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Body satisfaction, largely ignored in studies of online shopping for body-involved products, was examined as an antecedent variable to the virtual product experience. The purpose of this study was to investigate how body satisfaction relates to the virtual product experience and attitudinal and behavioral intentions in the body-absent, online apparel shopping environment. Data were collected through a Web-based survey, and 403 female students from a Midwestern university in the U.S. responded. Findings from structural equation modeling showed that participants with higher body satisfaction tended to perceive more enjoyment of the virtual product experience in online apparel shopping, which helped them to facilitate more positive attitude toward products and increase online purchase intention. Results indicate that body satisfaction shapes enjoyment of the virtual product experience and leads to individual differences in online apparel shopping. Managerial implications to improve virtual product experience-related strategies in online apparel shopping are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Online consumers have the limitation of product experience and evaluation, due to the inability to directly experience the product, thereby increasing perceived risk of product performance. This study investigated the dimensions of product performance risk that relate to virtual product experience in online apparel shopping. Perceived risk theory was applied to explain consumers’ risk perceptions of product performance. Data were collected from 403 female college students at a Midwestern university using a web-based survey. Results indicate that online consumers perceived visual, tactile, and trial risks of product performance based on the evaluation of product attributes through virtual product experience. Visual, tactile, and trial risks may help online consumers determine more specific product performance characteristics related to product attributes. Attention to the three dimensions of product performance risk may allow online retailers to develop more differentiated virtual product experience strategies to reduce each dimensional risk of product performance in online apparel shopping. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The research explores older women's clothing fit and style concerns and their attitudes toward 3D body scanning. A film of the 3D body scanning process was developed as an information source and shown to groups of older women prior to collecting survey and focus group data in 10 different community centers and living facilities in four Midwestern U.S. states. Clothing fit was the most important consideration to participants in making apparel purchasing decisions. Participants addressed the difficulty in finding clothing that fits their body shapes and styles that are appropriate for the aging body. Participants' preferences for using 3D body scanning in the future were also examined. Focus group participants expressed greatest willingness to use 3D body scanning for pattern development services. Future research needs to address older consumer acceptance of emerging technology applications for clothing customization and selection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purposes of this study was to examine the relationships among body-related self-discrepancy, body dissatisfaction, apparel involvement, concerns with fit and size of garments, and purchase intentions based on self-discrepancy theory. A random sample of college female students (n = 348) was drawn from a Midwestern university. The data was collected using a web-based survey. A hypothesized model was tested using the SEM technique. The results indicated that consumers' perceived body-related self-discrepancy from online models had a direct relationship with body dissatisfaction. Consumers with higher enduring apparel involvement tended to feel a higher degree of body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction was positively related to five concerns with fit and size of garment dimensions. Enduring apparel involvement was negatively related to concerns with overall appearance and concerns with imagining fit/size in online shopping. Finally, two of the concerns with fit and size of garment dimensions (concerns with overall appearance and concerns with imagining fit/size in online shopping) were negatively related to purchase intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the level of Internet retailer's service quality (IRSQ) on perceived apparel quality, perceived service quality, consumer value perception of apparel shopping, satisfaction with apparel shopping experience, and future behavioral intentions regarding apparel shopping with the Internet retailer. We also investigated interrelationships among these variables in both IRSQ levels. The quality-value-satisfaction model (Cronin, Brady, & Hult, 2000) was adopted and expanded to serve as a theoretical framework for this study. A convenience sample of 361 female college students in two U.S. regions participated in and provided usable responses to this experimental study. Multi-group analysis via a structural equation modeling technique revealed positive interrelationships between perceived apparel quality, perceived service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. In addition, these interrelationships were stronger in higher IRSQ level, compared to the lower level. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between age, body image, and women's proclivity to compare themselves with fashion models. A sample of 281 women between the ages of 30 and 80 participated in this study. Significant positive relationships between social comparison behavior and (a) appearance self-discrepancy and (b) the importance placed on achieving ideal appearance were found. A significant inverse relationship between social comparison behavior and body satisfaction was also observed. Participants older in age were found to be less likely to compare themselves with fashion models. However, the younger that participants felt they were, the more inclined they were to compare themselves with models. Participants who reported a larger difference between their ideal and actual age perceived more discrepancy between their ideal and actual appearance, were generally more dissatisfied with their body and appearance, and were more likely to compare themselves with fashion models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the research was to longitudinally investigate rural consumers' online shopping for food and fiber products as a function of satisfaction with local retailing and outshopping. Innovation diffusion theory was used to guide the research. Eight hundred seventy-nine rural consumers from 11 states completed surveys twice (in 2000 and 2003). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and analyses of variance. Dissatisfaction with local retailing in 2000 was a powerful driver of outshopping, beliefs about online shopping, and online shopping (both in 2000 and in 2003). Outshopping was positively related to online shopping at both points in time, suggesting that variables found to affect outshopping in the literature may affect online shopping in a similar way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Lynn Boorday and Jana Hawley on how the application of existing technology can revolutionize the style of the dress but also how the dress is made and another by Anne Marie Fiore on the concept of the digital consumer.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Eundeok Kim and Kim Johnson and another by Gwendolyn O'Neal.

The purpose of our research was to assess beliefs' of small community consumers regarding use of the Internet for product acquisition. We applied a portion of Rogers's (1995) innovation diffusion model where he hypothesizes characteristics of an innovation (e.g., complexity, trialability) that facilitate or impede adoption. In addition, we were interested in whether these characteristics differed between small community purchasers and non-purchasers of innovations. Usable questionnaires were returned by 2,198 small community consumers. Data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analyses of variance. Small community consumers who purchased through the Internet were more likely than non-purchasers to perceive Internet shopping as being relatively advantageous; more compatible with their values, beliefs, needs, and past experiences; less complex; more trialable; and more observable. Furthermore, small community consumers who were purchasers using the Internet perceived Internet shopping as less risky than did non-purchasers. The results were parallel across the three product categories of food, apparel, and home furnishing products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The symbolic interaction theory of fashion proposed by Kaiser, Nagasawa, and Hutton (1995) suggests that, in the instance of transitional societal contexts, an increase in cultural ambivalence is reflected by an increase in the heterogeneity of appearance-modifying commodities that are offered in a capitalistic marketplace. This paper describes research that tested this relationship in the context of women's daytime clothing styles of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At this time, society's views on women's roles became increasingly ambivalent as women challenged the confines of Victorian domesticity. A visual analysis instrument was used to code women daytime ensembles as represented in 252 fashion illustrations from Harper's Bazar and The Delineator. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to test for heterogeneity or diversity trends in the time series data. Results supported the proposed positive relationship between ambivalence and heterogeneity in dress; specifically, fabrics in general and several bodice features showed increasing stylistic diversity as ambivalence about women's roles increased. In addition, data suggested that diversity was linked to ensemble layering and that shifting areas of diversity may have coincided with shifts in visual emphasis from the skirt to the bodice over the 40-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the development of an instrument for visually analyzing women's daytime clothing styles as depicted in two women's fashion magazines. The Delineator and Harper's Bazar,from 1873 through 1912. The instrument was designed for a study examining relative changes in diversity among women's clothing styles over time. Measures used in previous visual analysis research are reviewed and ways in which these measures were adapted to the new instrument are explained. Instrument validity and methods used in the evaluation of reliability are discussed and findings are reported. Recommendations for further evaluation and uses of the instrument are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of the study were to a) test the validity of Gaskill's (1992) Retail Product Development Model across a broader range of specialty stores and b) expand the model beyond line presentation to include events and considerations in post-adoption product development. Twenty-one men's, women's, and children's specialty store retailers deriving 70% to 100% of their sales from private label merchandise through in-house product development were compiled from current retail directories to serve as the sample. Data were collected with a qualitative telephone interview schedule and analyzed using descriptive analysis. Stages in the original model were confirmed; however, modifications were made based on new data. Expansion of the model to include post-adoption product development stages was also carried out. The end result was the development of a revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In previous research of person perception and dress a wide array of measurement items often have been incorporated with little consideration of relationships among findings. The objective of the present qualitative meta-analysis was to find consistent themes among findings ofprevious research. The sources of data were 109 impression formation studies reported between 1943 and 1986; 869 significant findings in the studies related to dress and comprised the data. Four superordinate categories—Evaluation, Potency, Dynamism, and Quality of Thought-were tailor made to fit recurrent themes in the data and incorporated 93% of the previous findings. The parsimonious dimensions emerging from the content analysis could facilitate development of future research instruments and serve as a framework for interpretation offindings. In addition, research designs were examined for trends in inclusion of perceiver variables, context of stimulus persons, measurement approaches, and efforts at programmatic inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To identify criteria considered by consumers while making garment purchase decisions, free response interviews of 80 female customers were conducted at point of purchase in two specialty apparel stores. Subjects described the criteria they used to evaluate a garment they had tried on. The most important criteria for apparel assessment were related to aesthetics. Comparison of responses of customers who purchased and customers who did not purchase their garments revealed that different criteria had primary effects in two stages of the purchase process. During the Interest phase, color/pattern, styling, and fabric were most critical in influencing selection of garments from the display racks. Fit, styling, and appearance on the body were more important in determining rejection or adoption of the garments during the Trial phase in the dressing rooms. The research begins to fulfill a need for store intercept data collection, study of free responses minimally shaped by the researcher, and development of theoretical models of the apparel purchase process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study was an investigation of the effect of interpersonal context—similarities and contrasts in apparel worn by two interacting persons-upon person and relationship perception. Male and female employees of private businesses (N=64) describd what they thought was happening in four different pictures of office settings inwhich a male and female stimulus person each wore formal or informal business apparel. Verbal responses were categorized according to a system tailor-made to classify content of the descriptions. Analysis of variance of content distributions indicated that men and women wearing suuits were more often assigned management roles than were persons in casual attire. Contrasts in formal versus casual clothing were also meaningful in that 1) male and female persons wearing suits more often were described as higher in rank when their adjacent companion wore casual clothing; 2) men in suits wee described as giving more directive, rewarding, or punishing communications to women in casual dress; 3) men wearing suits were described as having more positive feelings when pictured with a casually dressed woman; 4) male persons were assigned more "activity" traits when pictured with a formally dressed woman; 5) dyads in which the man wore a suit and the woman wore casual clothing received more descriptions of involvement in personal versus business mattes. Clothing shown in the context of social interaction provided a much broader range of information than previously studied in dress perception research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]