Psychological antecedents of career women's fashion clothing conformity

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between independent and interdependent self‐construal and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) on professional career women's fashion clothing conformity.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 207 professional career women aged 21‐50 living in London and New York were interviewed using a structured questionnaire via the internet.

Findings

A partial least square analysis found that interdependent self‐construal has strong and positive relationships with ATSCI, and that this construct, in‐turn, has a strong and positive relationship with motivation to conform. Independent self‐construal has a significant, but unhypothesized, relationship with ATSCI. However, independent self‐construal is significantly negatively related to conformity motivation.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation of the study includes the reliance on internet self‐administered data collection method.

Practical implications

The integrations of the individuals into, and their interactions with, the fashion adoption process is a phenomenon very relevant to marketers in identifying patterns of individual and social influences on fashion clothing tastes.

Originality/value

The findings are valuable because they apply, for the first time, four important psychological constructs to the subject field of professional career women's fashion choices.

Citation

Piamphongsant, T. and Mandhachitara, R. (2008), "Psychological antecedents of career women's fashion clothing conformity", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 438-455. https://doi.org/10.1108/13612020810906119