Fashion consciousness, materialism and fashion clothing purchase involvement of young fashion consumers in Egypt: the mediation role of materialism

Abstract

Purpose: Fashion clothing has always been an interesting area for scholarly research on consumer behavior. This paper seeks to gain a better understanding of the youth involvement with fashion clothing in the Egyptian context. Accordingly, the paper considers the Egyptian consumers’ attitude toward fashion involvement by investigating how fashion consciousness and materialism serve as main antecedents of fashion clothing involvement, while also determining the impact of fashion clothing involvement on fashion clothing purchase involvement. This paper aims to test an extended and adapted theoretical model of fashion clothing involvement in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach: Using non-probabilistic convenience sample, a survey method was used, and 270 valid questionnaires were collected. Findings: The hypothesized antecedents were found to influence fashion clothing involvement among young Egyptian consumers, which in turn significantly affect its purchasing. Moreover, materialism was also found to partially meditate the relationship between fashion consciousness and fashion involvement. On the other hand, the hypothesized gender role as a moderator between all variables of the study was not supported. Research limitations/implications: Using a wider population is one avenue future research seeking to replicate this study can pursue. Specifically, because the sample consisted of university students, generalizing the results to non-students can be restricted. Likewise, findings are mainly related to fashion clothing; hence, extending the model to include other product categories can provide more support for the results. Practical implications: As the results confirmed that there is a partial significant positive impact of fashion consciousness on fashion clothing involvement via materialism, the paper provides practical implications for fashion marketers to achieve successful communication with fashion-conscious and materialistic young Egyptian consumers. The aim is to develop strategies that are consistent with consumers’ values and communicate appeals to their aspirational lifestyle. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the limited number of the published manuscripts on the fashion clothing marketing sector in Egypt. There is a void in literature related the investigation of fashion clothing involvement in the developing countries. Accordingly, this paper fills this gap by examining the fashion clothing consumption behavior of young Egyptian students in Cairo University. To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is among the first to investigate the antecedents and motives related to fashion clothing involvement and its purchases among young consumers in the Egyptian context. The paper develops a comprehensive model of fashion clothing involvement to highlight the relationships between fashion involvement and Fashion consciousness, materialism, and fashion clothing purchase-involvement. The paper also contributes to the research by exploring materialism as a mediator between fashion consciousness and fashion involvement constructs, in addition to exploring the gender role as a moderator between all constructs of the study. The study makes theoretical contribution to the body of knowledge around young Egyptian consumers’ fashion clothing involvement and purchase behavior toward luxury fashion clothes, which may be extended to other similar Arab non-Western developing countries. Moreover, it offers managerial insights for establishing effective communications with this potentially lucrative market segment.