Factors Influencing Sustainable Fashion Avoidance among Millennial Consumers in Sri Lanka: A Brand Avoidance Perspective

Abstract

Sustainable fashion is presented as a response to the environmental and social costs of conventional apparel, yet consumers may still avoid it. This study examines associations between four proposed factors and sustainable fashion avoidance intention in a crosssectional online survey of Sri Lankan millennials. The survey contained 303 responses; 302 recorded explicit consent and were included. Four item scores for functional avoidance, symbolic avoidance, moral avoidance and perceived knowledge deficit were entered in an ordinary least squares regression. The model was statistically significant, F(4, 297) = 6.661, p < 0.001, but explained 8.2% of the variation in avoidance intention. Only symbolic score had a significant adjusted association, and it was inverse (β = −0.272, p < 0.001). Functional (β = −0.067, p = 0.365), moral (β = 0.043, p = 0.453) and knowledge deficit (β = 0.068, p = 0.283) scores were not significant in the joint model. Functional scale reliability was below 0.70 (α = 0.660). The inverse symbolic finding, provisional measures and concentrated convenience sample limit interpretation. The study identifies a relationship requiring further investigation, rather than causal drivers of purchases.