Consumers in a social network: the perception of clothing quality per gender

Abstract

Purpose – The general objective of this paper is to evaluate the
determinant attributes of the perception of clothing quality by the
users of a social network and to verify if there are any differences of
evaluation of these determinants between genders.

Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the objective, a survey
was conducted with a sample of 295 consumers. All participants,
regardless of gender, were asked to access the SurveyMonkey site link
and to answer the questions regarding the quality of clothing for
both men and women. Data analysis was performed using descriptive
statistics and variance analysis (ANOVA).

Findings – The main results show that: 1. The consumers of garments
regard as highly important to take into consideration quality attributes
when deciding to buy clothes, especially for women in relation to
menswear; 2. Women has a higher perception than men as for the
evaluation of the quality attributes of both women’s wear and menswear;
and, 3. Clothing consumers, in particular consumers of women’s
products, only consider to purchase such products if they have, in
particular, style, fabric quality and fair price.

Originality/value – This research filled in some theoretical and
methodological gaps with regard to giving emphasis to gender
differences in clothing quality assessment. This is in line with the
conclusions of quality research conducted long ago, such as Olson
& Jacoby’s (1972), which findings are specific to the type of product
and/or consumer investigated. Therefore, generalizations beyond the
product or the consumers examined are of dubious validity.