The Influence of Sustainable Fashion Product Beliefs on Purchase Intention: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

The research was carried out based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the novelty of this study explores the factors that predict purchase intention towards sustainable fashion in 860 university students located in Shanghai, China. As the sustainability issues associated with the fashion sector were increasing, we chose to generate a practical theoretical model encompassing normative beliefs (individual norms, Interpersonal influence), attitudinal beliefs (Environmental knowledge, Environmental concern, Perceived value), and control beliefs (channel convenience, financial accessibility, label credibility). This model has been utilized to examine the processes by which the three fundamental TPB variables, including subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control, can affect the purchase intention. Data were examined through SPSS 26.0 and Amos 26.0 by utilizing reliability and validity tests, factor analysis and with structural equation modeling, databases that were gathered using questionnaire surveys. The findings suggest that all the variables of the belief, except those of environmental concern and channel convenience (significant outcome of neither), and personal norms (significant outcome of none) had considerable positive effects on the core TPB variables. Moreover, subjective norms, attitudes as well as perceived behavioral control were found to boost purchase intention to a great extent. The direct and significant positive effect on purchase intention was also observed among the three groups of belief variables. This study confirms the relevance of TPB model to the issue of sustainable fashion consumption and provides both theoretical and practical advice to corporate product placement and marketing strategy formulation.