See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/235254013

Fashion clothing consumption: Antecedents and consequences of

fashion clothing involvement

Article  in  European Journal of Marketing · July 2004

DOI: 10.1108/03090560410539294

CITATIONS READS
380 21,572

1 author:

Aron O'Cass
Macquarie Neurosurgery
207 PUBLICATIONS   11,232 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Expertise and Country of Origin effects View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Aron O'Cass on 10 February 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm

Fashion clothing
Fashion clothing consumption: consumption
antecedents and consequences of
fashion clothing involvement
869
Aron O’Cass
Newcastle Business School, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia Received March 2002
Revised November 2002 and
October 2003
Keywords Fashion industry, Consumption, Consumer behaviour
Abstract For many years fashion clothing has been an area of interest in consumer research.
This study examines the effect of materialism and self-image product-image congruency on
consumers’ involvement in fashion clothing. It also examines purchase decision involvement,
subjective fashion knowledge and consumer confidence. Data were gathered via a self-completed
mail survey, resulting in 478 responses being returned. The results indicate that fashion clothing
involvement is significantly effected by a consumer’s degree of materialism, gender and age.
Further, it was found that fashion clothing involvement influences fashion clothing knowledge.
Finally, the results indicate that fashion clothing knowledge influences consumer confidence in
making purchase decisions about fashion.

Introduction
Many modern societies are characterised by a strongly held belief that to have is to be
(Dittmar, 1992). Related to this is the view that life’s meaning, achievement and
satisfaction is often judged in terms of what possessions have or have not been
acquired (Belk, 1985; Richins, 1994). This is related to the benefit obtained by an
individual’s relationship with their possessions. Thus, individuals often define
themselves and others in terms of their possessions. Possessions have come to serve as
key symbols for personal qualities, attachments and interests and Dittmar (1992, p.
205) has said that “an individual’s identity is influenced by the symbolic meanings of
his or her own material possessions, and the way in which s/he relates to those
possessions”. A possession that holds a significant position in society is fashion
clothing. Fashion clothing has been described as possessing something approximating
a code. Davis (1994) argued that in the context of this code that clothing styles and the
fashions that influence them over time constitute a code, however, such a code is quite
different from the codes in others areas or languages. Whilst drawing such an analogy,
Davis (1994) also identified that, in reality, it is a code that is ever shifting or in process.
Taking the notion of possessions and how individuals attach importance to them,
this study explores the relationship between consumers gender, age, level of
materialism, fashion clothing involvement and fashion knowledge as depicted in
Figure 1. It also looks at consumer confidence as a consequence of involvement in and
knowledge of fashion clothing. Overall, the study explores the view that materialism,
gender and age are important antecedents of consumer involvement in fashion clothing
and that fashion clothing involvement is an antecedent to subjective knowledge of
fashion clothing. This line of reasoning is then extended to seeing that fashion clothing European Journal of Marketing
Vol. 38 No. 7, 2004
involvement and knowledge of fashion are antecedents of consumers’ confidence in pp. 869-882
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
making fashion clothing related decisions. Understanding the antecedents and 0309-0566
consequences of involvement in fashion clothing is important as fashion clothing DOI 10.1108/03090560410539294
EJM
38,7

870

Figure 1.
Fashion clothing
involvement antecedents
and consequences

occupies a focal position in the lives of many people and, as such, has both significant
social and economic value in many societies. The focus on fashion clothing is
significant because of both its economic value and significant social functions and
meaning it provides in consumers’ lives.

Fashion clothing involvement

In an attempt to more fully understand the behaviour of consumers related to
possessions, consumer researchers have often utilised involvement (Laurent and
Kapferer, 1985; Mittal and Lee, 1989; Ohanian, 1990; Zaichkowsky, 1986). Previous
research has sought to understand the ways in which consumers become involved with
products and to understand the effect involvement has on various purchasing and
consuming behaviours (Browne and Kaldenberg, 1997; Tigert et al., 1976; Traylor and
Joseph, 1984). It has been argued that relationship marketing and how individuals
ascribe specific meanings to products can be clarified by the construct of involvement.
It is argued here that this is extremely applicable to fashion clothing. Involvement
(product centrality) has been identified as being at the heart of the person-object
relationship (O’Cass, 2000) and the relational variable most predictive of purchase
behaviour (Martin, 1998; Evrard and Aurier, 1996). Relevant to this study is the view
that fashion clothing involvement may be understood via consumer-fashion clothing
attachment or relationships. In this study, involvement is viewed as being linked to the
interaction between an individual and an object, that is a relationship variable. In the
context of consumer activity and fashion clothing, involvement is defined as the extent
to which the consumer views the focal activity as a central part of their life, a
meaningful and engaging activity in their life. High fashion clothing involvement
implies greater relevance to the self (O’Cass, 2000).
Involvement has been discussed and utilised to examine fashion clothing in a
number of prior studies (e.g. Browne and Kaldenberg, 1997; Fairhurst et al., 1989;
Flynn and Goldsmith, 1993; Tigert et al., 1976) and, in reality, the importance of
involvement in the domain of fashion clothing can be seen via the defining role of
fashion clothing in society. Further, fashion clothing’s continual and cyclical nature
implies people are often drawn into the “style” or fashion of the moment, and there are
those who place a great deal of emphasis on their clothing. Contemporary fashion
research indicates that consumers are often distributed across a wide range of fashion
consciousness and behaviours. Of particular note is the point that, the high fashion Fashion clothing
involved consumer has historically been important to fashion researchers and
marketers (practitioners), because they are seen as the drivers, influentials and
consumption
legitimists of the fashion adoption process (Goldsmith et al., 1999; Tigert et al., 1976).
However, because fashion clothing means different things to different people,
consumers’ form differing attachments to it, and an individual’s attachment may be
quite different from their family or friends in intensity and nature. Understanding 871
consumers varying attachments, how they form, are maintained and are influenced is
of interest to consumer researchers (academics) and practitioners (managers) alike.
Apart from examining fashion involvement, it is also relevant and important to
examine antecedents and consequences of involvement.

Antecedents of fashion clothing involvement

Along with involvement, consumer researchers have shown considerable interest in
values because they are argued to be an important influence on behaviour. In general,
marketers are keen to explore the values that characterise consumption, and in this
vein, a value that is becoming more prevalent in many western counties, particularly
countries such as Australia, the USA and UK and the like, is materialism. Materialism
is defined here as the importance people attach to owning worldly possessions
(Solomon, 1996) and materialists place great importance on possessions. It appears to
be a potentially important dimension of consumer behaviour because of its influence on
forming attachments to possessions. For example, O’Cass (2001) has indicated that
Australia’s growing preoccupation with possessions is reflected in such consumption
values as shop till you drop and he who dies with the most toys, wins and the rise in
credit card usage and consumer debt. This does not imply that every consumer is
materialistic, as there are significant differences between individuals’ prioritisation of
and attachment to possessions (Richins, 1987). Having stronger materialistic values
has been associated with using possessions for portraying and managing impressions
(Belk, 1985) and with an understanding by individuals that possessions serve as a
communication device or signal to others (Douglas and Isherwood, 1979).
Materialism, may, therefore, represent a key variable in the development of a
consumer’s involvement with products, particularly fashion clothing. On this issue
Browne and Kaldenberg (1997) make an explicit link between materialism and
involvement. This argument is particularly relevant in the context of fashion clothing,
as it allows the fulfilment of values such as acquisition, happiness, etc. and assists in
portraying acceptable images. Fashion clothing as possession may be seen for its role
as a code and as such this materialism-consumption nexus appears to be a significant
issue, as materialists have been found to rely heavily on external cues, favouring those
possessions that are worn or consumed in public places. The important aspects of
possessions for materialists are utility, appearance, financial worth and ability to
convey status, success and prestige. Such products are thought to include fashion
clothing, because it is particularly susceptible to differences in consumption
stereotyping, and therefore to differences in ability to encode and decode a range of
messages. This suggests that consumers with stronger materialistic tendencies use
clothing for impression management (Richins, 1994), leading to greater involvement.
As such, consumers’ involvement in fashion clothing will be significantly effected by
their degree of materialism, with more materialistic consumers’ being more involved in
fashion clothing and therefore, it is hypothesised that:
EJM H1. Materialism will have a significant positive effect on fashion clothing
involvement.
38,7
Other consumer characteristics have also been identified as antecedents to
involvement in various possessions, including both gender and age. For example,
Tigert et al. (1980) argue that woman are more involved in fashion and Bloch (1981)
argues that men more involved in cars. Gender related effects on involvement have also
872 been identified by researchers such as Browne and Kaldenberg (1997) and Auty and
Elliott (1998) who have shown that women are more involved in fashion than men.
Further, Goldsmith et al. (1996) have shown that women more than men consider
themselves more fashion innovative and it is considered here that this should as such
extend to involvement. This is born out by the practical side of fashion with significant
numbers of magazines targeting women and the numbers of fashion clothing stores
who market solely to women. The conclusion could be drawn that fashion clothing has
more of a feminine image and thus females will place it in a more central position in
their lives and thus females will be more involved in fashion clothing than males.
Therefore, it is hypothesised that:
H2. Gender will have a significant negative effect on fashion clothing
involvement.
Age has also been identified as an important dimension in fashion clothing. Age
differences or effects in fashion clothing attachment and usage are said to exist by
Auty and Elliott (1998), Fairhurst et al. (1989) and O’Cass (2000). It appears that
younger people in general place more emphasis on their appearance than older. This
implies that clothing may occupy a more central position in the life of the young and as
such younger people will be more involved in fashion clothing than older people.
Therefore, it is hypothesised that:
H3. Age will have a significant negative effect on fashion clothing involvement.

Consequences of fashion clothing involvement

Traditionally knowledge has been treated as a unidimensional construct, mostly
referred to in the literature as product familiarity or prior knowledge of the object or
stimuli. Essentially then in the context of fashion clothing, product knowledge is
viewed as knowledge of brands in the product class and in terms of product-use
contexts and product attribute knowledge, frequency of use and experience with
fashion clothing (Johnson and Russo, 1981, 1984; Raju and Reilly, 1979; Lastovicka,
1979). Importantly, consumers vary greatly in their knowledge about fashion clothing
and their degree of familiarity with it. Knowledge can come from product experiences,
ad exposure, interactions with salespeople, friends or the media, previous
decision-making or previous consumption and usage experiences held in memory.
Studies have examined consumers’ familiarity and product knowledge in relation to
information processing, learning of product attributes and brands (Johnson and Russo,
1981, 1984), attitude development, product knowledge and familiarity, choice of
decision rules (Park, 1976; Payne, 1976; Tan and Dolich, 1981), and product satisfaction
(Anderson et al., 1979), however, the literature addressing the relationship between
fashion clothing involvement and subjective fashion clothing knowledge is minimal.
There are few empirical works found in the literature regarding the nature of the
relationship between product knowledge and product involvement. Except for studies
by Gill et al. (1988), Parameswaran and Spinelli (1984), Phelps and Thorson (1991), Fashion clothing
Zaichkowsky (1985), Zinkhan and Muderrisoglu (1985) and Sujan (1983), the literature
has not empirically examined the relationship between involvement and product
consumption
knowledge. Importantly, none examine the relationship between level of fashion
clothing involvement and degree of subjective fashion knowledge. The existing
literature is somewhat inconclusive and perhaps a little contradictory regarding the
relationship between product involvement and product knowledge in general. There 873
are those who have suggested that familiarity should be viewed as an antecedent to
involvement (Zinkhan and Muderrisoglu, 1985), or as a component of it (Lastovicka
and Gardner, 1979) or even as a consequence of it (Mittal and Lee, 1989). The
relationship between involvement and product knowledge has also been suggested as
an interactive (reciprocal) one (Gardial and Zinkhan, 1984). Interestingly, Zaichkowsky
(1985) has examined the relationship between involvement and expertise and argued
that involvement may be unrelated to expertise.
With regard to fashion clothing knowledge, there are two potential methods for
operationalising and measuring product knowledge. One is to measure product
knowledge in terms of how much a consumer actually knows about the product. The
other is to measure knowledge in terms of how much a consumer thinks or perceives
they know about the product. The first approach is related to the objective knowledge
structure of an individual held in long-term memory, while the second approach is
based on and related to an individual’s subjective self-report on how much they think
they know about the product. A fundamental question that arises in attempting to
understand consumers is what do consumers know and what characteristics cause
some consumers to perceive themselves to be more knowledgeable than others about
fashion clothing and possess higher perceived expertise. The proposition is raised here
that product knowledge has a number of key aspects; namely familiarity, experience
and expertise. In a general sense one would assume that fashion clothing familiarity
will result in consumers increased expertise and experience. In this regard, apart from
examining central issues, such as memory, one can also look at the impact of
constructs such as fashion clothing involvement on the development of fashion
knowledge and expertise. Fashion knowledge is developed when consumers combine
separate meaning concepts into larger, more abstract categories of fashion clothing
knowledge. The perspective taken here is that the degree of a consumer’s subjective
product knowledge (familiarity, experience and expertise) should be affected by their
degree of involvement in fashion clothing and as such, it is hypothesised that:
H4. Fashion clothing involvement will have a significant positive effect
consumers’ perception of fashion knowledge.
Importantly, product knowledge is not held by consumers with the same degree of
confidence. Depending on the circumstances, the degree of confidence could reflect
either certainty or uncertainty as to which judgment is correct or the best in that
situation, or ambiguity as to the meaning of an attitude object altogether (Day, 1970;
Zajonc and Morrisette, 1960). Confidence, in this context, represents a consumer’s belief
that their knowledge or ability is sufficient or correct regarding fashion clothing. The
degree of confidence a consumer has regarding their views or abilities to do with
fashion clothing is important because it can affect the strength of the relationship
between attitudes and behaviour and it can also influence the consumer’s susceptibility
to attitude change strategies initiated by marketers of fashion clothing. The degree of
EJM confidence can also possibly affect the presentation of the offering and promotional
content that the marketer targets consumers with.
38,7 Howard and Sheth (1969) provided some initial insights into consumer confidence
and Howard (1989, p. 40) proposed that the construct of confidence was: “the buyer’s
degree of certainty that his or her evaluative judgment of a brand, whether favourable
or unfavourable, is correct”. In the consumer behaviour literature, the confidence
874 construct is used in two theoretically different ways. It has been used to refer to a
buyer’s overall confidence in the brand (Howard and Sheth, 1969). It has also been used
to refer to the buyer’s confidence in his ability to judge or evaluate attribute of the
brands (Bennett and Harrell, 1975). Confidence is seen here to refer to the extent that
the consumer has confidence in their ability to make the right choice in the context of
fashion clothing. Thus, confidence rests on the perception of ability to make the
decision and make the right decision and it is hypothesised that:
H5. Fashion clothing knowledge will have a significant positive effect consumers’
confidence in making decisions about fashion clothing.
Day (1970) proposed that a consumer who lacks interest in a stimulus object will not
likely have the information or experience necessary to make a confident judgment. Most
research on confidence has been related to the stability of preference (Day, 1970; Harrell,
1979) or the effect that confidence has on attitudes. Little research has focused on the
degree of involvement and its effect on a consumer’s confidence related to a focal object
or in their ability to make purchase decisions. The limited numbers of studies that have
investigated the confidence-involvement relationship (see Parameswaran and Spinelli,
1984; Burton and Netemeyer, 1992) have, to a large extent, investigated this relationship
in the context of voting behaviour. However, such a social psychological context for
involvement is troubling because of the level of abstraction for such social issues as
voting (Bloch, 1981). Another study to investigate the confidence-involvement
relationship was by Harrell (1979) and used an industrial product and related the
study largely to attitude-intent relationships and Chebat and Picard (1985) showed that
involvement had a direct effect on confidence in both product and message, in that the
more involved the consumer was, the more confident they were.
A further link between involvement and confidence was alluded to in the work of Park
and Lessig (1981), when they raised a theoretical proposition that consumers are likely to
be more confident when they are more highly involved in a product. Overall, the extant
literature on confidence and involvement suggests that one of the key outcomes of being
involved in a product is perhaps that one would tend to be more confident in decisions or
purchases related to that product or product class and it is hypothesised that:
H6. Fashion clothing involvement will have a significant effect on consumers’
confidence in making decisions about fashion clothing.

Research design
A self-administered survey was developed and administered via mail as part of a larger
study on fashion clothing, resulting in 478 surveys being gathered. Respondents came
from a random sample of consumers drawn from a database containing 6,000 names
from residents living NSW Australia. In total 1,000 names were randomly drawn from
the list provided, with every sixth name being sent a survey. The questionnaire
contained 15 items from the materialistic values measure of Richins and Dawson (1992).
Fashion clothing involvement was measured via 11 items from O’Cass’s (2000) product Fashion clothing
involvement measure. Fashion clothing knowledge was measured via Flynn and
Goldsmith (1999) four-item measure of product knowledge and decision-making
consumption
confidence was measured via three items from O’Cass (2000). All measures were six
point Likert-type scales with poles from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
The survey was pilot tested on a sample of students studying business and the results
indicated that the instrument was psychometrically sound, with all measures surpassing 875
minimum acceptable levels on all criteria (reliability, item-to-total correlations, factor
structures). During the pilot test it was determined that by providing brand names
caused some consumers to focus exclusively on the brand names and not fashion in
general. Given that the study was about fashion clothing in general and not brand names
instructions were placed into the survey identifying this point with instruction that:
When you see the term Fashion Clothing you should think of Fashion Apparel; Apparel;
Fashion Clothing; Seasonal Fashions in Clothing. This allowed respondents to developed
their own notion of fashion clothing and did not restrict the identifier to a specific brand.

Preliminary results
The exact make-up of the sample was 6.2 per cent under 21 years of age, 21-30 age
group constituted 25.8 per cent of the respondents, 31-40 group made up 36.4 per cent
of respondents, 41-50 age group were 26 per cent of respondents and the over 50 years
group constituted 5.6 per cent of the sample. Over 83 per cent of respondents were over
the age of 25 and 70 per cent were over 30 years of age, and 46.4 per cent of the sample
were male and 53.6 per cent were female. The percentages of respondents in each age
grouping approximate the Australian population fairly closely.
Before testing the hypotheses the properties of the scales were examined. The data
were initially examined for dispersion and central tendency via means, standard
deviation and skew and kurtosis, with the analysis indicating no anomalies in the data.
Following this analysis the data were factor analysed using principle components with
oblique rotation, followed by correlation and reliability estimates. The following
provides a brief overview of the preliminary analysis, before discussing the results
related to the hypothesis. All items loaded onto their appropriate factor and all factor
loadings ranged between 0.44 and 0.90. All constructs showed acceptable reliability,
with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.88 or greater. The analysis of the scales, showed that all the
multi-item measure’s factor loadings were . 0.44 and all loadings were found to be
statistically significant at p , 0:05. No cross loadings . than 0.3 were identified in the
factor analysis. The results of the analysis of the materialistic values measure
indicated that materialism possessed three factors related to possessions as defining
success; acquisition centrality and acquisition as the pursuit of happiness with factor
loadings between 0.44 and 0.75 as indicated in Table I, explaining 68 per cent of the
variance. The reliability of the materialism measure was 0.88.
The analysis of the fashion clothing involvement measure indicated that factor
loadings ranged from 0.81 to 0.91 with 75 per cent of the variance being explained. The
reliability of the measure was 0.98 indicating high reliability.
Fashion clothing knowledge contained one factor explaining 82 per cent of the
variance as indicated in Table I and factor loading between 0.86 and 0.95, and
reliability of the measure was 0.93.Consumer decision-making confidence contained
one factor explaining 91 per cent percent of the variance and factor loadings between
0.86 and 0.92, and the reliability was 0.89.
EJM Loadings
38,7
Fashion clothing involvement
Fashion clothing means a lot to me 0.81
Fashion clothing is a significant part of my life 0.87
I consider fashion clothing to be a central part of my life 0.85
876 I think about fashion clothing a lot 0.82
For me personally fashion clothing is an important product 0.88
I am interested in fashion clothing 0.85
Some individuals are completely involved with fashion clothing, attached to it,
absorbed by it. For others fashion clothing is simply not that involving.
How involved are you with fashion clothing? 0.85
Fashion clothing is important to me 0.91
I am very much involved in/with fashion clothing 0.88
I find fashion clothing a very relevant product in my life 0.89

Fashion clothing product knowledge

I am very familiar with fashion clothing 0.92
I feel I know a lot about fashion clothing 0.95
I am an experienced user of fashion clothing 0.91
I would classify myself as an expert on fashion clothing 0.86

Consumer confidence in fashion decisions

I am confident I would choose the right brand of fashion clothing 0.86
When considering fashion clothing for purchase I am confident that I would make the
right choice 0.95
I have confidence in my ability to make the best choice concerning fashion clothing 0.92

Materialism
Factor 1. Acquisition centrality
I usually buy only the things I needa 0.87
I try to keep my life simple, as far as possessions are concerneda 0.83
The things I own aren’t all that important to mea 0.52
Buying things gives me a lot of pleasure 0.48
Factor 2. Possession as defining success
I admire people who own expensive possessions (such as homes, cars and clothes) 0.78
I don’t place much emphasis on the amount of material possessions people own as a
sign of successa 0.59
The things I own say a lot about how well I’m doing in life 0.70
I like to own things that impress people 0.72
I don’t pay much attention to the material objects people owna 0.55
I like a lot of luxury in my life 0.55
It is important to me to have really nice things (possessions) 0.64
Factor 3. Acquisition as the pursuit of happiness
I have all the things I really need to enjoy lifea 0.72
My life would be better if I owned certain things that I don’t currently havea 0.77
I’d be happier if I could afford to buy more things (possessions)a 0.75
Table I.
It sometimes bothers me quite a bit that I can’t afford to buy all the things I’d likea 0.76
Preliminary results for
constructs Note: a Indicates reverse scored items
Following this all items within each construct were then computed into composite Fashion clothing
variables to test the models. Forming composites is a generally accepted approach in
consumer behaviour to test hypotheses (see O’Cass, 2000). To assess the discriminant
consumption
validity, the arguments of Gaski (1984) were followed, which suggests that if the
correlation between two composite constructs is not higher than their respective reliability
estimate, then discriminant validity exists. The results indicated that using this criteria all
reliability estimates (Cronbach’s alpha) were greater than their correlation. 877
Following the preliminary analysis of the measures consideration was given to
appropriate analytical techniques to test the hypotheses. Given the formulation of the
hypotheses it was decided to use partial least squares (PLS) to analyse the data. PLS is
a variance based general regression technique for estimating path models involving
latent constructs simultaneously (Falk and Miller, 1992; Fornell and Cha, 1994; O’Cass,
2001). A systematic examination of a number of fit indices was used to assess the
predictive relevance of the hypotheses (model), including R 2, average variance
accounted for (AVA), regression weights and loadings (O’Cass, 2001). These indices
provide evidence for the existence of the relationships rather than definitive statistical
tests, which may be contrary to the philosophy of soft modeling (Falk and Miller, 1992).

Results for H1-H6

The average variance accounted (AVA) for in the endogenous variable by the
exogenous variables was.40 (or 40 per cent) and the individual values for R2 were
greater than the recommended 0.10 (Falk and Miller, 1992) for all of the predicted
variables as indicated in Table II. As all of these R 2 estimates were larger than the
recommended levels, examination of the significance of the paths associated with these
variables was also undertaken. To evaluate the significance of the individual paths the
absolute value of the product of the path coefficient and corresponding correlation
coefficient (Falk and Miller, 1992) is used. As paths are estimates of the standardized
regression weights this produces an index of the variance in an endogenous variable
explained by that particular path and 1.5 per cent (0.015) of the variance is
recommended as the cut off point. In Table II all the paths exceed this criterion and the
magnitude of the paths was appropriate.
Also the bootstrap critical ratios are of the appropriate size (greater than 1.96), except
for H6. The data suggests that, materialism effects fashion clothing involvement
significantly, where in effect the stronger the materialistic tendencies of individuals the
higher their involvement in the product. Also females and younger respondents were

Variance
Path due to Critical
Predicted variables Predictor variables Hypothesis weight path R2 ratio

Fashion involvement Materialism H1 0.463 0.23 3.83

Gender H2 2 0.274 0.07 7.27
Age H3 2 0.156 0.04 0.30 3.86
Fashion knowledge Fashion involvement H4 0.739 0.55 0.55 31.46
Decision confidence Fashion knowledge Table II.
H5 0.617 0.35 10.07
Fashion involvement Partial least squares
H6 0.078 0.03 0.32 1.31
results for the theoretical
AVA 0.40 model
EJM more involved in fashion clothing. Also, fashion-clothing involvement leads to greater
perceived knowledge of fashion clothing. Fashion clothing knowledge also positively
38,7 effected consumer confidence in making decisions. Therefore, hypotheses H1-H6 are
supported (even though H6 meet only one of the key benchmark levels).
The path coefficient of an exogenous construct represents the direct effect of that
variable on the endogenous variable and an indirect effect represents the effect of a
878 particular variable on the second variable through its effects on a third intervening
variable. It is the product of the path coefficients along an indirect route from cause to
effect via tracing arrows in the headed direction only. When more than one indirect path
exists, the total indirect effect is their sum. The sum of the direct and indirect effect
reflects the total effects of the variable on the endogenous variable (Igbaria et al., 1997;
O’Cass, 2001). Table III provides direct and indirect effects for the models. Table III
indicates some strong indirect effects within the relationships between constructs.

Discussion
A major challenge facing involvement researchers lies not only in understanding
involvement itself, but also understanding the role involvement plays together with
other variables in guiding the formation of purchase and consumption patterns and
experiences of consumers of fashion clothing. This challenge suggested the need to
conduct research investigating not only involvement, but also involvement within a
broader network. This study has revealed important findings through modelling
fashion clothing involvement in a framework of related constructs as antecedents and
consequences on involvement.
This research has identified materialistic values as a significant contributor to an
individual’s involvement in fashion clothing and purchase decision involvement. Thus,
studying materialism at the individual level has permitted studying the interaction
between materialism and fashion involvement. When we talk about consumers’
involvement in fashion clothing, we view it as a continuum from total attachment (or
absorption) with fashion clothing and related activities (high involvement) to complete
detachment or automaticity (very low involvement). Fashion involvement is always
focused on a consumer’s interaction with fashion clothing as the stimulus in the
marketplace. The more fashion clothing occupies a key position in the consumer’s life,
the greater the involvement in a product such as fashion clothing.
A key question in attempting to understand consumers’ and their purchasing and
consumption related behaviour is how much do they think they know about fashion
clothing. This extends into what characteristics cause some consumers to perceive
themselves to be more knowledgeable and believe they possess high expertise and be

Independent Mediating Dependent Direct Indirect Total

Materialism Fashion involvement Fashion knowledge 0 0.34 0.34

Gender Fashion involvement Fashion knowledge 0 0.20 0.20
Age Fashion involvement Fashion knowledge 0 0.12 0.12
Materialism Fashion involvement Decision confidence 0 0.04 0.04
Gender Fashion involvement Decision confidence 0 0.02 0.02
Table III. Age Fashion involvement Decision confidence 0 0.01 0.01
Direct and indirect effects Fashion involvement Fashion knowledge Decision confidence 0.078 0.46 0.538
more confident in their decisions. This study proposed a model that examined the impact Fashion clothing
of involvement on the development of product knowledge and perceptions of expertise
consumers’ hold regarding a product such as fashion clothing and their ability to make
consumption
decisions regarding fashion clothing. On this issue, the literature says consumers vary
greatly in their perceived subjective knowledge and expertise about a product offering.
Product knowledge regarding fashion clothing can come from the product itself and
consumption-related experiences, advertising exposure, interactions with salespeople, 879
information from friends or the media, previous decision making or previous
consumption or usage experiences held in memory. However, this study has shown that
a consumers’ subjective fashion clothing knowledge is significantly influenced by their
degree of fashion clothing involvement. The findings have shown involvement and
product knowledge and expertise to be significantly related. The results show that as a
consumer becomes more involved in a product and its use, they develop stronger
subjective perceptions of product knowledge and expertise in the product. A consumer’s
subjective product knowledge and expertise were shown here to be significantly
influenced by their involvement in fashion clothing. Confidence, on the other hand, is an
example of a non-evaluative dimension and refers to the conviction with which the belief
in decision making ability and ability to choose the right brand is held. The measure of
confidence, therefore assesses how certain or confident the respondents are in their
estimates of their ability. The results indicate that this belief in ability is significantly
influenced by consumers’ degree of involvement in fashion clothing.

Limitations
The study may be limited by the generic use of fashion clothing and not brands of
clothing. The study is also limited by it country of study and focus on one state in
Australia. However, these limitations do not render the findings any less significant, but
open the way for further research in this area. It is important to examine the relationship
at the product class level before exploring if and how consumers transfer involvement
from the product to specific brands within the product class. As such now that a better
understanding of the issue of fashion clothing involvement has been obtained two
streams of research are relevant. Firstly, this issue of antecedents of involvement with
fashion could be extended to include personal values and personality traits and
consequences such as information search and time spent shopping. Secondly, the
research could be extended to focus on branding, with specific emphasis on involvement
with specific brands and what they mean to the fashion-involved consumer.
As such, the driving force and long-term goal of future research is to test the
conceptualisation of fashion clothing involvement and measures in different settings
with different fashion products and to discriminate between involvement with product
categories such as fashion clothing and specific brands within the category. This
should be done using a broader nomological network than that used in this study.
Research could focus on values, personality and status consumption tendencies and
situational variables to test involvement. Also a within subjects design seems
warranted to establish differences for different fashion and apparel formal and casual
clothing types (shoes, sunglasses, etc.) and brands.

Conclusion
The framework appears to be a valuable aid in understanding the dynamics of fashion
consumption. Such an approach can only enhance the effective utilization of consumer
EJM attachment to possessions at both a theoretical and practical level in understanding
consumer behaviour related to fashion. This is important because fashion clothing has
38,7 both important economic and social significance in many societies, particularly
Western. Interestingly, many would argue a fundamental paradox of fashion and
consumers’ strong attachment to it exists. Going so far as Dittmar (1992) did in the
context of personal identity, with its unique and autonomous nature. She commented
880 that personal identity should perhaps be independent of material context, and we are in
reality, who we are, no matter what our possessions. However, what appears to be the
case as this study shows in the context of fashion clothing, we are what we wear. In
reality, we are who our clothes allow us to be.

References
Anderson, R., Engledow, J. and Becker, H. (1979), “Evaluating the relationships among attitude
toward business product satisfaction, experience, and search effort”, Journal of Marketing
Research, Vol. 16, pp. 394-400.
Auty, S. and Elliott, R. (1998), “Fashion involvement, self-monitoring and the meaning of
brands”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 109-23.
Belk, R. (1985), “Materialism: trait aspects of living in a material world”, Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol. 12, December, pp. 265-80.
Bennett, P. and Harrell, G. (1975), “The role of confidence in understanding and predicting
buyers’ attitudes and purchase intentions”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 2,
pp. 110-17.
Bloch, P. (1982), “Involvement beyond the purchase process: conceptual issues and empirical
investigation”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 9, pp. 413-17.
Browne, B. and Kaldenberg, D. (1997), “Conceptualzing self-monitoring: links to materialism and
product involvement”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 31-44.
Burton, S. and Netemeyer, R. (1992), “The effect of enduring, situational, and response
involvement on reference stability in the context of voting behaviour”, Psychology &
Marketing, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 43-156.
Chebat, J. and Picard, J. (1985), “The effects of price and message-sidedness on confidence in
product and advertisements with personal involvement as a mediator variable”,
International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 2, pp. 129-41.
Davis, F. (1994), Fashion, Culture and Identity, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
Day, G. (1970), Buyer Attitudes and Brand Choice Behavior, The Free Press, New York, NY.
Dittmar, H. (1992), The Social Psychology of Material Possessions, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel
Hempstead.
Douglas, M. and Isherwood, B. (1979), The World of Goods, Basic Books, New York, NY.
Evrard, Y. and Aurier, P. (1996), “Identification and validation of the components of the
person-object relationship”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 37, pp. 127-34.
Fairhurst, A., Good, L. and Gentry, J. (1989), “Fashion involvement: an instrument validation
procedure”, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 10-14.
Falk, R.F. and Miller, N.B. (1992), A Primer for Soft Modeling, University of Akron Press, Akron,
OH.
Flynn, L.R. and Goldsmith, R.E. (1993), “A causal model of consumer involvement: replication
and critique”, Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, Vol. 8 No. 6, pp. 129-42.
Flynn, L.R. and Goldsmith, R.E. (1999), “A short, reliable measure of subjective knowledge”, Fashion clothing
Journal of Business Research, Vol. 46, pp. 57-66.
consumption
Fornell, C. and Cha, J. (1994), “Partial least squares”, in Bagozzi, R.P. (Ed.), Advanced Methods of
Marketing Research, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Gardial, S. and Zinkhan, G. (1984), “Situational determinants of buyer behaviour: a middle-range
theory incorporating familiarity and involvement”, AMA Winter Educators’ Conference
Proceedings, pp. 224-8. 881
Gaski, J. (1984), “The theory of power and conflict in channels of distribution”, Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 48, Summer, pp. 9-29.
Gill, J., Crossbart, S. and Laczniack, R. (1988), “Influence of involvement, commitment and
familiarity on brand beliefs and attitudes of viewers exposed to alternative ad claim
strategies”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 33-43.
Goldsmith, R.E., Flynn, L.R. and Moore, M. (1996), “The self-concept of fashion leaders”, Clothing
and Textiles Research Journal, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 242-8.
Goldsmith, R., Moore, M. and Beaudoin, P. (1999), “Fashion innovativeness and self-concept: a
replication”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 7-18.
Harrell, G. (1979), “Industrial product class involvement, confidence in beliefs and attitude intent
relationships”, Attitude Research Conference 8th Las Vegas 1979: Attitude Research Plays
for High Stakes, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 133-47.
Howard, J. (1989), Consumer Behavior in Marketing Strategy, Prentice-Hall, Engelwood Cliffs, NJ.
Howard, J. and Sheth, J. (1969), The Theory of Buyer Behavior, Wiley, New York, NY.
Igbaria, M., Zinatelli, N., Cragg, P. and Cavaye, A. (1997), “Personal computing acceptance
factors in small firms: a structural equation model”, MIS Quarterly, September, pp. 279-302.
Johnson, E. and Russo, J. (1981), “Product familiarity and learning new information”, Advances in
Consumer Research, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 151-5.
Johnson, E. and Russo, J. (1984), “Product familiarity and learning new information”, Journal of
Consumer Research, Vol. 11, June, pp. 542-50.
Lastovicka, J. (1979), “Questioning the concept of involvement-defined product classes”,
Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 6, pp. 174-9.
Lastovicka, J. and Gardner, D. (1979), “Low involvement versus high involvement cognitive
structures”, in Hunt, K.H. (Ed.), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 5, Association for
Consumer Research, Valdosta, GA, pp. 87-92.
Laurent, G. and Kapferer, J. (1985), “Measuring consumer involvement profiles”, Journal of
Marketing Research, Vol. 22, pp. 1-53.
Martin, C. (1998), “Relationship marketing: a high-involvement product attribute approach”,
Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 6-26.
Mittal, M. and Lee, M. (1989), “A causal model of consumer involvement”, Journal of Economic
Psychology, Vol. 10, pp. 363-89.
O’Cass, A. (2000), “An assessment of consumers’ product, purchase decision, advertising and
consumption involvement in fashion clothing”, Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 21,
pp. 545-76.
O’Cass, A. (2001), “Consumer self-monitoring, materialism and involvement in fashion clothing”,
Australasian Marketing Journal, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 46-60.
Ohanian, R. (1990), “Ego centrality as an indicator of enduring product involvement”, Journal of
Social Behaviour and Personality, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 443-55.
EJM Parameswaran, R. and Spinelli, T. (1984), “Involvement: a revisitation and confirmation”, AMA
Educators Conference Proceedings, AMA, Chicago, IL, pp. 57-61.
38,7 Park, C. and Lessig, V. (1981), “Familiarity and its impact on consumer decision biases and
heuristics”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, September, pp. 223-30.
Park, W. (1976), “The effect of individual- and situation-related factors on consumer selection of
judgemental models”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 8, May, pp. 144-51.
882 Payne, J. (1976), “Task complexity and contingent processing in decision making: an information
search and protocol analysis”, Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance, Vol. 16,
pp. 366-87.
Phelps, J. and Thorson, E. (1991), “Brand familiarity and product involvement effects on the
attitude toward an ad-brand attitude relationship”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 8,
pp. 202-9.
Raju, P. and Reilly, M. (1979), “Product familiarity and information-processing strategies: an
exploratory investigation”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 8, pp. 187-212.
Richins, M. (1987), “Media, materialism, and human happiness”, Advances in Consumer
Research, Vol. 14, pp. 352-6.
Richins, M. (1994), “Special possessions and the expression of material values”, Journal of
Consumer Research, Vol. 21, pp. 522-33.
Richins, M. and Dawson, S. (1992), “A consumer values orientation for materialism and its
measurement: scale development and validation”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 19
No. 2, pp. 303-16.
Solomon, M. (1996), Consumer Behavior, 3rd ed., Prentice-Hall, Engelwood Cliffs, NJ.
Sujan, M. (1983), “Consumer knowledge: effects on evaluation processes: mediating consumer
judgements”, unpublished dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
Tan, C. and Dolich, I. (1981), “The moderation effects of cognitive complexity and prior product
familiarity of the predictive ability of selected multi-attribute choice models for three
consumer products”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 140-5.
Tigert, D., King, C. and Ring, L. (1980), “Fashion involvement: a cross-cultural analysis”,
Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 17, pp. 17-21.
Tigert, D., Ring, L. and King, C. (1976), “Fashion involvement and buying behaviour: a
methodological study”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 3, pp. 46-52.
Traylor, M. and Joseph, B. (1984), “Measuring consumer involvement in products”, Psychology
and Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 65-77.
Zaichkowsky, J. (1985), “Measuring the involvement construct”, Journal of Consumer Research,
Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 341-52.
Zaichkowsky, J. (1986), “Conceptualizing involvement”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 15 No. 2,
pp. 4-34.
Zajonc, R. and Morrisette, J. (1960), “Cognitive behaviour under uncertainty and ambiguity”,
Psychological Report, Vol. 6, February, pp. 31-6.
Zinkhan, G. and Muderrisoglu, A. (1985), “Involvement, familiarity, cognitive differentiation and
advertising recall: a test of convergent and discriminant validity”, Advances in Consumer
Research, Vol. 2, Association for Consumer Research, Valdosta, GA, pp. 356-61.

View publication stats