Applying a lens of practice theory, how ownership and hygiene impact the adherence of subscribing to a sustainable functional service economy in the clothing industry?

Details

Supervisors

Coline Ruwet

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

The clothing industry is following a linear business model that generates negative impacts, mostly towards the environment and the people involved. Hence, there is an urgent need to shift from this polluting business model to a regenerative economy. The sustainable functional economy seems to be an adequate alternative to counter this unsustainable clothing industry, and especially the fast fashion. In fact, by selling the use of a product instead of the product itself, this model allows the extension of product’s lives. Nevertheless, many disincentives still prevent consumers to subscribing to such an alternative. This thesis focuses on two major obstacles: ownership and hygiene, and confronts the offer with the demand. Jukebox is the startup analyzed in this work, and three types of consumers have been interviewed: clients, interested consumers and former clients. As the objective of this thesis is to provide key recommendations to overcome these drawbacks, the practice theory is the framework used to analyze more deeply consumers’ behavior. This theory enables to study individuals in their environment considering their surroundings, habits and more, instead of focusing on individuals as rational consumers such as in mainstream approaches. The two identified obstacles are therefore translated into practices; practice of consuming clothes for ownership (renting clothes for the offer) and practice of doing the laundry for hygiene in order to have a much better understanding of the problematic and to answer the research question.