Green Your Own Device! A Study on Consumers’ Preferences for Eco-Design Principles

Ixmeier, Anne and Kranz, Johann (2020): Green Your Own Device! A Study on Consumers’ Preferences for Eco-Design Principles. Twenty-Eigth European Conference on Information Systems, Marrakesh, Morocco, 15-17 June 2020. Proceedings of the 28th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS).

Abstract

Rising amounts of electronic waste are an increasingly pressing global issue. Thus, eco-design principles, which aim to extend information technologies’ (IT) lifecycle and facilitate reuse in a closed-loop fashion, are gaining attention by policy-makers and practitioners. Hitherto, eco-design principles have not been entirely recognized by Green IT literature. Hence, our empirical understanding on consumers’ perceived value of IT designed for longevity and reuse is limited. To gain insights into consumer preferences regarding eco-design principles, we analyse the perceived value of IT designed for waste minimization and resource efficiency. Further, we empirically test hypothesized relationships between preferences and psychological motivations using a sample of 270 consumers. Our results in-dicate that consumers are willing to pay more for consumer IT that entails eco-design principles. Attributes related to pre-use (sourcing, manufacturing) and use (hardware modularity, software updates) are valued more than post-use characteristics (disposal, reuse). We interpret these results in light of consumers’ underlying motivational characteristics that affect individual decision-making. The study’s findings advance our understanding of critical consumer preferences and factors that influence decision-making for more sustainable consumer IT.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
• Keywords: Green IT ; Circular Economy ; Eco-Design ; Conjoint Analysis
• Faculties: Munich School of Management > Professorship of Digital Services and Sustainability
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• Annotation: ISBN 978-1-7336325-1-5
• Language: English