Influencing consumer acceptance of refurbished smartphones

Abstract

Previous studies showed that the consumer acceptance of refurbished products is not optimal. This experimental quantitative study investigates three potential ways to influence the consumer acceptance, being the existence of wear and tear on the product, providing additional information about the previous use or providing additional information about the refurbishment process. The consumer acceptance was measured by the purchase intention and attitude towards the product. The litearture suggested that the perceived risk and perception of contagion attatched to a product could be used as predicting factors for the acceptance. Therefore, these two factors were included as well. The results show that wear and tear has a negative influence on the purchase intention. Providing information about the refurbishment process has a positive influence on the purchase intention. Providing information about the previous use has a positive influence on the attitude towards the product with wear and tear but a negative influence on the product without wear and tear. This is due to the uncertainty caused by the information.