From Environmental Cues and Triggers to Sustainable Consumption: Examining the Roles of Self-Expressiveness and Emotional State in Sustainable Purchasing, Usage and Disposal Behaviors

The awareness of sustainability in fashion has been growing but it has been predominant in sustainable purchasing intentions and cognitive determinants while the post-purchase sustainable consumption behavior is less studied, with studies being fragmented. The study focused on environmental cues and triggers as stimulants of self-expressiveness and emotional state in sustainable purchasing, usage and disposal behaviors. An online study was adopted with snowball sampling. An adopted and modified structured questionnaire was used as the main instrument for data collection, gathering 683 responses after data cleaning and reliability checks for appropriateness. SPSS and AMOS v23 were used in the analysis. The results show that cues and triggers are significant stimuli on self-expressiveness and emotional state in motivating sustainable purchasing and disposal behavioral responses, with emotional state having a comparably stronger effect on the response sustainable behavioral variables. The findings imply that businesses can highlight symbolic values in marketing campaigns to show how clothes enhance consumers' personal identity, and also direct marketing actions and communication efforts by focusing on sustainable consumption prompts and what triggers consumers to engage in sustainable consumption behavior rather than just the emotional state. The study recommends organizations effectively utilize experiential strategies, such as calm music in a store that promotes a calm environment, as it can serve as an enabler of sustainable choices rather than impulsive panic-purchases.