Fashion Brand Involvement and Hedonic Consumption Antecedents in

a Fast Expanding Market

MATTHEW ETINOSA EGHAREVBA

Department of Sociology, Covenant University, NIGERIA

STEPHEN IKECHUKWU UKENNA

Research and Development Department, Standpoint Consulting Ltd, Anambra State, NIGERIA

IGBAN EMMANUEL

Registry Department, Covenant University, NIGERIA

ISABELLA EBELIKE TAMARA-EBIOLA

Department of Business Management, Covenant University, NIGERIA

UGBENU OKE

National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Directorate of Research, Kuru, NIGERIA

KASA ADAMU GAYUS

Department of Sociology, Covenant University, NIGERIA

Abstract:- The observed intense competitive fashion market and the fragmented knowledge in fashion

involvement which is largely skewed towards utilitarian dimension have combined to trigger this study.

Accordingly, this paper seeks to unravel hedonic antecedents of fashion involvement and consumption in a fast-

expanding market of a typical developing sub-Saharan African country context; and to posit a framework to

guide private brand fashion consumer research in fast-expanding markets from developing country context.

Data were collected through the aid of structured questionnaire from fashion consumers in top fashion outlets in

Lagos metropolis. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was deployed to process data regarding

hypothesized causal relationships using SmartPLS 2.0 software. Support was found for three hedonic drivers

and support was not for one. Fashion belief was found as strong mediator between fashion involvement and

fashion consumption. The study develops a theory that reflects hedonic drivers of fashion involvement by

providing strategic insights for local fashion brand entrepreneurs, especially as they compete with established

global brands. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings were discussed.

Keywords: - Fashion consumption, consumer involvement, fashion brands, Fast expanding market (FEM),

fashion private brands, sub-Saharan Africa.

Received: July 7, 2022. Revised: August 4, 2022. Accepted: September 12, 2022. Available online: September 28, 2022.

1 Introduction

There is a global rise in ‘fashionistas’ and fashion

consumers, especially among youths and women in

the sub-Saharan African (SSA) region. Fashion-

SMEs, with private fashion brands, have emerged

as a response to the needs of the fast rising fashion

consumer type in the region. In Africa (and indeed

SSA), where an emerging fashion industry is

slowly picking up steam, fashion-SMEs seems to

be ruling the industry. There is over 90% private

brand fashion-SMEs that makeup the fashion

industry [1]. Albeit an emerging industry

dominated by private brand SMEs, the percentage

rate of businesses that survive after the first 4 years

of operation in the fashion industry is estimated to

be 47% [1]. This leaves the average failure rate of

private fashion brand in SSA to be about 53%. This

is worrisome for an industry still embryonic. The

low success rate has been appropriated to the

competitive nature of the industry and the increased

lack of industry knowledge and understanding of

the fashion market by new entrants of private

brands [2]. The gap of knowledge insufficiency

about the fashion market in SSA, which is a

necessary precursor for dealing with competition, is

this study’s primarily concern. In filling the gap,

earlier studies had focused on socio-demographic

drivers of fashion consumers [3, 4, 5]. Hence,

fashion entrepreneurs can benefit from research

that focus on psychographic fashion consumption

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drivers which examines the activities, interests,

thinking and opinions of consumer behaviours, is

of significant value to this study. This is critical as

the study will provide deeper insights into their

target markets’ psychological and emotional

motivations, which is essential in shaping digital

marketing and beyond [6, 7].

1.1 Problem Formulation

The global fashion industry is ever in a state of flux

due to rapid change in the taste, style, and desire

for fashion. Agreeably, competition is increasingly

becoming rife as established global fashion brands

(such as Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton,

Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Pierre

Cardin, Vivienne Westwood, Prada etcetera) must

compete with one another and also compete with

fast emerging private fashion brands (such as

Tiffany Amber, Duro, Odua, Jewel by Lisa, Soares

Anthony, Ziki, Mia Atafo, Dakora, Nikki Africa) in

the SSA. Also, the emerging private fashion

brands/labels seem to be at the ‘mercy’ of the

established global brands to survive in their own

home market. This has largely occasioned the

aforementioned high failure rate of fashion private

brands in SSA. The survival of fashion-SMEs and

their brands somewhat depends on their

understanding and responses to the changing

fashion consumer market on one hand [ 8, 9], and

the capability to explore, identify, and tap into

growth opportunities in fast expanding markets

(FEM) in their locality and within the SSAs [10],

on the other hand. The key focus of this study is on

fashion clothing, that is, all apparels that cover any

part of the human body [3] and how emerging local

fashion labels in FEM in typical SSA developing

context can compete effectively through deeper

understanding of fashion involvement and hedonic

fashion consumption of the fashion consumer by

unravelling the antecedents of hedonic fashion

consumption. This is somewhat a departure from

earlier studies [11] that have increasingly focused

on the utilitarian fashion consumption antecedents.

It has been argued that focusing more on utilitarian

fashion consumption is the ideal for an already

mature fashion industry context; however, studies

focusing on hedonic fashion consumption should

dominate and emerge from somewhat embryonic or

less mature fashion industry context [12, 13;

14].The essence is to grasp basic understanding of

the psychographic motivations of fashion consumer

market in an emerging context, which hedonic

consumption research offers. Knowledge

insufficiency in hedonic fashion consumption

seems to prevail in the SSA context, which,

arguably, may largely be responsible for the

growing failure of private fashion brands.

Therefore, on the strength of the foregoing, a

number of factors tend to provide the motivation

for this study. First is the observed intense

competitive fashion market which has increasingly

become major concern in the fashion industry.

Local fashion private brands must compete with

established global brands while tapping into the

opportunities of a FEM in the SSA context. In a

study by [15], brand survival remains the major

concern of private label owners in developing

country context while control of profit margin and

cost management remain critical in the survival

triangle of private labels [16].The competitiveness

and survival of local fashion brands is a precursor

for their internationalization. This study is about

how local fashion labels in fast expanding sub-

Saharan African market context can survive,

become competitive, and eventually become an

international fashion brand. This is, perhaps,

because the “fashion industry can indeed make a

positive contribution to Africa’s development” [17,

18]. Conversely, international fashion brands will

find this study insightful especially in the drive to

tap into FEM that offer high market growth

opportunities in the SSA context. Key significance

of this study is that it provides research-based

evidence for crafting fashion brand marketing

strategies that support the survival of local fashion

brands operating in FEM, which could reduce the

bourgeoning failure rate of private fashion brands.

Second, knowledge in fashion involvement seems

fragmented and skewed only towards utilitarian

dimension with somewhat little understanding of

the hedonic dimension of fashion from the SSA

context. This study seeks to bridge this gap by

deepening knowledge in the hedonic dimension of

private fashion involvement in a fashion industry

with a high failure rate. Fashion (brand)

involvement which is synonymous with customer

involvement deals with the level of engagement

and the active processing which is being

undertaken by the consumer in fashion

consumption. Consumers can engage in

consumption in two ways: by seeking utilitarian

value and/or by seeking hedonic value. Hence,

typologically, the fashion brand involvement can

be divided into two: utilitarian fashion involvement

and hedonic fashion involvement [19; 14].

Arguably, fashion (which is for pleasure) is a

hedonic need, clothing (which is a basic need

basically to cover the body) is a utilitarian need;

hence, this perhaps explains why a number of

studies [3, 4, 5] have focused increasingly on the

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utilitarian dimension. Modern consumers

(especially women and generation Y) increasingly

make consumption decision on emotional bases [3];

since fashion is a hedonic factor and so much

emotion is attached to fashion consumption given

the consumption involvement level for fashion [20,

21, 9]. The common battle all consumers face,

which is between hedonic consumption versus

utilitarian consumption, is that consumers try to

justify whether they need a product or not. Earlier

studies [11] explored more of utilitarian

antecedents (i.e. tangible attributes of product

category, particularly variables such as age,

financial capacity, materials, clothing, and fabrics)

with little attention on the consumer emotionality

of fashion consumption being the hedonic focus –

that is, the intangible attribute of product category.

Thus, several earlier studies view fashion products

as objective entities rather than subjective symbols.

The hedonic focus, which this study provides, is an

extension of the utilitarian focus and makes an

incremental contribution to the understanding of

fashion involvement and fashion brand marketing

using data from a typical SSA context, thus

expanding consumer research with respect to

fashion consumption. This is consistent with the

argument that people buy products not only for

what they do (utilitarian motivations), but also for

what they mean (hedonic motivations) [22].

Third, this study is a response to a call by previous

consumer researchers [4, 3] to explore the hedonic

dimension of fashion consumption of specific

brands within product categories. A number of

earlier studies in the fashion involvement research

have been on product category, and this appears to

have led to the call for future research to focus on

specific fashion brands within the clothe/fabric

product category. For instance O’Cass [4] sustained

that “it is very critical to explore the interaction (of

involvement) at the product class level before

examining if consumers transfer involvement from

the product to specific brands within a product

class”. Hourigan and Bougoure [3] also call for the

use of real fashion brands to derive response.

Arnould and Thompson [23] calls for the need “…

to develop a unique body of knowledge about

fashion consumers and fashion consumptions for

private fashion brands” within each product

category as a direction of future consumer research.

Furthermore, research endeavours directed at

hedonic fashion consumption are highly

encouraged for a young fashion industry that

demonstrate high private brand failure rate [12, 13].

The private fashion brands are emergent in the SSA

and the fashion industry have high failure rate,

which offers opportunity to respond to the call to

engage in private brand hedonic fashion

consumption research.

Sequel to the foregoing, this research paper seeks

to address the following question: what hedonic

factors drive fashion brand involvement of fast-

expanding market (i.e. youths and women) in a

typical developing sub-Saharan African country

context? Accordingly, this paper seeks to achieve

the following objectives: to unravel hedonic

antecedents of fashion involvement and

consumption in a fast-expanding market; and to

posit a framework to guide private brand fashion

consumer research in fast-expanding markets of

developing country context. The structure of this

paper is such that after this introduction, the rest of

the paper discusses the following themes: review of

related literature, research method, analysis and

result, discussion, theoretical implications,

managerial implications, conclusions, and

limitations and direction for further research.

2. Review of Relevant Literature

2.1 Theoretical Background

This study uses the Consumer Involvement Theory

(CIT) to explain the concept of hedonic

consumption and how it relates to fashion

consumption involvement. The Consumer Culture

Theory (CCT) is used to explain fashion

consumption culture in the FEM context. The

Customer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Theory is

used to explain why local fashion brand, in the

changing marketplace of FEM, needs to build

strong brand equity to remain competitive in the

face of strong global brands.

The CIT is one way to understand the psychology

and behaviour of fashion consumers in FEMs.

Involvement refers to the emotion or feeling

characterized by enthusiasm, interest and

excitement that consumers feel for some product

categories [23]. Consumer participation is an

elevated state of awareness that drives people to

look for, pay attention to, and think deeply about

product information before making a purchase [24,

25].The idea behind CIT is the time and energy

consumers dedicate to making the decision are the

two main factors that drive most purchase or

consumption decisions [26]. A number factors,

such as personal, product, and situational factors

influence consumer involvement, which are two

typology – situational and enduring involvement.

The CIT sustains that consumer involvement in a

product could be high or low, captured in a

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quadrant of how the consumer could respond, that

is: high involvement/ rational; high involvement/

emotional; low involvement/ rational; and Low

involvement/ emotional. Fashion brands fall within

the quadrant of high involvement/emotional (or

high involvement/high feeling). It is also situational

involvement typology since it is temporary

(different fashion are used for different occasion)

and refers to feelings of a consumer as well as

experiences in a given situation when he/she thinks

of a specific fashion product. As indicated by [25],

the more involvement of consumers in fashion, the

more their purchase is likely to increase. As fashion

consumption belief (orientation) seems to shift

from utilitarian to hedonic (for pleasure) domain,

this study, drawing insight from CIT, we deduce

that fashion situations will result in high fashion

involvement thereby leading to high emotions in

the consumer towards a fashion brand all in the

quest to satisfy one’s pleasure (i.e. the fashion

situation). This has serious managerial implication

as fashion SMEs can leverage on emotions and

pleasure for a differential marketing advantage.

According to Arnould and Thompson [23], the

CCT is based on the connections between

customers' individual and collective identities; the

cultures developed and embodied in consumers'

daily lives; underlying events, actions, and

structures; the nature and dynamics of the

sociological categories through and across which

consumer culture dynamics are enacted and

inflected. Traditionally, the CCT has focused on

"consumer consuming and possession practices,

notably their hedonic, aesthetic, and ceremonial

components" [27], adding that the CCT focuses on

how consumers form a concept of a varied and

frequently fragmented sense of self while using

resources created by marketers, as the market

increasingly becomes a location to create identity

narratives. CCT conceives consumers as identity

seekers and makers. The fashion consumers are

increasingly using the fashion brands to create

narratives and foster some level of identity. This

study seems to confirm the CCT resourcefulness as

it explains hedonic fashion consumption culture in

the FEM context. The CCT supports largely why

the hedonic constructs of consumer fantasy and

consumer emotional arousal are explored in this

study. Indeed, fashion has increasingly become a

culture where the fashion consumer uses the brand

offers (materials) to forge a sense of self and make

a personal narrative of identity through fashion.

Brand survival in the FEMs is a function of

building strong brand-equity base. "The

fundamental tenet of CBBE is that the power of the

brand (i.e., the brand equity) lies in what customers

have learned, felt, seen, and heard about the brand

based on their experience over a period of time,"

says Keller [28]. The underlying thrust of CBBE is

that the power of the brand lies in what resides in

the minds of customers about a given brand.

Brands with higher equity yield higher financial

rewards to the firm [29], consequently, it is

necessary to develop strong brand equity using six

brand building blocks (brand salience, brand

performance, brand imagery, brand judgements,

brand feelings, and brand resonance) [30, 31]. It

can be inferred that building strong private fashion

brand equity is a sine-qua-non for private local

brands in FEMs, especially as they seek local

market dominance or seek internationalization. To

boost the private fashion brand equity and become

competitive, the fashion-entrepreneur need to

increasingly understand the impact of hedonic

consumption dimensions (such as multisensory,

fantasy, and emotional arousal)on brand equity

since these variables strongly fosters what has

already been learned, felt, seen, and heard by the

consumer about the private fashion brand.

2.2 Conceptual Foundations

2.2.1 Fast Expanding Market (FEM) for Private

Fashion

Modern marketing managers should have eagle

eyes to spot somewhat negligible but vital market

opportunities, which are prevalent in FEM.

Identifying and tapping into the fast expanding

market (FEM) in the SSA offers private fashion

brands opportunity to compete with global fashion

brands. Originally coined by [10], FEM refer to any

"rapidly developing opportunity, with the market as

a focal point, regardless of that market's existence

on a supranational, national, regional, industry,

cluster, or business level". A FEM is not based on

boundaries of geographies or industries, but rather

views markets from new perspectives of finding

new ways of attaining economic growth. The FEM

thinking offers firms new sources to find wealth

and prosperity by focusing strongly on trends in

markets as markets demonstrate strong promise of

“pocket of growth” – that is, somewhat negligible

but constitute vital market opportunities.

Consistent with Tse, Esposito, and Soufani [10]

that identification of business opportunities in FEM

is key way to lifting sales in tough competitive

times; therefore a number of international fashion

labels are finding inroads into the sub-Saharan

African region which has ‘pockets of growth’ that

are less tapped and seldom detected. These

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international fashion labels are evident in Nigeria,

Ghana, and South Africa, which are typical

developing SSA countries. A number of factors

seem to offer growth opportunities in Nigeria, and

perhaps, in similar SSA developing economy for

international fashion labels to explore such

business space and/or for local fashion-SMEs to be

competitive. Such growth opportunities or ‘pockets

of growth’ have also somewhat stimulated the

emergence of local fashion label entrepreneurs,

who seems not to be fully taping into such

opportunities using local market knowledge.

Perhaps, this partly explains the high failure rate of

private fashion brands while global fashion brands

continue to flourish.

To survive and compete effectively, fashion private

brands must begin to identify, understand, and take

advantage of ‘pocket of growths’ or new target

markets and market trends. The first factor or

‘pocket of growth’ is the population of youth and

women, who are largely the target for fashion

labels. The population of women and youth offer

an attractive fashion market in Nigeria and in

similar SSA developing country. For instance, it

has been posited that Nigeria represents over 50%

of the West African population and about 20% of

the population in SSA [32, 33, 34, 35]. Similarly, it

has been sustained that Women constitute about

49% of the Nigerian population and nearly one out

of four women in sub-Saharan Africa is a Nigerian

[33, 35]. The youth constitute over half of the SSA

population. Taken together, population of women

and youth, who are largely emotional towards

fashion, clearly signals SSA as a FEM.

A number of studies [4, 3] continued to reinforce

gender and age (particularly women and youth) as

key driver of fashion clothing involvement, perhaps

because the purchase decision by women and

youths are highly based on emotions and they seem

to have high passion for fashion [36, 32, 33].

Second ‘pocket of growth’ to tap into by private

fashion brands is the rising middle class. According

to the African Development Bank (AfDB) [37]

there is a rise of the middle class in Africa, which is

an indication of poverty reduction [37]. AfDB

projected that by 2030 much of Africa will

somewhat attain lower and middle-class majorities,

and that Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa are

expected to provide the largest number of new

middle class. Weaved together, the foregoing

evidence of growing middle class in the SSA,

though more of ‘floating-middle-class’ typology

[38], is suggestive of promise of fast growing

fashion middle class in the SSA region [17].

2.2.2 Fashion Brand Involvement (FBI):

Earlier studies [3, 39, 21] have focused on fashion

clothing involvement (FCI), which is underpinned

by utilitarian characteristics. The FCI is a

conceptualization from the consumer involvement

theory (CIT). Although, the terms can be used

interchangeably, nevertheless, the current discourse

is on fashion brand involvement (FBI), which is

underpinned by hedonic characteristics, is a

derivative of FCI. The emphasis is on ‘brand’ and

not on the ‘clothe’. The brand is already suggestive

of the clothe quality [30, 40, 39]. Therefore, we

conceptualize the FBI because the fashion

consumer are largely drawn to fashion brands or

labels with tacit confidence in the clothe since

clothe quality is embedded in the brand. Both FBI

and FCI are rooted in the consumer involvement

theorization.

Introduced over 50 years ago by Krugman [41],

consumer involvement has metamorphosed into a

critical area of research targeted at explaining and

forging deeper understanding of different aspects of

consumer decision making [42, 43, 44, 45, 46]. It

has received wide application, cutting across

consumer research in all sector including aviation,

telecom, agriculture, fashion etc. Relationship

between a person and an object is called

involvement [4]. The level of involvement is

determined by how much the consumer views the

focal activity as being important in their lives [21].

It is the degree of interrelation between a person

(consumer) and the product [44], which could be

high or low. In fashion marketing, involvement has

received relevance in understanding the fashion

consumer through the thread of research [21, 4, 47,

48] in fashion clothing involvement (FCI). The

underlying presumption of FCI is that fashion

consumers find purchased fashion clothing they

buy and wear to be involving, which could be in

varying degree or follows a continuum.

FCI is therefore "a continuum spanning from total

connection (or absorption) in fashion apparel and

related activities (very high involvement) to the end

of the continuum of complete detachment or

automaticity (very low involvement)," according to

O' Cass [4]. In this respect, Hourigan and Bougoure

[3] claimed that the degree to which a consumer's

life includes fashion clothes plays a significant role

in the FCI experience. FCI is thus described in this

study as "the degree to which a customer perceives

the connected fashion (clothing) activities as a

central component of their life" [3].

Observably, the fashion consumption pattern of

modern fashion consumers is shifting emphasis

away from the clothe to the brand or label [5, 49,

48, 50]. This has led to the concept of FBI, which

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we defined as the engagement of the fashion

consumer in an emotional or personal relationship

with a fashion brand by making or viewing the

brand as a key part of his/her life. Therefore, the

more involvement of consumers in fashion brands,

the more their purchase is likely to increase [5].

A number of factors can motivate the consumer to

be involved in fashion brands. The major drivers of

fashion involvement are gender, age and

materialism [3, 21, 4, 20], which are socio-

demographic drivers. With respect to gender,

women (particularly, young women) are the major

force behind fashion brand involvement [50, 48];

and youth of all gender also drive fashion

involvement [51]. Finally, the materialists also

drive fashion involvement. The drive for

materialism is usually represented in fashion

possession and expression, which cuts across all

age and gender [20]. The import of this is that data

on FBI is expected to be collected from youths,

women, and materially driven individuals (age or

gender notwithstanding). Earlier empirical studies

[21, 4, 51, 3] have all collected data from these

groups. The collection of data for this study is from

women and youths because it is not easy to identify

a materialist. Further, the concept of materialism

can cut across gender and age. However, the

present study will rather focus on psychographics

of these groups, which is an extension of earlier

studies [21, 4, 20, 51] that have largely focused on

the socio-demographics.

2.3 Empirical Review and Hypotheses

Development

Fashion always guides and points out the view of

consumers clothing purchase. However, fashion reliable

and dependable methods are being used in fashion

outlets to effect consumers’ experiences and purchase.

Past studies have shown that consumers could be easily

influenced by marketing strategies and stimuli of

organizations to cause a purchase of fashion products

and this increases the consumption tendency of

consumers. It is also espoused that hedonic consumption

tendency signifies an extension and continuation of

consumer research and it is theoretically joined to work

in behavioral sciences such as psychology, linguistics,

sociology etcetera. Also, past research works depicted

that research on fashion involvement or engagement and

tendency to hedonic consumption will lead to various

facets and dimensions of consumer buying behavior

consumption experience.

Thangasamy and Patikar [52] stated that marketers try to

continually depend on research studies to keep being

aware of changes in the buying behavior of consumers.

Jones, Reynolds and Arnold [53], implied that the

hedonic consumption tendency of consumers is linked to

certain behaviors consumers portray in the market place

such as repeat purchase intention or purpose. Haq and

Abbasi [54] investigated environmental factors and

dynamics on consumers’ involvement and engagement

in fashion on impulse purchases made by consumers.

Their studies showed that the various consumer

engagement in fashion directly and also indirectly

through positive or optimistic emotions which impacts

the impulse purchasing on consumers and their hedonic

consumption tendency indirectly on the impulse

purchasing or buying of the consumers. These

discoveries show that less attempt has been made on

researching consumer behaviors as a variable of hedonic

consumption tendency. No specific literature focused on

how the involvement and engagement of consumers in

fashion can influence or have an effect on their buying

or purchasing behavior. This is because organizations do

not try to observe these customers and also try to test

their interests in fashion and most times, these

organizations try to measure the consumption tendency

which consumers have on their behaviors and how there

can be high fashion involving consumers in the fashion

industry.

Fashion consciousness/Involvement, Consumer

Perception and Fashion belief

According to Anning-Dorson [46], involvement is apt

and appropriate for the description of the behaviors of

consumers and the consuming classification of the

market. Fashion involvement is an influential driver

when consumers engage in fashion adoption process,

some portion of fashion involvement involves getting

new information about new patterns or trends, as fashion

describes the consistently changing style of clothes worn

by people and the involvement of consumers in fashion

also defines the basic method in which people express

themselves. The degree of consciousness drives the level

of involvement. In the fashion research, fashion

consciousness has been used interchangeably with

fashion involvement [55, 47].

Fashion consciousness is very crucial when identifying

and examining the concept of self (self-concept) in

which fashion consumers are involved in [55]. As

indicated by Buss [56], the focal idea of the reluctance

or self-consciousness theory is the degree to which one

focuses on the inward or external self. According to

Fenigstein et al [57] as indicated by Gould and Stern

[58], self-consciousness concept is the base for concept

of fashion consciousness. According to Gould and Stern

[58], the fashion consciousness of a consumer is the

level of enthusiasm and interest which a consumer has in

wearing fashionable products and engaging in the latest

or up-to-date fashion brands. Fashion consciousness

relies on the buying behaviour of the consumer, and also

on social and cultural factor. The foregoing has informed

the need to hypothesize that:

H1: Fashion involvement/consciousness has significant

effect on consumer perception

H₈: Fashion involvement/consciousness has significant

influence on consumer fashion belief

Multisensory, customer attitude and fashion

consciousness

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Hudson and Murray [59] indicated that hedonic

consumption tendency articulates and expresses the joy

and thrill aspect of consumption, such as sensory images

as sounds, tastes, sensory impressions and visual images

which have motivational qualities for the consumption

of products. The tendency of hedonic consumption could

be seen as somewhat more dependent and reliant on

senses.

Multisensory derives from sensory branding model [60].

Studies have shown that consumers combine more than

one senses and that senses influences consumers

perception of brand, memory, attitude, consciousness

and buying behaviour [61, 60]. The unusual and

distinctive experience offered by sensory branding

heightens the customer's emotions and engages them

personally. This innovative method of communication

may increase the brand's worth. The sensory branding

concept, according to Hultén [60], "offers a firm the

potential to define and convey a brand through sensorial

strategies, based on cognitive, emotional or value-based

human sensory elements that powerfully link to the

human mind and human senses". Empirical findings

from Alexander and Heyd [62] and Alexander and

Feindt’s [63] exploratory studies revealed that sensory

branding has positive effects on consumer based brand

equity. Therefore, this research explores further the

effect of a multi-sensory strategy in interrogating this

study. Multisensory is based on the idea that people

learn more effectively if they are exposed to information

through a variety of senses, such as visual, aural,

kinaesthetic, and tactile (VART), which include seeing,

hearing, doing, touching, taste, balance, and scent. In

this study, it is possible that consumers’ senses can

influence their attitude towards a brand. Also, their

number of senses can be engaged to determine their

level of consciousness or involvement in fashion brand.

Hence we hypothesize that:

H₂: Multisensory has significant effect on customer

attitude

H7: Multisensory has significant influence on fashion

involvement/consciousness

Fantasy and Emotional Arousal

According to Winter and Young [64] fantasy is a

pleasant situation or event that you think about and that

you want to happen. There is a connection between

fashion and fantasy. Fashion increases fantasy and

fantasy increases fashion desire. Fantasizing is an

unconscious process that is embedded in the desire for

fashion [64]. An unconscious image about a fashion

style and ways to make social statement is common

among women and young people, which is a form of

fantasy [64]. Consequently, we wish to know if the

consumer’s quest and desire for fantasy trigger his/her

attitude towards fashion brand. Accordingly, we

hypothesize that:

H₃: Fantasy has significant influence on consumer

attitude

Emotional arousal is a state of heightened physiological

activity [65, 7]. This includes having positive emotions

such as love or negative emotions such as anger and fear

[66]. Emotional arousal state is usually in response to an

individual’s daily experiences. A number of studies [67,

68, 66, 65] have linked emotional arousal to fabrics,

clothe, or fashion brands. A consumer’s emotion can be

aroused when they come in contact with a compelling

fashion style or brand. Positive emotion can be aroused,

such as feeling happy, joy, satisfied, love [66] for a

fashion brand, if, perhaps, an individual sees a unique

fashion brand or style and then wish to own it. Positive

emotions can trigger impulse buying of fashion brand

[66]. Thus, we hypothesize that:

H₄: Emotional arousal has significant influence on

consumer attitude

Store Attributes

The fashion involvement of consumers can also be

connected with store attributes for its enhancement

power of hedonic factors. The quality of the goods, the

value for the money, the store services, the selection of

brand-name goods, the assortment of goods, the sales

information, and the convenience of the store's location

are just a few examples of store attributes that, despite

being a utilitarian factor, can influence the level of

consumer involvement. Thus, a consumer’s attitude

towards a fashion brand maybe influenced by the

physical store attributes of the brand owner. Similarly,

the nature of the store attributes can influence the degree

of consumers fashion consciousness or involvement for

a brand. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H₅: Store attributes has significant influence on

consumer attitude

H₆: Store attributes has significant influence on fashion

involvement/consciousness

Consumer Perception, Attitude and fashion belief:

People select, organize, and interpret sensations through

the process of perception, which is the immediate

reaction of sense receptors (i.e. eyes, ears, nose, mouth,

and fingers) to such fundamental stimuli as light, color,

scent, texture, and sound. According to Kotler et al [69],

perception is the process by which a person receives,

chooses, organizes, and interprets information. Although

there are several definitions in the literature that describe

perception from the standpoint of consumer behavior,

Walters et al [70] definition offers specific clarity on the

subject which is: "the complete process through which a

person becomes conscious of their surroundings and

interprets them to fit into their own frame of reference".

Among the several factors that influence consumer

perceptions of a brand include quality, price, which is

taken into account when making the choice of fashion

brand. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H₉: Consumer perception has significant influence on

consumer attitude

Fashion belief and customer brand patronage:

Belief generally drives customers’ preference for a

product. Consumers prefer products which are suitable

for their image, reflects their identity, and general belief

system. It is crucial for the buying behavior and

decisions of consumers to be understood from their

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belief lenses. Consumer purchasing behavior, according

to Thangasamy and Patikar [52], is "the study of how

groups, people, and organizations select, buy, use, and

dispose of items, ideas or experiences, and services to

fill (satisfy) their needs and wants". The term consumer

buying behavior refers to the buying decisions and

choices and therefore ranges all the way from “how do

we know what we want” to “what do we want to do with

something we no longer want” [71]. Buying behavior is

generally proxied by consumer patronage or actual

purchase. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

H₁₀: Consumer fashion belief has significant influence

on consumer attitude

H₁₁: Consumer fashion belief has significant influence

on consumer patronage

Conceptual Model/Research Schema

The foregoing hypotheses informed the development of

the conceptual model of Figure 1 below. Basically, the

schema is a graphic snapshot of this study. The schema

has three broad dimensions. The first dimension is the

Fashion Consumption Drivers, which primarily

constitute the independent variables. The fashion drivers

is divided into two parts – Fashion

involvement/consciousness or the hedonic consumption

tendencies (i.e. multi-sensory, fantasy, and emotional

arousal) and store attributes. The second dimension of

the schema is the consumer buying behaviour

moderators, which includes fashion belief, consumer

perception, and consumer attitude. The last dimension of

our schema is the Fashion Consumer Buying Behaviour,

which is proxied by customer patronage of fashion

brand.

Fig. 1: Research Schema

Source: Authors’ own conceptualization

3 Methodology

The study employed the use of survey method

which involves the administration of questionnaire.

The population of the study covers customers who

patronize Mai Atafo fashion brand. Mai Atafo is

located in Lagos state, Nigeria. To determine the

sample size, the manager of the Mai Atafo brand

reported the company has a known customer range

of 150 to 320 in its marketing information system.

A census sampling was deployed; therefore, 325

copies of questionnaire were distributed to its

customers that visited the company. Thus mall-

intercept method was used to distribute the

questionnaire through the support of staff at Mai

Atafo. The copies of the questionnaire were

administered from August 2019 to October 2019. A

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total of 128 copies were returned but 100 copies

were found useful for further analysis. The items of

structured questionnaire were measured on a five

point Likert-scale descriptor ranging from

“disagree” to “strongly agree”. The instrument was

subjected to reliability and validity test based on

pilot-study using 32 fashion customers. This

resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.936,

indicating that the set of items shows acceptable

internal consistency. The hypothesized

relationships were tested using Structural Equation

Modeling (SEM) [72] with the aid of SmartPLS 2.0

version. Accordingly, the researchers adopted

structural equation modeling (SEM) for testing

relationships in the research model. Specifically,

the study adopted the partial least square structural

equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach since it

has been widely recommended for exploratory

studies, as is the case in most marketing studies

following the weaknesses of covariance-based

structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) [73]. The

choice of PLS-SEM is hinged on the fact that the

present study is a basic or pure research, which

makes it exploratory in nature. The SmartPLS 2.0,

more flexible PLS-SEM software, was used to

explore the hypothesized relationships. As it is with

the present study, SmartPLS is proposed for

modeling formative constructs, particularly in

marketing and organizational research [74].

Following the suggestion of Wetzels, Odekerken-

Schroder, and Van Oppen [73], an initial

assessment of PLS-SEM model, some basic

elements should be covered in the research report.

If a reflective measurement model (or reflective

measurement scale) is used, as in the case of the

present study, the following statistics are reported

based on SmartPLS-SEM output: Explanation of

target endogenous variable variance; Inner model

path coefficient sizes and significance; Outer model

loadings and significance; Indicator reliability;

Internal consistency reliability; Convergent

validity; Discriminant validity; and Checking

Structural Path Significance in Bootstrapping

4 Findings and Results

Respondents Statistics:

Though 325 fashion customers were surveyed, 100

copies of questionnaire were used for analysis.

Regarding gender, 68 (68%) are females and 32

(32%) are males. With respect to respondents age,

29 (29.0%) fall within 22-26yrs age range, whereas

40 (40.0%) are within the 27-31yrs age bracket and

those 32 and above are 31(31.0%). The marital

status of respondents shows that 60% (60) of the

respondents are single; 35% are married and only

5% are divorced. In terms educational qualification,

9 (9%) has SSCE, 5(5%) has National Diploma

(ND) while 60 (60%) has Higher National Diploma

(HND) while 26% has BSc and none has

MSc/PhD. As regard the religion of the

respondents, 78 (78%) are Christians; 22(22%) are

of Islamic religion; however none of the

respondents are adherents of African Traditional

Religion or others. Regarding how long the

respondents has known the Mai Atafo fashion

brand, 32 noted that they have known the Mai

Atafo brand between 1-6months; 15 respondents

have known it 7-12months; and 35 of the

respondents have known it for 1-4years. As regards

if the respondents patronize Mai Atafo regardless

of their knowledge, 77 (77%) affirmed that they

have been patronizing the fashion brand; however,

23(23%) even where they are aware of the brand,

they have not been using the brand. When it comes

to satisfactory of level of service offered by Mai

Atafo fashion brand, 91% (91) respondents noted

that the services of the brand are satisfactory while

9 (9%) noted that it is not satisfactory to them.

As per how often the respondents patronize the

services of Mai Atafo, 15(15%) noted that they

frequently patronize the fashion brand; 23 (23%)

noted they rarely patronize the fashion brand; 34

(34%) indicated the very often patronize the Mai

Atafo brand; and 28(28%) noted that they less often

patronize the private fashion brand/label.

Regarding whether the respondents will continue to

patronize the Mai Atafo private fashion label,

35(35%) strongly agreed that they will continue to

patronize the brand; over half being 51(51%)

agreed that the will continue to patronize the brand;

14 (14%) are not sure if they will continue to

patronize the brand; however, none neither strongly

disagreed nor disagreed to continue their patronage

of the private fashion brand.

Table 1. Demographic profile of the sample

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Demographic Profile Frequency Percentage

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gender:

Male 32 32.0%

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Female 68 68.0%

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Age:

22-26yrs 29 29.0%

27-31yrs 40 40.0%

32 and above 31 31.0%

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Educational Qualification:

SSCE 9 9.0%

OND 5 5.0%

HND 60 60.0%

B.Sc. 26 26.0%

M.Sc. 0 0.0%

Ph.D. 0 0.0%

Others 0 0.0%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marital status:

Single 60 60.0%

Married 35 35.5%

Divorced 5 5.0%

Others 0 0.0%

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Religion:

Christianity 78 78.0%

Islam 22 22.0%

African Traditional Religion 0 0%

Others 0 0%

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Knowing Mai Atafo:

1-6 months 32 32.0%

7-12 months 15 15.0%

1-4 years 35 35.0%

5 years and above 0 0.0%

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Patronizing Mai Atafo:

Yes 77 77.0%

No 23 23.0%

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Satisfaction of services:

Yes 91 91.0%

No 9 9.0%

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Often Patronizing:

Frequently 15 15.0%

Rarely 23 23.0%

Very often 34 34.0%

Less often 28 28.0%

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continue Patronizing:

Strongly agree 35 35.0%

Agree 51 51.0%

Not sure 14 14.0%

Strongly disagree 0 0.0%

Disagree 0 0.0%

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Discriminant Analysis

Table 2 shows the inter-construct cross-loadings for

the purpose of discriminant validity. According to

Hair [72] the presence of high cross-loadings

indicates a discriminant validity problem and, by

extension, the SEM CFA fit would not be good.

Using the cross loading threshold of 0.7

recommended by Hair [72], any cross loading

above 0.7 threshold is considered to be high and

there is no distinctiveness between the two

constructs. In the present study, as indicated in

Table 2 above, the cross-loadings are low as many

are below the threshold of 0.70, thus confirming

discriminant validity.

Table 2. Discriminant Validity

CFB

CPtn

FIC

FTsy

0.649

CFB

0.596

0.822

0.671

0.296

0.715

CPtn

0.493

0.275

0.280

0.741

FIC

0.338

0.025

0.258

0.435

0.217

0.792

FTsy

0.686

0.494

0.433

0.415

0.626

0.343

0.626

0.316

0.158

0.289

0.551

0.421

0.485

0.418

0.799

0.660

0.218

0.501

0.301

0.488

0.483

0.455

0.248

0.756

Model Fit

Wong [75] sustained that the Goodness-of-fit

(GoF) index in SmartPLS is an index measuring the

predictive performance of the measurement model.

Specifically, it can be understood as the geometric

mean of the average communality and the

average R2 (i.e. the coefficient of determination)

of the endogenous latent variables. Accordingly,

the parsimony global goodness-of-fit (GoF)

statistics is calculated using the given equation

below [76, 77]:

GoF= √ AVE * R²

Table 3. GoF Acceptance and Rejection Criterion

Accept model as good fit:

If calculated GoF is more than 0.36 but not

more than 0.5

Reject and improve on model:

If the calculated GoF is less than 0.36

Source: Wetzels, M., Odekerken-Schroder, G., & Oppen, C. (2009).

The above equation is used to determine the

calculated GoF index using PLS-SEM. Notable in

this formula is the coefficient of determination, R²,

which again supports the use of parsimony GoF

measures as Hair et al [72] sustained that

“parsimony fit indices are conceptually similar to

the notion of an adjusted R2 in the sense that they

relate model fit to model complexity. More

complex models are expected to fit the data better,

so fit measures must be relative to model

complexity before comparisons between models

can be made.”

Although the standard procedure in SEM literature

generally, with regards to decision rule, is to

compare between the calculated GoF with a

threshold recommended by scholars; however, a

common rule is to examine the smallness of the

GoF, usually less than 0.5 [72]. In the case of the

present study, the researcher adopts the threshold of

GoF>0.36 suggested by Wetzels, Odekerken-

Schröder and van Oppen [73] as most appropriate

for exploratory marketing studies.

The research schema (see figure 1) guided the

conceptualization of the path model. The path

model is the model specification, which is the

graphical format of SEM tested using the

SmartPLS program to determine the model fit. The

calculated global goodness of fit (GoF) is 0.450

(see table1 below), which exceed the minimum

threshold of GoF> 0.36 suggested by Wetzels,

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Odekerken- Schröder, and van Oppen [73]. Thus, it

can be deduced that the research model has a good

overall fit, thus providing support that the proposed

theory fits reality. Hence the decision rule is shown

on table 2.

Note (keys): CP= Consumer Patronage; FC=

Fashion Consciousness/Involvement; MS=

Multisensory; CPtn= Consumer Perception; FTsy=

Fantasy; CA= Consumer Attitude; SA= Store

Attitude; and EA= Emotional Arousal; and CFB=

Consumer Fashion Belief

Fig. 2: SEM Output before bootstrapping

As evidenced in figure 2 above, the coefficient of

determination, R2, is 0.450 for the CP endogenous

latent variable. This means that the CA latent

variables explain 45% (and meeting the minimum

benchmark of 0% suggested by Hair, Hult, Ringel,

and Sarstedt, [74] of the variance in CP. Hence,

other factors not included in the model explains

65% (i.e., 100% – 45%) of the variance in CP. Note

that it is only a single latent variable, CA, that

explains the 45% variance in CP.

At an R2 of 0.753, the variance in CA endogenous

variable is explained by five exogenous variables

(CFB, CPtn, MS, FTsy, EA, and SA). This

suggests CFB, CPtn, MS, FTsy, EA, and SA are

key construct that explain CA. Similarly, as an

endogenous variable with an R2 of 0.001, the

variance 0.1% in CFA is explained by only FIC,

which also meets the 0% benchmark. The variance

in the FIC endogenous with an R2 of 0.375 is

explained by MS and SA. The R2 of FIC which is

37.5% also meets the 0% benchmark. The variance

in CPtn endogenous variable of an R2 of 0.189 is

explain by only FIC and its R2 of 18.9% also meets

the 0% benchmark.

Taken together, the overall R2 for CP (0.450) in

Figure 3, indicates that the research model explains

about 45% of the variance in the overall

endogenous variable and since this is more than 0%

benchmark it means all the latent exogenous

variable (i.e. CA) explains/predicts the endogenous

(or dependent) variable CP. Similarly, all the

endogenous variables also meet the 0% benchmark,

suggesting all exogenous variables are appropriate

constructs for the model. Further, the variate values

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(or eigen values) of each indicator for all the

variables are above the 0.70 benchmark suggested

by Hair et al [74]. This suggests that the item

statements are appropriate measures for the

respective constructs.

Table 4. Summary Model Fit and Adequacy Statistics

Variable

CA CR AVE

Adjusted

GoF

(ᴦAVE*R2)

Fantasy (FTsy)

0.602 0.730 0.391

Emotional Arousal (EA)

0.509 0.661 0.492

Store Attitude (SA)

Consumer Perception (CPtn)

Fashion Involvement/Conc. (FIC)

Consumer Fashion Belief (CFB)

Consumer Attitude (CA)

Consumer Patronage (CP)

0.645 0.796 0.752

0.721 0.828 0.549

0.711 0.833 0.628

0.842 0.892 0.676

0.529 0.726 0.421

0.055 0.648 0.511

0.189

0.375

0.001

0.753

0.450

0.181

0.362

-0.010

0.737

0.444

0.322

0.485

0.026

0.563

0.480

Note: CA = Cronbach alpha; CR= Composite

Reliability; AVE= Average Variance Extracted;

GoF= Goodness of Fit

Table 4 above depicts the adequacy statistics of

data. Using the benchmark of 0.7, most of the

variables meet or exceeded the benchmark for

composite reliability. Hence, the composite

reliability is met, which denotes that the constructs

are appropriate for the study. Except for FTsy,

convergent validity is also met since the AVE

values for most of the variables exceeded the 0.4

benchmark. The import is that the items that are

indicators for each construct apparently converge

or share a high proportion of variance in common

[74]. Accordingly, since the key data adequacy

statistics are met, we proceed to test the

hypothesized relationships by bootstrapping. The

output of the bootstrapping is shown in figure 4

below.

Using the benchmark of 1.96 based on a 5%

significance level, the decision rule is that if the T-

statistic of each independent variable is above 1.96

it is said that the hypothesized relationship is

significant. Hence, from the above SEM output

after bootstrapping, it is seen that the thicker lines

of hypothesized relationship depict the strength of

relationship or strength of significance or support.

As shown in table 5 below, only two of the

hypothesized relationships are not significant or do

not find support. However, the remaining nine are

significant or supported.

Fig. 3: SEM Output after bootstrapping

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Table 5. Summary Result of Hypothesis Testing

Hypothe

sis.

Relationship

Original

Sample

Mean

Sample

Mean

T-Stat.

P-Value

Result

FIC--->CPtn

0.435

0.446

0.089

4.881

0.000

MS ---> CA

-0.014

-0.011

0.073

0.192

0.847

Reject

FTsy---> CA

0.311

0.308

0.093

3.348

0.001

EA ---> CA

-0.253

-0.246

0.107

2.372

0.018

SA ---> CA

0.481

0.478

0.079

6.094

0.000

SA ---> FIC

0.386

0.389

0.088

4.380

0.000

MS ---> FIC

0.389

0.397

0.093

4.159

0.000

FIC---> CFB

-0.025

0.001

0.127

0.199

0.842

Reject

CPtn---> CA

0.202

0.192

0.075

2.701

0.007

H10

CFB ---> CA

0.480

0.474

0.116

4.153

0.000

H11

CA ---> CP

-0.671

-0.677

0.061

10.983

0.000

Note (keys): CP= Consumer Patronage; FC= Fashion Consciousness/Involvement; MS= Multisensory; CPtn=

Consumer Perception; FTsy= Fantasy; CA= Consumer Attitude; SA= Store Attitude; and EA= Emotional

Arousal; and CFB= Consumer Fashion Belief

5 Discussion

In the main, this study is primarily set out to

unravel the psychographic fashion consumption

drivers or hedonic antecedents of fashion

involvement that foster private brand patronage in a

fast expanding market. The study is a departure

from previous studies [3, 4, 5], that explored

utilitarian antecedents of fashion consumption in a

mature market context. Although in this study, one

utilitarian factor, that is Store Attribute, was

included in the research schema, three hedonic

factors (i.e. multisensory, fantasy, and emotional

arousal). The finding shows that the three hedonic

factors (i.e. multisensory, fantasy, and emotional

arousal) found support as key predictors of

consumer attitude for private fashion brand. The

import being that hedonic factors are very

important variables that shape consumer attitudes

towards private fashion labels. At an R2 of 0.753,

the variance in Consumer Attitude (CA) is

significantly explained by hedonic factors. Though

not previously examined in a fast-expanding

market context, our finding corroborates some

earlier studies, such as the study of Hulten [60],

which found that multisensory factor strongly

influences consumer patronage. Similarly, the

finding of this study confirms the findings of an

earlier study by Alexander and Heyd [62] and

Alexander and Feindt [63]. In the same vein, the

study by Rahadhini, Wibowo, and Lukiyanto [66]

corroborates our finding that fantasy is predictor of

consumer attitude for private fashion. However, the

work of Wu [65] contradicts our finding for a

positive relationship between fashion fantasy and

consumer attitude. Emotional arousal predictor of

consumer attitude is not somewhat supported by

the previous works of Özlü, and Sevinir [67].

6 Conclusion and Recommendation

This research study has shown that the topic

regarding fashion involvement and hedonic

consumption tendency is important as it will help

fashion organizations and outlets to develop

continuously and survive in the fashion industry.

The study's conclusion, drawn from the findings, is

that consumers' purchasing decisions are

significantly influenced by fashion engagement and

hedonic consuming inclination. However, fashion

organizations and outlets should ensure that they

understand their consumers and try to make certain

that their consumers are satisfied which would help

them engage consumers in patronage to them.

Further research studies can be done on

multisensory and consumer attitude as it was seen

that there was no significant influence or

relationship between the two. Also, other

researchers should note that consumer buying

behavior is unpredictable and trying to satisfy

consumers’ needs and wants could be tasking

because consumers feelings and emotions control

their actions. However, the perception of

consumers towards fashionable products controls

and effects their attitude and beliefs in direction to

fashion products or merchandises. Lastly, for

fashion organizations and fashion outlets to

succeed in a highly competitive fashion industry,

they should be able to keep records of their

consumers or clients, try to understand them and

also provide satisfaction to them. They should also

improve on every aspect and area of their business

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to have competitive advantage over other fashion

outlets and organizations in the fashion industry.

7 Implications and Contribution

The contributions of this study are gleaned from its

theoretical and managerial implications. From the

theoretical standpoint, this study develops a

conceptual framework (see figure 1) for

undertaking private fashion brand research. The

growing emergence of the private fashion brand

especially in developing economies presupposes

the need for state-of-the-art research that informs

competitive strategies. Such research is to leverage

on an empirically tested framework for guidance.

In addition, this study reinforces the criticality of

the Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) Theory

in attempt to build strong brand equity. Put

differently, building strong private fashion brand

equity by a fashion-entrepreneur is dependent of

leveraging on the fundamental tenets of CBBE. The

import being that private fashion brand equity is

built and improved upon if fashion antecedents are

reinforced in the mind of the fashion consumer.

Perception building is the cornerstone of brand

equity. From the managerial standpoint, this study

makes pertinent contribution necessary for crafting

and building competitive advantage for private

fashion brands in a competitively fierce market.

Essentially, the results inform the managerial

implications. Since support was found for

multisensory, fantasy, and emotional arousal;

therefore, PFBs are to develop their unique

selling proposition (USP) for their brands

along these three elements. Thus differential

competitive advantage is to emphasize these

key psychological factors. An integrative

approach that combines the three during the

design stage of the fashion is critical. At the

promotion level, a strategic promotion

campaign that emphasizes the USP of the

fashion brand along the three elements will

woo the desired private fashion target market.

Limitations and Directions for Further Studies

Some limitations were encountered during the

study, and which offer opportunity for further

research. First, access to the consumers of Mai

Atafo proved difficult since they are not random

fashion consumers and since they are the

respondents. Also, the nature of the research is

limited to only one fashion outlet; hence, it will

effect on the capacity to simplify or generalize

findings. Future researchers can expand and

consider using more than one fashion outlet as case

studies. They can also do a comparison between or

among various fashion outlets to compare results.

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Contribution of Individual Authors to the

Creation of a Scientific Article (Ghostwriting

Policy)

-Matthew Etinosa Egharevba, Ukenna Stephen and

Isabella Ebelike Tamara-Ebiola conceived and

wrote the manuscript.

-Matthew Egharevba and Igban Emmanuel

organized the manuscript and editorial work.

-Ugbenu Oke, Kasa, Gayus Adamu, sourced for the

literature.

Sources of Funding for Research Presented in a

Scientific Article or Scientific Article Itself

The authors appreciate the management of

Covenant University through the Centre for

Research Innovation and Discovery for providing

the enabling environment and for payment of

article processing charges of this manuscript.

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DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.16

Matthew Etinosa Egharevba, Stephen Ikechukwu Ukenna,

Igban Emmanuel, Isabella Ebelike Tamara-Ebiola,

Ugbenu Oke, Kasa Adamu Gayus

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Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare

that are relevant to the content of this article.

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