Determinants of consumer intentions toward sustainable fashion of E-commerce platforms: Investigating the moderating impact of greenwashing

Abstract

The rising demand for sustainable fashion products has driven the growth of e-commerce platforms, establishing them as a prominent channel for shopping with significant market value. Despite this, limited research has examined consumers’ intention to shop for sustainable fashion on e-commerce platforms. Building on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Consumer Perceived Value (CPV) theory, this study examines the relationships between attitude (AT), subjective norms (SN), trust (TR), environmental concern (EC), and perceived value (PV), along with their influence on purchase intention (PI) toward sustainable fashion on e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, the effects of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived risk (PR) on AT, as well as the relationship between information quality (IQ) and TR is also investigated. To enrich the analysis, our study evaluates the moderating role of greenwashing (G) in the relationships between AT, TR, SN, and PI. Using stratified sampling and quantitative methods, 377 valid responses were collected from participants across Vietnam. Then, data analysis was conducted using PLS-SEM and SmartPLS 3.0. The findings reveal that all proposed hypotheses were supported, except for the moderating effect of G on SN. These results underscore the potential of e-commerce platforms to promote sustainable products while also highlighting the detrimental effects of greenwashing, which increases consumer reluctance to adopt sustainable fashion products. Hence, this study aims to offer valuable insights for stakeholders within the industry to effectively promote their products, thereby fostering the future sustainable growth of the fashion sector.