AIR) barriers, from the new typology of AIR barriers developed from Talke and Heidenreich in 2014, on the consumer’s intention to adopt or buy circular fashion products. Moreover, this thesis examines whether the socio-demographic factors of age, employment status, and educational level have an influence on the adoption process. A quantitative analysis is applied through the issuance of an online questionnaire in order to collect the data with the help of the Typeform survey tool. 79 respondents’ data is analyzed. The findings of this study reveal that the economic risk barrier along with the functional risk and usage barriers exhibit the most significant influence on the consumer’s reluctance to adopt circular fashion. The aforementioned barriers, which lead the way for the rest, are accompanied by the personal risk, image and information barriers, and last but not the least, the norm barrier. The social risk barrier has the least impact on consumers' intention to adopt circular fashion. The results of this study suggest that entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a business within the circular fashion industry and the marketing strategists in fashion companies should focus on showing the maximum value and the functionality of the circular fashion products during their marketing campaigns. It is also suggested for the marketers to initially target generation Z but when targeting the more Innovation resistant generation Y it is of absolute importance to include adequate information about the circular fashion product in the marketing campaigns. Additionally, the present thesis explores the socio-demographic factors in the socio-psychological theories of Ram and Seth, and Rogers. A further implication is that further studies will focus on the socio-demographic factors, since the socio-demographic factors have been neglected in the study field of socio-psychological theories.