Do consumers mind contamination by previous users? A choice-based conjoint analysis to explore strategies that improve consumers' choice for refurbished products

Refurbishment is an effective strategy to extend product lifetimes in a circular economy. However, consumers believe that refurbished products are contaminated with traces of prior use, which can be indicated by the appearance (e.g., scratches) or functionality (e.g., lower battery capacity) of refurbished products. This research explores...

Contaminated by Its Prior Use: Strategies to Design and Market Refurbished Personal Care Products

Refurbishment is an effective circular strategy to lengthen a product’s lifetime. However, refurbished products that are intimately used, such as personal care products, cause a feeling of unease in consumers because they are perceived to be contaminated. In 15 in-depth online interviews with female users of intense pulsed light (IPL) device...

Key Performance Indicators for Evaluation of Commercial Building Retrofits: Shortlisting via an industry survey

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quintessentially useful for performance evaluation, but a set of pragmatic KPIs for holistic evaluation of retrofits for commercial buildings is hitherto unavailable. This study was conducted to address this issue. Built upon the findings of a systematic literature review and a focus group meeting in the...

Can refurbished products feel like antiques?: The role of the neoretro design style on consumers' evaluation of refurbished products

This research explores a new pathway to improve consumer acceptance of refurbished products that is inspired by the positive evocations of other used products, such as antique products. Currently, the<br/>prior use and age of refurbished products make them a less desirable option because they are perceived to be of lower quality, to have a...

Improving energy efficiency in Vietnamese tube houses: A survey of sustainable challenges and potentials

Purpose: Refurbishing houses is considered a key measure to improve the energy efficiency of the built environment. However, little is known about the implementation and outcome of housing renovation for energy upgrades in the Vietnamese practice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the energy performance of the current housing stock...

The influence of information about prior use on consumers' evaluations of refurbished electronics

Refurbishment – the process of collecting used products, assessing their condition, and replacing and/or upgrading parts in order to resell them to other consumers – is increasingly seen as both economically and environmentally advantageous. The present research investigates in an experimental study and with qualitative post-hoc interviews how...

Investigating the business case for a zero-energy refurbishment of residential buildings by applying a pre-fabricated façade module

The ambition to renovate the post-war building stock to an energy-neutral quality is getting a lot of attention from social housing corporations and other institutional owners, financial organizations, and users. An effective renovation plan must significantly improve the current energy performance of a target building towards nearly zero-energy...

Is there a market for refurbished toothbrushes?: An exploratory study on consumers' acceptance of refurbishment for different product categories

Refurbishment is the process of collecting used products, assessing their condition, and replacing and/or upgrading parts in order to resell them to other consumers. Although refurbishment is increasingly seen as both economically and environmentally advantageous, it remains questionable whether consumers will accept refurbishment as a viable...

Paving the way towards circular consumption: Exploring consumer acceptance of refurbished mobile phones in the Dutch market

In the transition towards a circular economy, refurbishment can be applied to regain value from used products, and to reduce waste. Refurbishment is a process in which a professional company collects and restores used products in order to resell these products to new consumers. Building on insights from the remanufacturing literature, this...