Fashion Rental: Smart Business or Ethical Folly?

Ciara Gyde and Lisa S. McNeill
Additional contact information
Ciara Gyde: Department of Marketing, Otago Business School, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Lisa S. McNeill: Department of Marketing, Otago Business School, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: The research presented here illustrates the spectrum of fashion rental PSS firms and business strategies within the New Zealand fashion rental market. The evidence collected suggests that there is a market for fashion rental; however, this market is underdeveloped in regard to its potential as a benefit exchange medium that encourages alternative consumption practice. This study finds that there is, indeed, enormous potential in PSSs as a means to divert fashion-conscious consumers away from ownership behaviours; however, the current systems fall short of this goal. This study offers a taxonomy to create and develop fashion rental PSSs that achieve central aims of circular economy fashion systems, enhancing the collective, social aspects of access, value-sharing and continuing development of mutual gain within the system. It is anticipated that this taxonomy could be further refined and extended through research in other countries, including those with more established, larger fashion rental organisations. Further, there is potential for action research approaches to the design and analysis of alternative fashion rental PSSs.

Keywords: sustainable fashion; rental; product–service systems (PSS); taxonomy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/8888/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/8888/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:16:p:8888-:d:610933

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().