Title The sustainability commitment-implementation gap in textile, apparel, and fashion industries: insights from a sectoral business news coverage perspective
Authors Rybakovas, Egidijus ; Sekliuckiene, Jurgita
DOI 10.5755/j01.ee.37.4.44045
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Is Part of Inžinerinė ekonomika = Engineering economics.. Kaunas : Kaunas University of Technology. 2026, vol. 37, iss. 4, p. 435-451.. ISSN 1392-2785. eISSN 2029-5839
Keywords [eng] sustainability ; commitment-implementation gap ; textile ; apparel and fashion industries ; content analysis ; keywords frequency ; keywords co-occurrence ; business news analysis
Abstract [eng] The paper examines the sustainability commitment–implementation gap in Textile, Apparel, and Fashion (TAF) in-dustries by analyzing over 12,300 business media news articles published between 2019 and 2023. Using quantita-tive co-occurrence frequency metrics. We categorized communications as either forward-looking commitment an-nouncements or retrospective result reporting across defined sustainability indicators. The findings reveal a signif-icant imbalance: 83 % of sustainability-related coverage focused on announcing initiatives, commitments, or future targets, while only 27 % reported measurable outcomes or achievements. Specific, quantifiable metrics of environ-mental, economic, or social impact remained rare even within outcomes reporting. The findings suggest that sus-tainability communication in TAF industries remains more strongly oriented toward future sustainability commit-ments than toward implementation-related evidence and measurable sustainability outcomes. The study contributes to sustainability communication and organizational decoupling research by demonstrating how business media discourse may reflect imbalances between sustainability commitments and implementation-related sustainability practices in TAF industries.
Published Kaunas : Kaunas University of Technology
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2026
CC license CC license description