What Drives Consumers in Eco-Fashion? A Means-End Approach to Building Meaningful Segments of Green Consumer Types

Abstract

The market for green and ethical clothing represents a less researched but challenging area, as this green product category is driven by multiple personal end-goals. A review of ethical and eco clothing literature reveals a blur of terms and concepts (Thomas 2008) and confusion about what consumers truly value in ethical clothing (Niinimäki 2010) and how values link back to product preferences (e.g. Dickson 2000). This study explores consumers’ product preferences, desired consumption outcomes, underlying personal values driving ethical/eco clothing purchase, and segmentation based on preferences related to ethical and eco clothing. The theoretical foundation is value theory (Rokeach 1973, Schwartz 1992) and means-end chain theory (Gutman 1982), recommended as a valuable research technique for sustainable consumption by Jackson (2005).