Ethical Consumerism and its effect on Purchase Decision: Evidence from Fashion Industry of Pakistan

In recent years, customer’s increasing awareness of ethical consumption has become increasingly important for the business environment and one’s lifestyle. Although it is observed that consumers are influenced by their ethical concerns but ethical consumptions lack from a consumer perspective. The theoretical framework of the paper portrays the multifaceted and complex ratio of the concepts of ethical consumption and the complexities that exist in the relationship between purchase influence and consumption in general. The study took a quantitative approach to find out how consumer purchase decision is affected by four antecedents namely, Ethical Knowledge, Environmental Concern, Personal Values, and Price Factor. Data was collected through a self-developed questionnaire and distributed among 200 respondents in Karachi, Pakistan. Multiple regression was applied through SPSS in the data. The results of the study show that all other variables show a significant effect on purchase decision except Ethical Knowledge. Therefore, it implies consumers are uncertain about which products and firms follow ethical rules and which do not. This study has theoretical and practical contributions in the fashion industry context. This research might encourage fashion brands to willfully take on green exercises and give strategic guidelines to advertisers and retailers about their sustainable retail practices.