Consumer familiarity, ambiguity tolerance, and purchase behavior toward remanufactured products: The implications for remanufacturers

Abstract

Remanufacturing plays an important role in reducing energy consumption and material usage. The present research attempted to understand consumers' perceptions of remanufactured products in China and their resulting purchase behavior. The study uses the theory of planned behavior as its theoretical framework but extends it by incorporating two additional variables (consumer familiarity and ambiguity tolerance). Data was collected using a self‐administered questionnaire survey and analyzed with structural equation modeling. According to the survey findings, consumer familiarity positively affects consumer attitude but negatively affects consumer intention to purchase remanufactured products. Ambiguity tolerance positively affects attitude and purchase intention. Meanwhile, consumer attitude and perceived behavioral control are both positively and significantly related to purchase intention. However, the subjective norm has no significant effect on purchase intention. This study also demonstrated the positive effect of purchase intention on actual purchase behavior. Based on the research findings, practical guidelines are given for remanufacturers to motivate consumers to purchase remanufactured products.

What you see is meaningful: Does green advertising change the intentions of consumers to purchase eco‐labeled products?

“…Three measurement items were used to measure personal trust, which were adapted from the works of Thøgersen et al (2015) and Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen (2017). Four measurement items were used to measure intention, which were adapted from the works of Sun, Wang, Li, Zhao, and Fan (2017), Wang, Wang, Yang, Wang, and Li (2018), and Ru, Qin, and Wang (2019). This study also includes several control variables, namely, gender, age, education level, and household income, which may affect the intention to buy eco‐labeled products.…”

The Intention to Purchase Recycled Products: Towards an Integrative Theoretical Framework

“…The perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform a given behavior. [60,63,[68][69][70][71] Personal norms Self-expectations for specific action in particular situations that are constructed by the individual.…”

“…Among the antecedents of attitude, ambiguity tolerance has received attention in the recycled products literature (according to the theory of ambiguity tolerance, ATT). Ambiguity tolerance is a trait of the individual's personality and it assesses how he or she responds to situations or information characterized by uncertainty and unpredictability [70]. An individual with a high ambiguity tolerance is more likely to accept uncertain situations, whereas a low tolerance to ambiguity is typical of an individual who has difficulty in dealing with ambiguous situations and unpredictable outcomes.…”

“…Lastly, perceived behavioral control (PBC) depends on the individual's psychological state and refers to the individual's perception of his ability to perform a certain behavior [70]. Following TPB, the confidence of a consumer in the decision to purchase a recycled product depends on past experiences and any obstacles faced [69].…”

Managing sustainability in luxury industry to pursue circular economy strategies

“…Sustainability also appeared as an opportunity for firms to differentiate their products from competitors. The luxury market battle is now not merely economic and financial (e.g., customers, market share, sale, and profit) but also of overall sustainable initiatives to acquire new customers by meeting their needs and expectations (Deloitte, 2019; Shim, Shin, & Kwak, 2018; Stewart & Niero, 2018; Testa, Sarti, & Frey, 2019; Wang, Wang, Yang, Wang, & Li, 2018). To achieve this aim, luxury firms must strengthen the nexus between three sustainability pillars, namely, environmental, economic, and social (Pinto, Herter, Gonçalves, & Sayin, 2019) through innovating their technology, procurement, production, packaging, operations, logistics, retailing, reusing, and recycling systems (Centobelli, Cerchione, Esposito, & Shashi, 2020; de Oliveira Neto, Correia, Silva, de Oliveira Sanches, & Lucato, 2019; Yang, Song, & Tong, 2017).…”