Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Abstract
please show how the paper adds value to the literature, i.e. what theory does the paper enhance.

 

Methodology

how was the questionnaire operationalised? 

 

The paper is fine and only some minor readjustments are needed. 

Author Response

Abstract

please show how the paper adds value to the literature, i.e. what theory does the paper enhance.

Response) Thank you so much for your valuable comments. In this paper, “Attitude and behavioral intention gap theory” was applied and we added the explanation which theory our article contributes in the abstract. (Please refer to yellow highlight in the part of Abstract.)

Although public interests in sustainability increase and consumers’ attitudes are positive, their behavioral intentions are not consistent with attitudes. This study aims to uncover drivers and barriers (consumption values, social norms, attitudes to sustainable apparel products) of Chinese consumers’ behavioral intentions toward sustainable apparel products (SAP) by exploring the attitude – behavioral intention gap.

Our study validates the attitude-behavior gap model in sustainable consumer behavior and discusses how the current findings can assist researchers and practitioners in the Clothing and Textiles field alike to fine-tune sustainable programs and marketing strategies in China.

Methodology

how was the questionnaire operationalised?

Response) Online questionnaire was operationalized in this study. We explained the operationalization of questionnaire in detail and please refer to line 277-289.

The paper is fine and only some minor readjustments are needed.

Response) The authors truly appreciate your insightful feedback. The authors hope that the revision will be pertinent to your comments and are eager for publication in the Sustainability.

Reviewer 2 Report

Consumer attitudes toward apparel consumption is certainly an interesting and meaningful topic to be discussing sustainability. The paper is organized, though quite a bit of mistakes in English can be spotted. The overall structure is good.

<Contents>
I believe the section named as “Sustainable apparel consumption in China” is more about the background and the importance of this study, and not necessarily about the Theoretical framework and hypothesis. I would take this section out and place it as “Background on sustainable apparel consumption in China” and place it right after the Introduction.

I am not an expert in the methodology used in this study, so I have no comment on the methodology.

<Comments on writing>
[1] The first sentence of the abstract does not make sense. Please consider revising.

[2] Line 14: It should be “of Chinese consumers’”?

[3] Line 30: It should be “has become”?

[4] Line 85: "effect" should be "affect"

[5] Please use subscript for 2 when writing CO2

[6] Line 134, this sentence does not make sense. Please consider revising.

[7] Line 376: “Sustainable apparel buying behavioral intention” needs revising. Same as Line 393, “buying behavioral intention”?

[8] Conclusion is a conclusion section, and not a summary. I recommend authors to remove the first paragraph as it has been written in the abstract. Readers are always likely to read shorter paper, so it helps to remove redundancy.

Author Response

Consumer attitudes toward apparel consumption is certainly an interesting and meaningful topic to be discussing sustainability. The paper is organized, though quite a bit of mistakes in English can be spotted. The overall structure is good.

Response) The authors appreciate the reviewer’s insightful and valuable feedbacks for enhancing the depth and width of the content of our manuscript. For the revision of mistakes in English, we will request the MDPI professional editing service to proofread our manuscript.

<Contents>
I believe the section named as “Sustainable apparel consumption in China” is more about the background and the importance of this study, and not necessarily about the Theoretical framework and hypothesis. I would take this section out and place it as “Background on sustainable apparel consumption in China” and place it right after the Introduction. I am not an expert in the methodology used in this study, so I have no comment on the methodology.

Response) Thank you very much for your valuable comments. We changed “Theoretical framework and hypothesis” to “Literature review” and place the contents of “Sustainable apparel consumption in China” in the first part of literature review after the part of Introduction.

<Comments on writing>
[1] The first sentence of the abstract does not make sense. Please consider revising.

Response) We revised the first sentence. Please refer to line 11-14.

As the rapid economic growth and over-consumption with the largest population worldwide has resulted in harmful environment deterioration, a shift to more sustainable consumption behaviors are required in China. Although public interests in sustainability increase and consumers’ attitudes are positive, their behavioral intentions are not consistent with attitudes.

[2] Line 14: It should be “of Chinese consumers’”?

Response) We changed to “of Chinese consumers’

[3] Line 30: It should be “has become”?

Response) We revised “have become” to “has become”.

[4] Line 85: "effect" should be "affect"

Response) We revised “effect” to “affect”.

[5] Please use subscript for 2 when writing CO2

Response) We used subscript for 2 when writing CO₂ .

[6] Line 134, this sentence does not make sense. Please consider revising.

Response) We revised the sentence. Please refer to line 137-140.

Both researchers and practitioners have struggled the lack of commensuration between industry growth and market share and sought out a solution via attitude-behavior research (Yamoah & Acquaye, 2019). This study paid attention to the attitude-behavior gap model to investigate determinants of sustainable consumption in China.

[7] Line 376: “Sustainable apparel buying behavioral intention” needs revising. Same as Line 393, “buying behavioral intention”?

Response) line 376, “behavioral” was eliminated. Line 393, “buying” was eliminated.

[8] Conclusion is a conclusion section, and not a summary. I recommend authors to remove the first paragraph as it has been written in the abstract. Readers are always likely to read shorter paper, so it helps to remove redundancy.

Response) We eliminated the first paragraph in the part of Conclusion to remove redundancy.

The authors are pleased to receive your great suggestion. We hope that the revision will be pertinent to your comments and are eager for publication in the Sustainability.

Reviewer 3 Report

In general:

Please, reframe the contribution in the perspective of Psychology of sustainability and sustainable development that is the theme of the Special Issue (Well-Being and Happiness for Harmonization of Natural and Cultural Resources: Cross-Cultural Pillars of Sustainability) considering the following references: 

• Di Fabio, A.; Tsuda, A. The psychology of harmony and harmonization: Advancing the perspectives for the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4726. DOI: 10.3390/su10124726
• Di Fabio, A. The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development for well-being in organizations. Front. Psychol. 2017, 8, 1534. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01534.
• Di Fabio, A. Positive healthy organizations: Promoting well-being, meaningfulness, and sustainability in organizations. Front. Psychol. 2017, 8, 1938. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01938.
• Di Fabio, A.; Rosen, M.A. Opening the black box of psychological processes in the science of sustainable development: A new frontier. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. Res. 2018, 2, 47. DOI: 10.20897/ejosdr/3933.
• Di Fabio, A., & Rosen, M. A. (2019). Accounting for Individual Differences in Connectedness to Nature: Personality and Gender Differences Special Issue in Sustainability MDPI, 11, 1693; doi:10.3390/su11061693
• Di Fabio, A., & Saklofske, D. H. (2019). Positive Relational Management for Sustainable Development: Beyond Personality Traits - The Contribution of Emotional Intelligence. In A. Di Fabio (Ed.), Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development. Special Issue in Sustainability MDPI, 11(2), 330; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020330

 

More specific:

• The introduction and the conclusion need to be improved: the first in terms of the literature enrichment in the field of Psychology of sustainability and sustainable development studies and the conclusion empowered helping the reader to connect results with this approach.
• The title needs to be more clear related to the “real” analized data that regard a small sample from three towns of China... I think it is better to find the words adapt to circumscribe the expectations of the readers

Author Response

Review) The introduction and the conclusion need to be improved:the first in terms of the literature enrichment in the field of Psychology of sustainability and sustainable development studies and the conclusion empowered helping the reader to connect results with this approach.

Answer) The authors appreciate your insightful and valuable feedbacks for enhancing the depth and width of the content of our manuscript. We referred to three researches which you recommended and revised the parts of introduction and conclusion in the perspective of Psychology of sustainability and sustainable development that is the theme of the Special Issue (Well-Being and Happiness for Harmonization of Natural and Cultural Resources: Cross-Cultural Pillars of Sustainability). Please refer to line 53-57, 68-70, and 74-76 in introduction and line 408-410 and line 432-434 in conclusion and future research. All revisions were green-highlighted.

Added references

Di Fabio, A.; Tsuda, A. The psychology of harmony and harmonization: Advancing the perspectives for the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development. Sustainability 2018, 10, 4726. DOI: 10.3390/su10124726

Di Fabio, A. The psychology of sustainability and sustainable development for well-being in organizations. Front. Psychol. 2017, 8, 1534. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01534.

Di Fabio, A.; Rosen, M.A. Opening the black box of psychological processes in the science of sustainable development: A new frontier. Eur. J. Sustain. Dev. Res. 2018, 2, 47. DOI: 10.20897/ejosdr/3933.

Review) The title needs to be more clear related to the “real” analized data that regard a small sample from three towns of China... I think it is better to find the words adapt to circumscribe the expectations of the readers

Answer) Thank you for your valuable comments. We changed the title to Influencing Factors of Chinese consumers’ purchase intention to sustainable apparel products: Exploring Consumer “Attitude – Behavioral Intention” Gap for readers of Sustainability.

The authors truly appreciate your insightful feedback. The authors hope that the revision will be pertinent to your comments and are eager for publication in the Sustainability.