This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.This study examined the relationships among generalized opinion leadership (GOL), fashion trendsetting, mobile self-checkout use, and openness to experience. A nationwide sample of 220 U.S. participants (121 men, 99 women; average age 39) completed an online survey. Measures included GOL, fashion trendsetting, mobile self-checkout experience, and openness to experience. Participants were diverse in ethnicity: 68.6% Caucasian, 17% African American, 7.9% Hispanic/Latino, 5.2% Asian American, and 1.1% other. Four GOL groups were created using established methods: highest, second highest, third highest, and lowest. MANOVA results showed significant effects of GOL and mobile self-checkout experience on fashion trendsetting and openness. Fashion trendsetting and openness varied significantly across GOL groups, with trendsetting highest among participants who had used mobile self-checkout. However, openness did not differ based on self-checkout experience. An interaction revealed that participants with high GOL and mobile self-checkout experience exhibited less variability in fashion trendsetting compared to those without experience.

The purpose of the study was to examine compulsive and panic buying behavior among fashion adoption groups and consumers high/low intolerance for risk-taking to understand the phenomenon better and provide managerial insights. For this research, 330 participants living in the US were recruited through the Qualtrics Panel service. Results provide theoretical implications regarding panic buying and compulsive buying among fashion adoption groups and consumers high and low in tolerance for risk-taking. Fashion innovators and consumers with low tolerance for risk-taking are more likely to engage in compulsive and panic buying than those who are later adopters or with a high tolerance for risk-taking.

The purpose of this paper was to examine how innovators, early adopters, late adopters, and reluctant adopters differ in the big five personality traits and innate innovativeness. For this research, data were collected from 411 adults across the US using an online questionnaire(panel services). Results of this study show that fashion innovators scored higher on all five personality traits than the other three groups--significantly higher than the other groups on four of the five traits(openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness). Early adopters were significantly different from innovators and from late and reluctant adopters on three of five categories (openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion).

This research explores how the need for touch (NFT) and interdependent self-construal are associated with online shopping attitudes (safety, fun, convenience, money-saving, and time-saving). Data were collected from 413 female and 278 male college students in Korea. Regression analyses with factor analysis were used for data analysis. Consumers who want to touch products have less positive attitudes toward online shopping. Consumers with a higher instrumental touch have less positive attitudes toward online shopping. Consumers with higher levels of autotelic touch have less positive attitudes toward online shopping for fun. However, consumers with a high autotelic touch have more positive attitudes toward online shopping for safety, convenience, and money-saving. Consumers who value relationships with others perceive online shopping as unsafe but have positive attitudes toward online shopping for fun, comfort, and cost reduction. There were significant differences between female and male students in online shopping attitudes.

The purpose of this study was to examine differences among fashion innovativeness groups and genders in social media engagement and need for variety and to examine social media use among a group of Gen Zers. Social Media Engagement (SME) theory, Basic Psychological Needs Theory, and the Uses and Gratifications framework guided the research. Fashion innovativeness, social media engagement (for searching, sharing, and entertainment), and need for variety are connected. Fashion innovators scored highest in SME-search, SME-share, and SME-entertain followed by early, late, and reluctant adopters. Fashion innovators scored highest on need for variety, followed by early and late adopters, followed by reluctant adopters. Women engaged in social media use more than men for SME-search, SME-share, and SME-entertain but men and women did not differ in need for variety. Women scored higher on fashion innovativeness than men. Implications for theory, practice, and education are provided.

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among young men’s social media use, fashion innovativeness, body consciousness, vanity and para-social interaction. Participants were 145 male college students (M age = 21.58). Participants’ ethnicity included 28 African American, 9 Asian, 86 Caucasian, 10 Hispanic/Latino and 12 others from ~38 different majors. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability, M/ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls post hoc test. Results of this study show that young men with higher (vs lower) social media use had greater body consciousness, higher vanity, and greater para-social relationships. The more young men used social media, the more conscious they were of the appearance of their body compared to others, the higher their vanity, and the greater their para-social interactions. Young men differ in fashion innovativeness and this variable plays a part in body consciousness, vanity, and para-social relationships.

The purpose of this study was to examine how individual-level personal values and age affect shopping behavior during a pandemic, specifically, the value of interdependence and younger/older age groups on use of precautionary measures when shopping in retail clothing stores. Six precautionary measures were selected: (a) social distancing, (b) wearing a mask or other face covering, (c) wearing gloves, (d) refraining from touching the merchandise, (e) refraining from trying on clothing, and (f) washing or sanitizing hands. Participants (n=331) in US were recruited via Qualtrics Panel services. Results showed that interdependence was significant for all six precautionary measures, while age group was significant for three precautionary measures (social distancing, mask wearing, wearing gloves). This study suggest that the personal value of interdependence affected consumer behavior; those with heightened interdependence used more precautionary measures.

attitudes toward mobile self-checkout will be positively related to mobile self-checkout frequency. H7: Gender will moderate the path between favorable attitudes toward mobile self-checkout and mobile self-checkout frequency. Method: Participants in this study were recruited via Qualtrics Panel services. An online self-administered questionnaire was created using Qualtrics and sent to potential participants who lived in the top 20 metropolitan areas in the US. A short video of Macy’s self-checkout service was adopted as the example which was first shown to participants. Then they completed the questionnaire, which included measures from established research of fashion innovativeness, social shopping, idea shopping, value shopping, risk, favorable attitudes, and mobile self-checkout frequency. A total of 229 valid responses was obtained over a one-week period. The majority of respondents were male (n=128). Participant’s age ranged from 18 to 65 with 76.3% between 19 to 45 years old. Among the participants, 131 lived in the top 5 metropolitan areas of US and 50.22% had experience using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), path analysis, multi-group comparison via chi square difference. Results: By using AMOS 25, CFA was first performed to validate the measurement of the constructs in our hypotheses. Two items of risk and two items of fashion innovativeness were dropped due to high modification indices, the rest of the items within six factors remained, suggesting an overall good model fit (χ 2 / df = 1.629, p < .001, RMSEA = .053, CFI = .971, and TLI = .967) with construct reliabilities, construct and discriminant achieved. Then, path analysis with

The purpose of the study was to examine how consumers’ panic buying, compulsive buying, and age are associated with retail therapy during a pandemic. For this research, participants living in metropolitan cities in the US were recruited through the Qualtrics Panel service. Participants were 122 men (36.9%) and 209 women (63.1%) whose age ranged from 20 to 64 (M=40.06, SD=11.96). For data analysis, descriptive statistics, reliability, M/ANOVA, and Duncan test were used. Results indicate that consumers who exhibit panic and compulsive buying engaged in retail therapy during the pandemic. Consumers engaged in retail therapy as a way to alleviate negative emotions, to reinforce a positive mood, to engage in therapeutic shopping or to enjoy therapeutic shopping outcomes. These results provide fashion retailers with an understanding of the overall phenomenon of panic buying and compulsive buying with retail therapy managerial strategies.

This study’s purposes were to examine how selected demographic variables affect frequency of use of precautionary measures when shopping for clothing in retail stores; and how uncertainty avoidance/ambiguity intolerance and fashion innovativeness affect (a) precautionary measures used when shopping in retail stores during a pandemic and (b) compensatory consumption. Participants (122 US men; 209 US women aged 20 to 64) completed an online questionnaire containing demographic items plus measures of uncertainty avoidance/ambiguity intolerance, compensatory consumption, precautionary measures, and fashion innovativeness. Data analysis included reliability, factor analysis, M/ANOVA and SNK. Older adults, adults with higher education, and married adults more frequently used precautionary measures when shopping in retail stores. Men and women reported similar frequency of use. Fashion innovators and consumers with less tolerance for uncertainty/ambiguity more frequently used precautionary measures. Fashion innovators and consumers higher in uncertainty avoidance/ambiguity intolerance engaged in more compensatory consumption. Generalization of the results is limited because the data are context-specific: country (US), time period (during a pandemic), and sample. Guidelines for the general public regarding precautionary measures came from within organizations, between organizations and experts but the general public was not consulted (public open innovation) perhaps hindering compliance with precautionary measures.

PurposeMobile self-checkout refers to scanning products using a mobile device inside a brick-and-mortar store and completing the checkout process on mobile devices. Even though mobile self-checkout has been used in other industries for several years, it is a new application in the fashion industry and only limited numbers of retailers have implemented mobile self-checkout in their stores. The purpose of this study is to understand consumers' acceptance of mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores by analyzing determinants of using a new system.Design/methodology/approachPart of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as a theoretical framework. Openness to experience, variety seeking and adventure shopping were added to the model. Empirical data (with 229 valid responses) were collected from the top 20 metropolitan areas in the US via Qualtrics Panel services. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and multi-group moderation were used to estimate construct validity and test the proposed hypotheses and theoretical framework.FindingsThe results indicated that consumers' intentions toward using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores were predicted by facilitating conditions, social influence and openness to experience. Moreover, consumers' previous experience of using mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores moderated the path from facilitating conditions to behavioral intention and the path from social influence to behavioral intention. In addition, different genders and smartphone usage frequency did not vary significantly on the model paths.Practical implicationsThe findings show how fashion retailers can understand consumers' preference and their willingness to use mobile self-checkout in fashion retail stores. Moreover, the authors addressed ways for fashion retailers to promote mobile self-checkout in the future.Originality/valueAs a new technology in the fashion industry, literature is deficient concerning consumers' intention to adopt mobile self-checkout. This research provided suggestions for fashion retailers about adopting and improving acceptance of mobile self-checkout. Results will lead to theoretical and managerial implications for future technology development.

This article contains the results of two studies that were designed to propose a working definition of non-luxury product brand charisma and to examine a non-luxury product brand charisma scale that had been adapted from a generic human charisma scale within the contextual framework of consumer–brand relationships incorporating the variables of gender, brand category (mass market vs. masstige), and related brand variables (brand engagement, brand love, and brand prestige). The non-luxury product brand charisma data were factor analyzed revealing four factors accounting for 71.9% of the total variance: Symbolic, Psychological, Experiential, and Functional. Findings from Studies 1 and 2 were similar: (a) ratings of non-luxury product brand charisma factors (symbolic and psychological) differentiated between masstige and mass market brands; (b) there were no gender differences in ratings of non-luxury product brand charisma for a favorite brand; and (c) non-luxury product brand charisma was significantly correlated with related brand variables.

This research examined how perceived risks affect consumers’ purchase intention toward a fashion AI product and how consumer characteristics such as age affect consumers’ estimation of perceived risks. Perceived risk theory was used as a theoretical framework and four types of risks were selected: financial, performance, emotional, and security. Scales were obtained from established research. Amazon’s Echo Look was used as the stimulus. Empirical data (with 313 valid responses) were collected from the top 10 US metropolitan areas via Qualtrics Panel services. Descriptive statistics, reliability, multiple regression M/ANOVA, and LSD post hoc test were used to test the proposed hypotheses and theoretical framework. Results indicated that consumers’ perceived financial risk negatively influenced purchase intention while performance risk positively affected purchase intention and there was a significant effect for the age group on security risk. Theoretical and practical implications were presented.

Given the growing interest in combinations of fashion and digital innovations, it is critical for both researchers and retailers to understand how consumers respond to new technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI). The purpose of the study was to examine consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention toward an AI device. By adapting the technology acceptance model, a conceptual model was constructed and tested related to consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention toward an AI device—Echo Look. A total of 313 subjects (61% female) between 18 and 65 years old in the top 10 metropolitan areas in the United States participated in the study. The results indicated that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and performance risk were significant in consumers’ attitude toward AI. Positive attitudes toward technology positively influenced the purchase intention. Based on these results, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This research examined differences in materialism and money attitudes, specifically power/prestige money attitudes between men and women and between groups high and low in social media engagement. A secondary purpose was to examine some aspects of social media use among a Gen Z group. Data (240 college students from about 50 different majors) was collected in large lecture classes in a major university in the US. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability, and M/ANOVA. Results of this study show that this Gen Z group was highly involved with social media on a daily basis, checking social media sites, following other users, and sharing information with other users. Both men and women with higher (vs lower) social media engagement more strongly endorsed values related to materialism and money attitudes related to power/prestige. Further, men more strongly endorsed values related to materialism and money attitudes related to power/prestige than women.

Many individual differences affect consumers in the decision-making process (i.e., what to purchase; when to purchase). Face consciousness and public self-consciousness affect when in the fashion life cycle consumers decide to purchase, as well as what to purchase. Both face consciousness and public self-consciousness are concerned with consciousness (i.e., awareness; mindfulness) and both depend on social comparison processes. But the motivation underlying the social comparisons is different: with face consciousness, social comparisons yield appraisals of prestige and social status; with public self-consciousness, social comparisons yield assessments of situational appropriateness. The purpose of this study was to examine links among face consciousness; public self-consciousness; brand prestige; self-expressive brand (inner; social), and fashion leadership. Participants were 221 university students who completed a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha reliability, and multivariate/univariate analysis of variance (M/ANOVA) were conducted to analyze data. Results showed that face consciousness and public self-consciousness similarly affected ratings of the social self-expressive brand. However, face consciousness (but not public self-consciousness) influenced ratings of brand prestige and inner self-expressive brand. Public self-consciousness (but not face consciousness) influenced fashion leadership. Thus, while face consciousness and public self-consciousness are both concerned with consciousness, they independently influence consumer decision-making in different ways. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.

This research intends toinvestigate what factors shape millennials’ social-media engagement and the extent to which social-media engagement affects an individual’s fashiontrendsetting behavior. The theory of Social-Media Engagement was used astheoretical framework, along with consumers’ involvement and social interaction.Empirical data (with 237 valid responses) were collected through a paperquestionnaire at a major university in the US. Structural equationmodeling and a moderation test with linear regressionwere used to estimate construct validity and test the proposed hypotheses andtheoretical framework. Research findings supportedthe idea that millennials who need morevariety and seek that variety by means of fashion are likely to be moreinvolved in social-media platforms, and millennials who are moreconnected with the trendsetter that they are following are more likely to beinvolved in social-media behavior. Theoreticaland practical implications were provided.

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in time-of-adoption groups (trendsetters, early adopters, late adopters, reluctant adopters) and gender regarding brand loyalty, perceived quality, and word-of-mouth (WOM). Participants were 138 men and 131 women at a US university. A questionnaire consisted of demographic items, and measures of trendsetting, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and WOM. M/ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Fashion trendsetters were more loyal to their favorite brand than early, late, and reluctant adopters. Men were more loyal to their favorite brand than women. Fashion trendsetters rated their favorite brand higher on perceived quality than early, late, and reluctant adopters. Men gave higher ratings to perceived quality of their favorite brand than women. Trendsetters and early adopters were more likely to tell others about their favorite brands than late and reluctant adopters. Men and women were equally likely to tell others about their favorite brands.