• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.203-216
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• 2018

This study explores sustainability education in textile and apparel (T&A) programs in U.S. higher education institutions. Specifically, the researchers study whether more courses with sustainability focus are offered in higher-ranked institutions and explore whether sustainability is taught more in specific T&A related subject fields. Content analysis was conducted for 3,200 courses found in online course catalogs or the course information sites of 69 institutions. Institutions were selected from the 2015 rankings of the top 50 fashion design and top 50 fashion merchandising schools in the US on www.fashion-schools.org. All cases were coded by two coders with a Cohen's Kappa score of 97.5%, indicating good interrater reliability. Coded data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and t-tests. The findings show that sustainability is being integrated into the curricula and across courses of T&A programs in the U.S. Over half of the institution surveyed offered at least one sustainability embedded course. Higher ranked institutions provided more sustainability-related courses than power-ranked institutions. A natural match between the subject field and specific sustainability theme was observed (e.g., cultural diversity in history/culture and social psychology/education; recycle/reuse in textile science; sustainability in fashion design; social responsibility and ethics in industry/consumer). The need to introduce sustainability in courses holistically is discussed, whereby sustainability within the industry supply chain is examined in a connected way.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.161-175
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of perceived sustainability management fit of SPA brands on consumer purchase intention. A survey was conducted targeting women in their 20s and 30s from April 27th to May 6th 2013, and a total of 350 questionnaires were used in the final analysis. Frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA, simple regression analysis and multiple regression analysis were carried out using SPSS ver 21.0. The results of this study are as follows. First, fit of all three areas- economic, ecological and social-of sustainability management activities have a significant impact on consumer perception on sustainability activities. Second, perceived sustainability activities by SPA brands are found to have a positive effect on brand attitude, brand trust and consumer satisfaction. Third, brand attitude and consumer satisfaction forged by perceived sustainability activities by SPA brands have a positive impact on consumers' purchase intention. Based on the result of this study, the following marketing implications can be suggested. First, SPA brands need to be more active in all three area of sustainability activities while coming up with measures for differentiated social sustainability activities. Second, SPA brands need to meet their primary obligation by providing consumers with quality products at a reasonable price. Third, SPA brands need to recognize the potential value of sustainability activities as a driver of a longstanding relationship with consumers as well as long-term profit and value creation, leading to a great financial performance.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.83-108
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• 2007

Since the 1992 UN Conference for Environment and Development held in Rio de Jaineiro, Sustainable Development has become the global thesis. More than 170 countries signed the Agenda 21 for the sustainable action plan, and adopted the sustainability concept as the key concept of dealing with the environmental, social, ethical, and economic problem. Sustainability is one of the main marketing challenges in the 21st century. By integrating social and ecological criteria, marketing may can make valuable contributions to sustainable development. Regarding the sustainability marketing, it is difficult to find the domestic marketing research on the thesis of sustainable development, and this is the definite evidence that the Korean marketing researchers do not realize the importance of the thesis of sustainable development which is internationally suggested as the new paradigm of change. The purpose of this study is to build the conceptual background and explore the research direction in order to introduce and adopt the concept of sustainable development in the domestic marketing research field. The present paper proposes a comprehensive conception of sustainability marketing, defined by six step: analysis of social-ecological problems; analysis of consumer behavior; normative sustainability marketing; strategic sustainability marketing; instrumental sustainability marketing; and transformative sustainability marketing. The aim of the paper are to clarify the concept of sustainability marketing. To accomplish this research purpose we discuss the sustainable development which is the conceptual background of sustainability marketing, analyze the characteristics of the sustainability marketing, and finally summarize the research results and present the suggestions for further research. Sustainability marketing embraces the idea of sustainable development, a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. Sustainability Marketing goes beyond conventional marketing thinking. If marketing is about satisfying customer needs and building profitable relationships with customers, sustainability marketing may be defined as building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers, the social environment and natural environment. By creating social and environmental value, sustainability marketing tries to deliver and increase customer value. Sustainability Marketing aims at creating customer value, social value and environmental value. Sustainability marketing integrates social and ecological criteria into the whole process of marketing, and can be differentiated in six steps: (1) Analysis of the social and ecological problems, generally and specifically with respect to products which satisfy customer needs and wants; (2) Analysis of customer behavior with special aspect to social and ecological concerns; (3) Corporate commitments to sustainable development in the mission statement, development of sustainability visions, formulation of sustainable principles and guideline, setting of socio-ecological marketing objectives and goals (normative aspects of sustainability marketing); (4) Sustainability segmentation, targeting and positioning, and timing of market entry(strategic aspects of sustainability marketing); (5)Integration of social and ecological criteria into the marketing-mix, i.e. products, services and brands, pricing, distribution and communication(instrumental aspects of sustainability marketing); (6) Participation in public and political change processes, which transform existing institutions towards sustainability(transformative aspects of sustainability marketing). The first two steps begin with an analysis of the company situation. In sustainability marketing it is crucial not just to know consumer needs and wants, but also to find out about the ecological and social problems of products along their whole life cycle. The intersection of socio-ecological problems and consumer wants sets the ground for sustainability marketing. Step three to five describe the implementation of sustainability marketing. Social and ecological criteria are fully integrated into the mission statement, strategies and marketing-mix. Step six is one of the specifics of sustainability marketing. It is about the commitment of company to sustainable development and their active participation in public and political processes in order to change the existing framework in favor of sustainability.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-26
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• 2006

This paper reveals Material Flow Analysis(MFA) has the possibility of reconciling the two contending theoretical viewpoints(weak sustainability v.s. strong sustainability) and thereby makes the concept of sustainability useful at operational level. For this purpose, this paper shows that the theoretical logic of MFA can be applied from national level to product level (EW-MFA, PIOT/NAMEA, LCI), and investigates the meanings and policy implications of MFA at each level.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.55-68
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• 2017

This research is carried out to investigate the relationship between sustainability practices and performance in a financial sense for Malaysian Oil and Gas sector. Objectives include to study the state of sustainability disclosure among Malaysian oil and gas companies, to understand if companies that practiced sustainability had better performances to their financial bottom-line and to conduct a data analysis to understand the relationship between Environmental, social and governance performance [represented by the acronym ACSI] and financial performance. Sustainability performance is measured using ACSI checklist, which is an adaptation of the GRI 3.0 by Global reporting initiative while financial performance was measured on financial and profitability parameters namely EBITDA, EPS and PE ratio. Secondary data sources are used which were then converted into a rating scale to develop quantitative data. SPSS 21 is used for the analysis. The result shows that the majority of oil and gas companies in Malaysia had poor performance in terms of sustainability disclosure. On all three chosen profitability parameters, the companies that practiced sustainability were found to perform better than their counterparts that did not. Strong and significant relationship exists between sustainability practices and better financial performance.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.369-378
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• 2024

The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative study on the sustainability of the public pension. While the mainstream view on the sustainability of the public pension presupposes financial sustainability, the original purpose of guaranteeing retirement income has been overlooked. The sustainability of the public pension needs to consider not only financial sustainability, but also various factors such as demographic structure, labor productivity, industrial structure, life cycle of working households, government spending on public pensions, economic growth, and social consensus. With this awareness of the problem, this study conducted a fuzzy set qualitative comparative study in 44 countries, including Korea. As a result of the analysis, it was found that Korea had high financial sustainability for a single year, but relatively low integration related to social consultation and public pension operation, and adequacy such as the degree of guarantee and linkage with other pension systems was also relatively low. The sustainability of the broader public pension should be emphasized not only for financial sustainability, but also for adequacy and integration.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.46-64
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the contents of education for sustainable development are reflected in the middle school environment curriculum revised in 2007, and to propose how to integrate content for improving sustainable development education. For this, I analyzed the 2007 Revised Environment Curriculum for Middle Schools by using social network analysis which is the useful methodology to understand the relations of contents. Social Network analysis is a useful tool to excavate the forms of structure or relationship and to explain the characteristics of the system that arise through relationships or to explain the units composing the system. When sustainable development education was examined from 3 points of view, it included environmental sustainability, economical sustainability, and social sustainability. I used the 2007 Revised Environment Curriculum for Middle Schools and manual of curriculum for analysis. The results are 1) The biodiversity conservation and energy efficiency have taken most important positions. 2) In case of economical sustainability pillar, sustainable production had been emphasized. 3) In the case of the social sustainability pillar, health improvement are considered significant. 4) The efforts of trying to approach sustainable development education as an integrated curriculum is week. Integrated themes based on the results were developed. Five main themes were the energy and climate change, water resource and environmental pollution, sustainable village and sustainable food production, sustainable city and sustainable production, sustainable tourism and biodiversity. I hope these could function as theme of integrated-content. Based on the results of study, I propose joint researches on scope of sustainable development for environmental education.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.5-28
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to review relationship between spatial characteristics of compact city and urban sustainabiliy from system dynamics perspective using causal loop analysis. It has been argued that spatial characteristics of compact city, high population density and mixed land use, are positively related to urban sustainability. However, research results that are not consistent with pros of compact city argument have been accumulated too. It is especially true when spatial characteristics of compact city are examined with regard to each dimension of sustainablility: economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Reviewing each dimension of sustainability with regard to spatial characteristics based on causal loop analysis, this paper provides more clear understanding on relationship between compact city and sustainability. Also this paper provides a base for system dynamics simulation for future study.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.315-326
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• 2020

This study aims to test empirically whether the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) has a positive effect on Sustainability Reporting (SR) and whether the ACGS and Sustainability Reporting (SR) have a positive effect on Firm Value (FV). The study was conducted in five ASEAN countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand from 2014 - 2017. The research sample was collected from companies with the ACGS data and obtained with the help of 359 company observations. Hypothesis testing was performed using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS). The results of the study do not support all hypotheses. The ACGS has no effect on sustainability reporting. The ACGS has a significant negative effect on firm value, while sustainability reporting has a negative and insignificant effect on firm value. The ACGS and sustainability reporting are not good news for investors. This research's limitation is that companies rarely disclose the final value of the ACGS in their annual reports, so this research uses content analysis. The weakness of content analysis is the researchers' subjectivity so that the point of view between researchers is different. Besides, sustainability reporting for several ASEAN countries is voluntary, so not all companies can be sampled, which ultimately affects interpretation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.1057-1079
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• 2023

This paper examines the use of semiotics for analyzing fashion advertisements in the fast fashion industry. While previous studies have explored the use of semiotics in various industries, the application of this theory in the fashion sector-especially regarding fast fashion's commercial videos related to sustainability-remains underexplored. The paper adopts Roland Barthes' Semiotics Theory to analyze the advertising videos related to the sustainability of major fast fashion brands such as H&M, MANGO, and ZARA. The research approach involved reviewing all commercial videos related to sustainability on these brands' official YouTube accounts and conducting comprehensive analyses of advertisements using the binary opposition analysis framework. The paper's findings indicate that these commercial videos serve as a platform to mold a brand's sustainability image and promote the notion that fast fashion brands are leading the charge toward sustainability, preparing for an unpredictable future, guiding people toward hope, and offering ultimate freedom. This research high-lights the necessity for a critical examination of advertising videos related to sustainability in the fast fashion industry to guarantee accountability and transparency.