Perceived Brand Authenticity and Purchase Intention Toward Sustainable Fashion Brands Among Consumers Residing in Finland: The Moderating Role of Environmental Concern

Abstract

Consumers' distrust in fashion industry due to the increased sustainability issues has already changed the competitive edge from sustainability labels to perceived brand authenticity. While there is a growing scholarly discussion about sustainable consumption, research on perceived brand authenticity as the predictor of the purchase intention in sustainable fashion has been neglected, particularly within highly sustainability-aware Nordic Market contexts. This study examines the influence of perceived brand authenticity (PBA) on purchase intention (PI) in sustainable fashion brands operating in Finland and how it is moderated by environmental concern (EC). Using quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 160 consumers residing in Finland who had bought from a sustainable fashion brand in the previous year, this study draws on Signaling Theory, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory to investigate the effects of perceived brand authenticity on purchase intention, moderated by environmental concern. The sample reflects consumers living and shopping within the Finnish sustainable fashion market, rather than Finnish nationals exclusively. Three proposed hypotheses were tested in four hierarchical multiple regression models. The results reveal that perceived brand authenticity positively affects purchase intention (β = .626, p < .001), accounting for 38.5% of incremental variance; strongly supporting H1. Environmental concern did not significantly predict purchase intention (β = .107, p = .093, 95% CI [−0.018, 0.227]), and H2 was not supported. The moderating effect of environmental concern on the relationship between authentic brands and purchase intention was not significant (β = −.111, p = .071). The interaction coefficient was negative, contrary to the predicted direction. The confidence interval for the interaction term included zero, and no reliable directional conclusion can be drawn from this result. The overall model accounted for 44.1% of purchase intention variance (R² = .441, Adjusted R² = .419). This study highlights, within the current sample operating in the Finnish market context, an importance of perceived brand authenticity as a key credibility signal in a high-scrutiny, high-awareness sustainability environment.