Walking the talk? An ethical examination of the institutional logics of slow fashion firms

Bryde-Evens, M ORCID: 0000-0003-0940-0863 and Hannibal, C Walking the talk? An ethical examination of the institutional logics of slow fashion firms. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. ISSN 1361-2026 (Accepted)

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to adopt an ethical perspective to examine the institutional logics of slow fashion firms and how they inform firm behaviour. We aim to understand whether firms that self-identify as slow fashion are ‘walking the talk’ and to discuss the potential ethical implications for the sustainable fashion movement of any misalignment between a slow fashion firm’s ‘talk’ and its ‘walk’. We examined the Instagram accounts and websites of 5 firms that self-identified as slow fashion to capture their messaging and their practices. We used pattern inducing to analyse, categorise and interpret the qualitative data.
In applying a deontological ethical perspective to our findings we suggest that, in some cases, unethical implications can arise when a slow fashion firm’s ‘talk’ is misaligned with its ‘walk’. This misalignment may have negative consequences for the legitimacy of the sustainable fashion movement. In integrating institutional theory with Kantian deontology, our exploratory study offers a novel perspective on slow fashion within the field of fashion marketing and sustainability studies.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1503 Business and Management; 1505 Marketing; Marketing; 3506 Marketing; 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business T Technology > TT Handicrafts Arts and crafts > TT490 Clothing manufacture. Dressmaking.Tailoring
Divisions:	Liverpool Business School
Publisher:	Emerald
Date of acceptance:	2 March 2026
Date Deposited:	13 Mar 2026 16:30
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2026 16:31
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28167

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