Used‐clothing retail as social business : a case study in Hong Kong

Abstract

 Second to oil, the fashion and textile industry is named as the most polluting industry in the world. Nowadays, clothing outweighs food, shelter and mobility as the key element of our livings. The global apparel market is valued at 3,000 billion. Yet, textile waste is what left behind the fame and prosperity. In Hong Kong, the main source (over 70%) of the daily total of 306 tons textile waste is generated from domestic waste. This multi-disciplinary study strives to examine the role of not-for-profit organization in used-clothing retail and how they can shape and offer different options to the competitive textile-fashion market. The paper started with extensive literature reviews on international textile industry - its global economical, environmental and social impacts. Then, introduction of various sustainable concepts and used-clothing market are revealed. Given that the fashion industry is a hundreds of billions business, selected business models (such as Yunus et al., 2010) were introduced as conventional set up, in which social innovation is infused and further evolved into an multi-dimensional model (Weerawardena and Mort, 2006) for leading up further investigation. This exploratory study presents a research agenda for sustainable innovation which incorporates a two-tier analysis from a business model perspective, based on findings from qualitative research (examining four Hong Kong used-clothing social businesses) and quantitative research (online survey). It is discovered that each social business exhibits certain elements from the proposed two business models. Adding on top is the result from survey to gauge the attitudes and behaviors of Hong Kongers towards used-clothing. Female is found to be the target market although much effort shall be put on branding and marketing for social businesses. Two main concerns from respondents on purchasing used-clothing include the quality/condition/fit of the item and the location of the store. With the sustainability concept prevails world-wide, consumers show much more concern over their spending and choices. Used-clothing social business combines eco-shopping with extended social values while confronting environmental issues. As it is a collective responsibility to challenge and change the fashion textile industry, the study calls for joining hands among various stakeholders to make the world a better place for the future generation.