The Persuasive Effect of Competence and Warmth on Clothing Sustainable Consumption: The Moderating Role of Consumer Knowledge and Social Embeddedness
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I would like to thank the Editor for the opportunity to review this article. What I like in this article, that the authors briefly describes how people behave, when they want to dispose something, in this case. clothes. The paper is twofold. It presents two models and two surveys taken on two different respondent groups.
The article begins by introducing the topic and research issue, stating that the population increased purchase and disposal during consumption, casting the question of: "How can we encourage clothing sustainable consumption?". The abstract is quite concise and well structured, but rather long, containing 296 words. Typically, a summary should contain a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 250 words. Therefore, I consider that this could be shortened.
The introduction is exhaustive in regard to the contextualization/clarification of past investigations. It is really important to have a contextualization/historical framing, in which the authors write about it in 5 paragraphs, occupying almost 1 page with historical and current contextualization. In my opinion, the framework necessary for the article should be for the last 5/10 years maximum. Otherwise, the contextualization is separate from the introduction.
In section 2 (Theory and Hypotheses), the authors properly outline and describe the key factors for the study: Environmental Economic and Philanthropic Awareness factors as well Competence and Warmth. In addition, this section is simple and easy to understand.
In section 3 the authors show the methodological approach for study1. In this section they put all questions used in the survey into a table, together with statistical results.
In section 4 authors justify the methodological approach for study2 as the need to examine also environmental factors, not only economic. This covers further hypotheses and another survey taken on different group.
The discussion section is well-structured and elucidate the reader about the results, conclusions, limitations and further work.
Overall, the article is well structured and written in a clear and unambiguous way. The article is supported with several figures and tables that facilitate its understanding. Figures and tables are well chosen and adequately illustrate the results. The visual quality of the figures 4 and 5 is very poor. I suggest to prepare them in a native Word format or other vector format.
Minor comments:
References are in close to MDPI format, but not exactly. Journal names should be abbreviated.
Sentence in line 408-410 repeats the sentence in lines 401-403.
Author Response
Thank you for reading the paper and for your good comments. We revised the contents as you’re reviewed.
Point 1: The article begins by introducing the topic and research issue, stating that the population increased purchase and disposal during consumption, casting the question of: "How can we encourage clothing sustainable consumption?". The abstract is quite concise and well structured, but rather long, containing 296 words. Typically, a summary should contain a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 250 words. Therefore, I consider that this could be shortened.
Response 1: Reduced word count to 218 characters. <p.1~2>
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Abstract: Commonly, most companies regard consumer satisfaction to be their major goal. Companies have been focusing on consumer choice in product sales from a utility theory perspective. However, these days, in addition to personal choice, clothing disposal and sustainable consumption are also becoming main concerns of consumers because of growing environmental problems in many parts of the world. According to this research, two studies were conducted, and the results of study1 were economic factors affected sustainable consumption behaviour positively, and competence cognition is the basis of this effect. A philanthropic factor also positively influences sustainable consumption behaviour, and this effect is mediated by warmth cognition. Economic factors influenced consumer’s product disposal behaviour not only through competence cognition but also through warmth cognition. Therefore, to encourage disposal behaviours, such as recycling and donation, strategies are needed that can appeal to economic advantages. And study 2 examined the clothing disposal behaviour considering environmental economic factors by scenarios. As a result, it was confirmed that environmental economics factors influenced the clothing disposal behaviour. In addition, we could confirm the moderated mediating effect as well as the moderating effects of knowledge level. The implications of these results and some suggestions for future research are discussed.
Keywords: philanthropic awareness, environmental economics factors, clothing disposal behaviour, sustainable consumption, competence, warmth, environmental knowledge, social embeddedness
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Point 2: The introduction is exhaustive in regard to the contextualization/clarification of past investigations. It is really important to have a contextualization/historical framing, in which the authors write about it in 5 paragraphs, occupying almost 1 page with historical and current contextualization. In my opinion, the framework necessary for the article should be for the last 5/10 years maximum. Otherwise, the contextualization is separate from the introduction.
Response 2: As you requested, we removed unnecessary parts and revised the introduction <p.1~2>
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Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production, which in turn, brings happiness to customers. Like Adam Smith [1] said, consumption activity is the most directly fulfilling behaviour of consumer’s satisfaction. Reflecting this, although customer satisfaction is the most important goal for all companies today, considering the contribution of consumption to individual and social welfare, corporate marketing activities also require a wider perspective. In other words, most companies have focused on selling products and have been interested in consumer choice from the viewpoint of utility theory. However, with globally growing concern about the pollution of the environment, it is time to take an interest in consumer disposal behaviour for social well-being. Consumers dispose of products temporarily or permanently when they are no longer useful [2] or perceived to be old-fashioned. In the past, clothing disposal was usually treated as a personal concern, but now, because of environmental problems, product disposal has become an issue of public concern. That is, product disposal has created a growing garbage disposal problem, which has extended it to a global environmental issue. Also, because of the growing wealth and purchasing power of consumers, some prior research suggested that products that are not fully used can be easily thrown away by consumers, which encourages excessive consumption [3, 4]. Still, many consumers do not know about, or have no interest in, sustainable consumption and disposal methods. Moreover, inefficient disposal behaviours are currently causing many serious problems [4]. However, the research on the factors affecting consumer disposal and how to control their disposal behaviour is very limited. Thus, in this study, we examined the influencing factors to better understand consumer disposal behaviour from a sustainability perspective. we want to identify what mechanism is triggered that induces sustainable disposal behaviour in those who consider environmental economic factors as important and those who have strong philanthropic perceptions. To confirm the study, two studies were conducted, and study 1 we have identified and used two kinds of mechanisms: competence and warmth. In study2, we have confirmed the moderated mediating effects of knowledge level and social embeddedness. For this purpose, hypotheses are set up through a review of related literature. |
Point 3. Overall, the article is well structured and written in a clear and unambiguous way. The article is supported with several figures and tables that facilitate its understanding. Figures and tables are well chosen and adequately illustrate the results. The visual quality of the figures 4 and 5 is very poor. I suggest to prepare them in a native Word format or other vector format
Response 3: The image in figure 4 and 5 has been modified to complement it <p.10~11>.
Point 4: Minor comments:
References are in close to MDPI format, but not exactly. Journal names should be abbreviated.
Sentence in line 408-410 repeats the sentence in lines 401-403.
Response 4: As you requested, we removed unnecessary parts and revised the introduction <p.14~15>
Reviewer 2 Report
An interesting topic, sustainability, high on the agenda in research today. The studies seems to be well done and the results are interesting and brings some new knowledge to the research area. Howerer, the paper can be improved by changing the structure of the article and here are some comments:
organise the text in another way I suggest you do it like this:
2. Theory and hypothesis: take this heading away and have the content under The "Introduction" heading. At the end of the Introcuction you make a heading with "Aim" and after that you state your hypothesis.
Atter the chapter "Introduction" you write a heading with the name "Methodology" with two sub-headings, Study 1 and Study 2. Under these headings you describes the methods used in your resarch.
Next main heading should be "Results" with two sub-headings "Study 1" and "Study 2". Here you present your results without any discussions.
Next main heading I suggest as "Discussion". Also here you divide it in "Study" 1 and "study 2". At the end of this chapter you write out the hypothesis one by one and answer them.
The last main heading I suggest as "Conclusions". Here you comment if the aim you stated in the Introduction is fullfilled or not. You also here comment the advantage of your results for 1. the industry (business), 2. for academia (researchers), 3. For the public.
To summarize: you have all the information and content in your manuscrips but the paper should gain to be oranized in another way.
Author Response
Thank you for reading the paper and for your good comments. We revised the contents as you’re reviewed.
Point 1:
organise the text in another way I suggest you do it like this:
- Theory and hypothesis: take this heading away and have the content under The "Introduction" heading. At the end of the Introcuction you make a heading with "Aim" and after that you state your hypothesis.
Atter the chapter "Introduction" you write a heading with the name "Methodology" with two sub-headings, Study 1 and Study 2. Under these headings you describes the methods used in your resarch.
Next main heading should be "Results" with two sub-headings "Study 1" and "Study 2". Here you present your results without any discussions.
Next main heading I suggest as "Discussion". Also here you divide it in "Study" 1 and "study 2". At the end of this chapter you write out the hypothesis one by one and answer them.
The last main heading I suggest as "Conclusions". Here you comment if the aim you stated in the Introduction is fullfilled or not. You also here comment the advantage of your results for 1. the industry (business), 2. for academia (researchers), 3. For the public.
To summarize: you have all the information and content in your manuscrips but the paper should gain to be oranized in another way.
Response 1 : As requested to organize the structure as a whole:
- Introduction 2. Methodology 3. Conclusion 4. Discussion 5. Conclusion
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1. Introduction Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production, which in turn, brings happiness to customers. Like Adam Smith [1] said, consumption activity is the most directly fulfilling behaviour of consumer’s satisfaction However, the research on the factors affecting consumer disposal and how to control their disposal behaviour is very limited. Thus, in this study, we examined the influencing factors to better understand consumer disposal behaviour from a sustainability perspective. we want to identify what mechanism is triggered that induces sustainable disposal behaviour in those who consider environmental economic factors as important and those who have strong philanthropic perceptions. To confirm the study, two studies were conducted, and study 1 we have identified and used two kinds of mechanisms: competence and warmth. In study2, we have confirmed the moderated mediating effects of knowledge level and social embeddedness. For this purpose, hypotheses are set up through a review of related literature. 2. Methodology Study1 Data Collection One hundred fifty undergraduate students from a Chosun University participated in this survey. After excluding samples which contain missing responses, one hundred forty-three samples remained. According to the final data, 67 (46.9%) were men and 76 (53.1%) were women. The age range was from 19 to 28 years. Study2 Study 2 has two main objectives. First, study1 examines the causes of sustainable behaviour considering only economic factors. However, to examine the causes of sustainable behavior, environmental factors as well as economic factors must be considered together, as in the previous study [9]. Therefore, in Study 2, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between environmental and economic factors as independent variables affecting sustainable disposal behaviour. Second, in the previous research, we have confirmed the mechanism of competence and warmth when economic factors and philanthropic awareness influence disposal behaviour. The purpose of study2 is to examine how each level of knowledge level and social embeddedness has a moderating effect 3. Results Study1 Study2 4. Discussion Study1 Study2 5. Conclusions The practical implication is that consumers who are aware of the importance of the economic factors will be able to increase responsible disposal behaviour through competence. On the contrary, if consumers are highly aware of philanthropy, messages produce feelings emotional warmth will increase sustainable disposal behaviour. Specifically, to distinguish between for-profit and non-profit companies, marketing strategies should be introduced. In the case of non-profit companies, consumers should be encouraged to improve their disposal behaviour through strategies that stimulate their emotions. On the other hand, for-profit companies will encourage it through capacity, such as corporate asset value and financial structure. In addition, according to the results of the analysis of the alternative model test, it was found that economic factors can induce consumers’ disposal behaviour by communicating warmth as well as competence. Corporate sustainability management has focused on developing eco-friendly materials or making products that use eco-friendly materials. In addition, from the perspective of the consumption of developed products, we have focused on the recycling of resources and have been interested in explaining the direct cause of recycling. However, sustainable behaviours such as responsible disposal behaviour require not only corporate effort but also a means of motivating consumers to put forth their own effort. Theoretical implications is that this study focuses on this part and attempts to differentiate it from previous research by examining what mechanism elements attract the direct factors influencing disposal behaviour that have been proposed in previous studies. Furthermore, it identified the factors that mediated moderating the level of knowledge about the environment and the level of social embeddedness. And, the social disposal behaviour of respondents with low knowledge of environment was high. This study finds that the persuasion communication strategies of companies that pursue sustainability management are more effective at inducing sustainable disposal behaviour from an economic point of view when competence and warmth factors are considered. In addition, philanthropic factors can be persuasive only from a social judgment point of view.
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Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
No more cmments to the authors. The previous comments has been changed and the structure of the paper is now ok.
Author Response
Thank you for reading the paper and for your good comments. We revised the contents as you’re reviewed.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
