Bloggers’ Minimalist Consumption Guidance for Sustainability: Exploring the Determinants to Reduce Excessive Apparel Consumption

The increasingly popular minimalist consumption concept makes more people reflect on the harm of excessive consumption behavior to sustainability. In particular, the phenomenon of excessive apparel consumption is more obvious, resulting in the waste of resources and environmental pollution. In China, more and more bloggers publicize the life change and spiritual decompression brought by a minimalist lifestyle on the Internet. However, whether this guidance could have an impact on consumers’ rational consumption intention and its driving path are still unknown. This study explored the role of bloggers’ minimalist consumption guidance in influencing residents’ intention to reduce excessive apparel consumption in Web 2.0. Considering the bloggers’ guidance on reshaping the self-awareness of members in virtual communities, a comprehensive model is constructed, including bloggers’ attractiveness, bloggers’ minimalist consumption guidance, community belonging perception, (self-monitoring) self-efficacy perception, and (self-worth) ascription of environmental responsibility. Data were collected through questionnaires and the analysis results indicate that there is no significant relationship between bloggers’ minimalist consumption guidance and the intention to reduce excessive apparel consumption. This non-coercive media campaign does not directly affect residents’ behavior, but indirectly increases consumers’ intention to consume apparel rationally by acting on community belonging perception, self-efficacy perception, and ascription of environmental responsibility. In the Internet age, this study not only provides suggestions for guiding residents to consume apparel rationally in China, but also possibly serves as an inspiration for related research in other emerging economies.