A System Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Jan Willem Bolderdijk, Janneke Koster, Marijke Leliveld and Hans Risselada
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Hans Risselada: University of Groningen

No 2024009-MARK, Research Report from University of Groningen, FEB Research Institute (FEBRI)

Abstract: Fashion production and consumption have a large negative impact on the environment. In order to reduce the negative effects of fashion, new sustainable business models (SBMs) have been developed. The question is, however, what insights extant research provides about adopting such SBMs and to what extent SBMs are truly environmentally and financially sustainable. We argue that we can only answer this question by zooming out. Therefore, we take a system approach where we look at the interactions between the different relevantstakeholders in the system. Building on this, our research framework has three premises: (1) we distinguish between necessary and unnecessary clothing, (2) we argue that unnecessary clothing should be Avoided and what is necessary should be Reduced, Reused or Recycled, and (3) we include the three most important actors in the system, i.e., companies, consumers and (N)GOs. To understand the state of the literature on the sustainable fashion industry andto pinpoint where we need to go, we systematically reviewed the literature. Among other things, we find that research has not yet made the distinction between unnecessary vs. necessary clothing and, thus, rarely focused on Avoiding unnecessary consumption. Rather, most research (unintendedly) focused on how current levels of clothing supply and demand can be made more sustainable, rather than addressing the elephant in the room: how canoverall levels of production and consumption go down. Thus, the main avenue of future marketing research and practice is to understand why consumers overconsume and the role companies play in it, and how (N)GOs can effectively tackle the culture of overproduction and -consumption. By understanding this, researchers can support retailers to create SBMs that are environmentally and financially sustainable.

Date: 2024
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