Date of Award

2021

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

Department

Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

First Advisor

Saheli Goswami

Abstract

While prior studies have reported unsustainable practices in the jewelry industry, consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about brands’ sustainable behaviors (or lack of) (Abdelmeguid et al., 2019; Kutter & Castilhos, 2017). Brazil is an important landmark in the jewelry business, and it is one of the world’s most important gem suppliers (Boehm, 2012). Therefore, the Brazilian jewelry industry is facing the need to adapt and behave sustainably (Severo et al., 2017). Since a lack of sustainability knowledge is often referred to be the one of biggest barriers towards more sustainable consumption (Tseng & Hung, 2013), it becomes important that Brazilian jewelry brands communicate their sustainability efforts using appropriate marketing messages. While prior literature underscores the importance of sustainable marketing messages to meet consumers’ needs of sustainability (Mont et al., 2014), such studies provide a rather generic perspective of developing nations and lack a Brazilian emphasis. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the influence of sustainability-related marketing messages (SRMM’s) on consumers’ word of mouth (WOM) and brand loyalty (BL). Furthermore, this study investigated the mediating effect of sustainability awareness of consequences (SAC), ascribed responsibility of sustainability (ARS) and personal norms (PN’s) through the lenses of the NAM model (Schwartz, 1977). A single factor between-subject experimental design was implemented to investigate the purpose of the study. The independent variable of SRMM was manipulated and participants were randomly exposed to one of the two stimuli. The results suggested that participants’ WOM and BL were positively impacted by SRMM’s only when mediated by their SAC, ARS, and PN.

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