When sustainability meets the wallet: Economic trade-offs in consumers’ willingness to pay for sustainable fashion

This paper explores the determinants of consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable fashion by developing a hybrid Value-Attitude-Behavior (VAB)/ Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) theoretical framework. We investigate the TPB/ VAB constructs and their relationship with purchasing behavior and test how the perception of quantity-quality trade-off moderates the association between purchase intention and WTP, thus providing an economic boundary condition for the sustainable fashion consumption. The survey data were collected from 1,058 respondents in Portugal, Italy, and the United States and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The study tested the effects of value, attitude, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and purchase intention on WTP as well as the moderating role of the quantity-quality trade-off (TQQ). Attitude and PBC were found to be key predictors of purchase intention. In turn, purchase intention had a positive influence on WTP. In addition, perceptions of a quantity-quality trade-off condition the purchase intention-WTP relationship, such that intentions translate more strongly into WTP when sustainability is framed as a quality investment. By incorporating economic perceptions within an integrated VAB-TPB framework, this study advances the understanding of why ethical intentions may not always lead to monetary commitment.