Analyzing the motivators and barriers associated with buying green apparel: Digging deep into retail consumers' behavior

The concept of green/sustainable apparel in developing nations is still nascent. Therefore, the present research explores the consumers' attitudes and intentions toward sustainable apparel in India, a developing country. The current study emphasizes analyzing barriers and motivators in a single framework and how they impact consumers' attitudes and intentions. To achieve this objective, we used the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory as a conceptual framework, which was tested using data collected from 379 respondents using an online survey approach. We used the sequential approach of SEM and fsQCA to understand consumers' intentions towards green apparel. The study considered self-transcendence (STV) and self-enhancement values (SEV) as stimuli, motivators, and barriers as organisms and attitude and intention of adopting green apparel as a response. The finding reported that stimuli positively influence motivation (organisms) and negatively influence barriers (organism) toward green apparel, which further affect attitude and intention towards adopting green apparel (response). Further, cosmopolitanism positively moderated the association between attitude and intention. fsQCA analysis shows that self-transcendence value reported significant necessary conditions for motivators and barriers associated with attitude and intention to purchase green apparel. The study provides critical strategic implications for marketers to help them develop a better perspective of green apparel among consumers.