Impact of social media influencers on sustainable fashion purchasing a study on buying behavior of gen Z in Sri Lanka

Abstract

"Sri Lankan sustainable fashion retail sector is not that much competitive comparing to fashion retail sector. To attract customers there will be needing new marketing methods regularly. International brands have used social media influencer marketing wisely. Willingness to purchase sustainable fashion by (Hietanen, 2018), Social media influencer attributes by (Kim & Kim, 2022), Black box theory by (Liu & Hei, 2021), Green consumer purchase behavior model by (Kumar, 2019), Green purchasing modal by (Song, et al., 2020) will be used to study more about social media influencer marketing and sustainable fashion buying behavior. A positivism philosophy with a deductive approach, using mixed methods quantitative (explanatory) was used for this survey. The online questionnaire was administered through email and social media to 212 participants. A qualitative study was conducted through interviews with 5 sustainable fashion designers and marketing experts to provide further insights. All four strategies; credibility, attitude, self-image and awareness were proven to have an impact on sustainable fashion buying behavior. Attitude and self-awareness was excluded from the regression model. Recommendations were made in the final chapter. "