Beyond Intention: The Value-Attitude-Behavior Cascade in Sustainable Fashion Consumption Among Gen-Z in Pakistan

The fashion industry's environmental footprint has intensified scholarly interest in sustainable consumption, yet the psychological pathway from personal values to actual purchase behavior remains poorly understood, particularly in developing-country contexts. This study develops and tests an extended cognitive hierarchy model of sustainable fashion consumption among Gen-Z consumers in Lahore, Pakistan. Building on Cognitive Hierarchy Theory, the model positions self-transcendence values, environmental concern, and fashion leadership as antecedents of attitude toward sustainable fashion, which in turn drives sustainable purchase intention and, ultimately, sustainable purchase behavior. Data were collected from 400 Gen-Z respondents (aged 18-27) using online and face-to-face structured questionnaires, and hypotheses were tested using SmartPLS 4. Results show that self-transcendence values, environmental concern, and fashion leadership each significantly predict attitude toward sustainable fashion, and jointly explaining 31.2% of its variance. Attitude significantly predicts purchase intention but the intention-behavior link is comparatively weak, explaining only 3.2% of the variance in purchase behavior. These findings confirm the cascading structure proposed by cognitive hierarchy theory while revealing a pronounced attitude-behavior gap.