Generating loyalty towards fast fashion stores: a cross-generational approach based on store attributes and socio-environmental responsibility

Research background: Faced with multiple media scandals concerning the pollution resulting from manufacturing activities, and encouraging the overconsumption of clothing, international fast fashion retailers have often had to resort to the elaboration and implementation of sustainable strategies aimed at environmental protection and reducing resource consumption. Generating customer satisfaction and loyalty depends increasingly on the extent to which retailers manage to employ socio-environmental responsibility besides the traditional retail store attributes. The purpose of this article: The objective of the paper is to evaluate the influence of consumer-oriented store attributes in generating satisfaction and loyalty towards the fast fashion store, highlighting the influence of socio-environmental responsibility on the two constructs. Methods: Based on the literature review, a conceptual model considering the effects of stores' attributes on store satisfaction and store loyalty and influenced by socio-environmental responsibility is proposed. Data were collected with the help of face-to-face administrated questionnaires before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in an emerging market (Romania). The data were analyzed via structural equation modeling in SmartPLS, for the three considered consumer generations: Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. Findings & value added: For all consumer generations, all store attributes contribute to the direct generation of fast fashion store satisfaction and store loyalty; nevertheless, the intensity varies in levels of significance. Socio-environmental responsibility does not significantly determine store satisfaction, but does have a strong influence on fast fashion store loyalty. The results detailed according to the generations indicate a similar situation: each store attribute influences the satisfaction of one or other generation, apart from socio-environmental responsibility. This work makes an essential contribution to the extension of the generational theory, highlighting the various individualities, perceptions, and behaviors. This cross-generational research broadens knowledge on how different consumer generations behave when shopping from fast fashion stores. The research also extends the S-O-R model, which is used to understand the relationship between store attributes (stimulus), consumer satisfaction (organism), and consumer loyalty (response) towards fast fashion stores.