The purpose of this study is to examine how investors' motivation to gain information relating to sustainability in the fashion industry predicts their communicative behaviors and investment intentions. Drawing on the public relations theories of situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) and organization–public relationship (OPR), fashion companies' relationships with investors are also incorporated in the analysis.
Snowball and purposive sampling techniques were utilized to distribute a questionnaire via Qualtrics to a niche audience of individual investors (n = 75) interested in the fashion industry. Weighted regression analysis was used for data analysis.
The findings show that problem recognition, involvement recognition, constraint recognition, referent criterion and situational motivation effectively impact investors' communicative actions relating to the fashion industry. Among the three communicative actions, only information acquisition influences investment intentions. With regard to OPR, commitment influenced both investment intention and communicative actions, while control mutuality only influenced the latter. Trust and satisfaction seem to have no impact on the three communicative actions and investors' intentions.
This study applies public relations theories to examine how investment information impacts individual investors' willingness to invest in the fashion industry. The environmental impact of manufacturing provides a relevant application for the study of investors' decision-making process, as it relates to the fashion industry and the role of communication in this process.
