Clothing Take-Back Program: Why Do Malaysian ConsumersIntend to Participate?

Purpose - In response to the importance of sustainability in the fashion industry, leaders aim to develop initiatives collaboratively involving consumers, manufacturers, and recycling facilities, such as clothing take-back programs. Recognizing its critical role and impact on the fashion industry's footprint, this study explores factors influencing consumer participation intentions in clothing take-back programs. Extending the theory of planned behavior includes fashion involvement, environmental concern, and recycling convenience, and it integrates responsibility and personal norms from the normative action model. Methodology - The study utilizes an online questionnaire survey and employs partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the proposed model. The survey was distributed via social media using convenience and snowball methods. It gathered 418 usable responses, achieving an 88.94% response rate. Findings - The results reveal that fashion involvement and environmental concern positively influence attitudes toward participating in clothing take-back programs, and ascribing responsibility significantly impacts personal norms. Consumers’ intentions to participate in clothing take-back programs are significantly influenced by their attitude, perceived behavioral control, and individual norms. Originality - This study makes novel contributions to the literature. Firstly, it extends the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by incorporating fashion involvement, responsibility, and personal norm from the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN), providing a more comprehensive understanding of consumer intentions towards CTBP. Secondly, as a pioneer study in the Malaysian context, the study adds to the contextual evidence of this research field. Finally, the findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders by identifying key factors influencing consumer participation in sustainable fashion initiatives.