A network analysis of factors influencing the purchase intentions for refurbished electronics

Refurbishment can extend the lifetime of an electronic product and reduce its environmental footprint. However, consumers often perceive refurbished electronics as less attractive than new ones, resulting in lower purchase intentions. While prior research has identified several factors that influence consumer choices regarding refurbished...

To see or not to see: The effect of observability of the recycled content on consumer adoption of products made from recycled materials

Despite their environmental benefits, products made from recycled materials are not readily adopted. Prior studies focused on improving consumer adoption via product attributes and marketing elements, but the impact of product appearance remains a gap in the literature. This research contributes by investigating how observability of the recycled...

The influence of a modular design and facilitating cues on consumers’ likeliness to repair electronic products

Modularity represents a promising design strategy for product lifetime extension. Yet, the fact that products are physically designed to be repaired via such a modular design, does not mean consumers will act accordingly. Past research demonstrated promising results with current modular smartphone users. However, these users may not necessarily...

Enhancing consumers’ willingness to repair electronic products: How design can nudge sustainable behaviour

Product repair can decrease the ecological burden of consumer electronics<br/>by lengthening their lifetimes, but it is still too rarely practised by consumers. Design for behaviour change can motivate consumers to undertake repair activities. An increased level of repair self-efficacy can nudge consumers towards repair. In two experiments, we...

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...

Guidelines to Foster Consumer Acceptance of Products Made from Recycled Plastics

The circular economy can reduce the environmental footprint of today’s consumption and close the resource loop through circular material flows. Companies are encouraged to fol- low circular principles, such as using more recycled plastic materials. This initiative seems promising; however, it will only be successful if consumers are willing to...

Designing for Packaging Sustainability: The Effects of Appearance and a Better Eco-Label on Consumers Evaluations and Choice

The environmental burden of packaging is huge. However, redesigning packaging to make it more sustainable without damaging its other functions is not always easy and can have a negative impact on consumers’ choice. In this paper, we adopt a user-perspective and test the effects of packaging appearance and a better eco-label on consumers’...

Using proximity in sustainable product design

This research examines proximity as a new interesting strategy to include in the design of more sustainable products. Drawing from the construal level theory, we posit that the environmental sustainability of a product embedding a form of proximity to an environmental solution in its design will be perceived as more concrete and will trigger...