Final Thesis: Consumer Motivations in Two Modes of Circular Exchange: What Motivates Fashion Sharers and Fashion Renters?

Abstract

The rise of sustainable fashion consumption has brought about a multitude of circular business models that provide consumers with temporary access to fashion and clothing products. This has created a space for businesses to redesign their frameworks and develop new business models, thus giving rise to modes of exchange, such as sharing and renting. While much is known about consumers sharing and renting behaviours in consumption, there is a scarcity of academic literature in the fashion context. This study firstly aims to study the differing consumer motivations that exist in the realm of fashion sharing and fashion renting consumption. This is achieved by discussing the conceptualisation of each mode of consumption using previous relevant literature. Secondly, this study will test the relationship between consumer motivations and how they correlate to future intention to participate in these modes of exchange. This thesis used a quantitative method, specifically an online survey, to test the relationship between motivations and intention to participate with 279 participants (123 fashion sharers and 156 fashion renters). The questionnaire was conducted using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to recruit suitable participants. The sample included females between the ages of 18-35 who have previously participated in fashion sharing or fashion renting. Using insights from the literature this study tests the importance of five different motivations. The questionnaire is structured using retrospective question formats to understand how consumers’ experiences influence their perception on the environmental, economic, social, trust, and convenience motivations. Furthermore, these motivations are then tested as drivers of future intention to either sharer or rent fashion. The result from the initial Multivariate Analyses shows that fashion sharers have a stronger relationship with social motivations as compared to fashion renters. In contrast, we found that fashion renters have a stronger significant relationship with convenience motivations as compared to fashion sharers. Moreover, this study also shows that sharing and renting differ in whether these motivations drive future intention to participate in either mode of consumption. Specifically, the findings from the Regression Analysis show that environmental and economic motivations positively affect future intention to participate for fashion sharers, whereas trust positively affects future intention to participate for fashion renters. The convenience motivation was found to positively affect future intention for both groups. This thesis closes a knowledge gap by comparing two modes of consumption that are part of the circular economy. By studying these modes in the fashion context, this thesis is contributing to literature and presents a framework that academic and managerial practitioners may utilise in the future. The findings from this thesis will add to the existing literature in circular business models and consumer motivations by uncovering the perceptions of consumers who have had previous experience with sharing or renting. Furthermore, motivations will be compared between fashion sharers and fashion renters using quantitative methods. Historically, research suggests that these modes of consumption can be driven by a multitude of factors however the data is taken with an exploratory approach as the sample populations typically involve participants who have not experiencing renting or sharing consumption. It is critical to examine how motivations are perceived amongst consumers who have had actual experience with these modes of consumption to understand how these perceptions can translate into future intention to participate. This thesis theoretically explains the sharing economy and empirically investigates consumer motivations which can create meaningful influences on organisational practice in the fashion industry using all the findings.