Impacts of Social Media Mediated Electronic Words of Mouth on Young Consumers’ Disposal of Fashion Apparel: A Review and Proposed Model

Abstract

In recent decades, sustainability has been a very popular research topic in the fashion apparel industry. There is no doubt that sustainability is a serious issue for people living anywhere in the world. As fashion is one of the most essential facets in everybody’s life, sustainable consumption is one of the methods to assist the development of sustainability. Yet, prior studies have paid little attention to investigate consumers’ disposal behaviors of fashion clothing. Nowadays, on the other hand, young consumers are seriously committed to their “virtual life” on social media and are being influenced tremendously by the associated electronic words of mouth (E-WOM) in their behaviors. Motivated by the importance of environmental sustainability in fashion and the importance of social media mediated E-WOM, this chapter reviews the literature and proposes a conceptual empirical research model to explore the impacts of social media mediated E-WOM on young consumers’ disposal behaviors of fashion apparel. Some specific propositions have also been developed.