BUS602: Marketing Management

To the best of our knowledge, most of our survey items on clothing consumption behavior are totally new, meaning no pre-existing standard item formulations or tested scales. Hence, all items and answer categories were developed based on an extensive review of the literature, previous survey experience, and results from consumer focus groups (also aged 18 to 65). Before survey administration, all items were proofread and tested for comprehension and validity using a small-scale face-to-face pilot. Each of the three main clothing consumption phases (purchase, use and maintenance, discard/disposal) is captured by different measures that cover both general clothing consumption and product category-specific consumption of jeans and t-shirts. Introducing this product category level alongside the domain level helps to validate questions that rely on self-reported behavior. This practice is supported in prior pilot tests in which respondents tended to recall their behavior more precisely when given a concrete clothing category. We chose jeans and t-shirts because these two categories are well known across sexes and cultures and widely purchased in the countries surveyed (e.g., in Sweden, t-shirts and jeans make up 24% and 19% of clothing consumption, respectively).

For the purchase phase, the survey includes questions about the number of items bought in the past 3 months and how much was spent on clothing in general or jeans and t-shirts in particular. Because we know of no representative spending data for all four countries based on which to develop categories, the questions on expenditure for all clothing items (general, jeans, and t-shirt) during the past 3 months were open ended. The responses were then harmonized for cross-country comparability by conversion into euros and adjustment based on the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HCIP). Using 2015 as the index reference period, set to 100 across all European countries, each respondent's spending was then adjusted using the average HCIP value of the corresponding country from July to September 2016. The survey also asked which brands of clothing the respondents typically purchased, whether budget, casual/medium, or premium; which materials (new, conventional; new, organic; reused, recycled; reused, second-hand); and through which acquisition modes.

Information collected for the use and maintenance phase included how many clothing items the respondents possessed at that time, how long they usually keep and wear their clothing, and how often they wear clothes before washing and other laundry related behaviors. Because no general behavior patterns are observable for all clothing product categories in this phase (e.g., laundry behavior differs strongly for a t-shirt vs. a jacket), these items focused on the product category rather than the general fashion domain level (see Table 1, for all clothing consumption related questions and the corresponding answer categories). Lastly, respondents were asked where they discard their unwanted clothes.

Table 1. Measurements by consumption phase.

Question	Items	Answer Categories
Purchase Behavior
How many items of clothing did you acquire during the last 3 months?		None 1–4 5–9 10–15 16–20 21–25 26 or more
How many of items of the following did you acquire during the last 3 months? (number) ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		Free answer field
How much money did you spend on clothes/the following within the last 3 months? ▪ General ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		Free answer field in relevant currency
At which stores do you typically acquire your clothes? Indicate a total sum of 100% ▪ General ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt	Premium (e.g., Hugo Boss or Gucci) Casual/middle (e.g., Levi’s, Esprit, or Gap) Budget (e.g., H&M or Forever 21)	0%–100%
Of which material is the clothing you acquire typically made? Indicate a total sum of 100%	New - conventional material New - organic material Reused - recycled material Reused - second-hand material	0%–100%
In the last 3 months, approximately how frequently did you use the listed modes to acquire new clothes?	High street Shopping mall Online shopping Mail-order Small boutiques Second-hand (e.g., shop, flea market, eBay) Supermarket Swap (i.e., exchange/barter of clothes) Other: (Please indicate)	Never 1–2 times 3–5 times 6–10 times 11–15 times More than 15 times
Use and Maintenance Behavior
How many items do you have of the following? (number) ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		Free answer field for each jeans and t-shirt
How long do you usually keep the following clothing items before discarding (disposing) it? ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		Less than 6 months Less than a year 1–2 years 3–4 years 5 years or more
How many times do you wear an average pair of jeans or t-shirt from your wardrobe? ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		Very rarely (once a year or less) Rarely (less than once every 3 months) Sometimes (at least once every other month) Often (at least once a month) Very often (at least once a week)
How many times do you wear the following clothing items on average before washing?		Free answer field for each jeans and t-shirt
At which temperature do you wash? ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		20 °C 30 °C 40 °C 50 °C 60 °C
Do you use detergent when washing? Do you use softener when washing? ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt		No Yes, non-eco Yes, eco
Do you use the dryer after washing?		Yes No
Discard Behavior
How do you typically discard your unwanted clothing? Indicate a total sum of 100% ▪ General ▪ Jeans ▪ T-shirt	Second-life (e.g., donating, recycling programs, flea-market, passing on to family) Down-cycling (e.g., use as rags) Trash	0%–100%

The survey also included a set of questions relating to environmentally friendly clothing consumption behaviors, measured on the environmental apparel consumption (EAC) scale, which assesses the frequency of such behaviors as purchasing recycled or second-hand apparel or purposely selecting energy efficient or less polluting clothing products (see Table 2). The EAC measure is a mean score calculated over all eight scale items. The survey also asked, again on the product category-specific level (jeans and t-shirts), how much the respondents value second-hand clothing items or those made from recycled or organic materials compared to new products made of conventional materials. Lastly, it recorded respondents' past and future intended use of alternative business models (developed in collaboration with industry experts), such as clothes leasing, libraries, or in-store repair services.

Table 2. Measurements of environmentally friendly clothing consumption behavior.

Question	Items	Answer Categories
Environmental Apparel Consumption (EAC) In the following, please indicate what applies to you. When acquiring clothing items, I ...	Buy clothes with environmentally friendly labeling or packaging techniques Buy clothing made from organically grown natural fibers Buy second-hand clothes Buy clothes with low impact or no dye processing Select clothes that you can wear over a longer term compared to trendy clothes that go out of style quickly Purposely select fabrics that require cooler washing temperature, shorter drying time, or less ironing Avoid clothes products because of environmental concerns Buy clothes made from recycled material	Very rarely or never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often or always
If a pair of new conventional jeans/a new conventional t-shirt is 100%, how much would you pay for exactly the same pair of Indicate by a slider a higher or lower value compared to the conventional product	Recycled jeans/t-shirt Second-hand jeans/t-shirt New organic material jeans/t-shirt	Low (0%)–High (200%)
Have you previously used the following ...	Fashion leasing (e.g., similar to car leasing) Traditional repair services (e.g., mending clothes yourself, tailor) Reselling clothes online (e.g., eBay) Swap markets (swapping clothes without payment) Repair services in-store (e.g., Nudie Jeans) Fashion rental (e.g., special occasion like weddings or carnival) Clothing libraries (e.g., similar to book libraries) Incentivized take back services (e.g., leaving clothing for recycling in exchange for a voucher or a buy-back program)	Yes No
Could you imagine using the following in the future: Indicate on a percentile slider from 0–100	Fashion leasing (e.g., similar to car leasing) Traditional repair services (e.g., mending clothes yourself, tailor) Reselling clothes online (e.g., eBay) Swapping markets (swapping clothes without payment) Repair services in-store (e.g., Nudie Jeans) Fashion rental (e.g., special occasion like weddings or carnival) Clothing libraries (e.g., similar to book libraries) Incentivized take back services (e.g., leaving clothing for recycling in exchange for a voucher or a buy-back program)	Very unlikely (0) Neutral (50) Very likely (100)

The final section of the survey collected sociodemographic data such as sex, age in years, country, and income, which later we divide for comparability into 11 categories based on corresponding national statistics (Eurostat for Germany, Poland and Sweden; U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S.). The income calculation algorithm, which uses the 2014 statistic for the monthly net income of the 18–64 age group in each country, ensures cross-country comparability through the following four-step process: (1) identifying the median income per country and using this as the lower boundary of the middle-income category; (2) defining the upper boundary of the lowest category as the poverty line for singles (i.e., 60% of the median income of a single household); (3) defining the lower boundary of the upper level as approximately 2.5 times the median income; and (4) spreading the intervals for the 11 categories evenly.