Consumer understanding of product lifetimes

Cox, Jayne; Griffith, Sarah M.; Giorgi, Sara; King, Geoff

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.05.003

Cited by 140 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…97 Product lifetime extension could be achieved with more durable materials, enhanced maintenance services, or product labeling. 96,98 Additional descriptions of scenarios and devices included in each are noted in SI Table SI-39. To assess potential changes due to shifts in consumption, multiple scenarios were developed to reflect evolving consumption trends, ongoing emergence of small, mobile devices, and the potential for design and purchase of fewer, functionally convergent devices. 3 Functionally convergent or hybrid devices that provide multiple functions have been gaining momentum in the market, as seen by blurring lines between phone and tablet, 95,99,100 high resolution camera and smartphone, 101 and TV, gaming console, and computer.…”

Section: ■ Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumption-Weighted Life Cycle Assessment of a Consumer Electronic Product Community

Ryen

Babbitt

Williams

2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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A new approach for quantifying the net environmental impact of a "community" of interrelated products is demonstrated for consumer electronics owned by an average U.S. household over a 15-year period (1992-2007). This consumption-weighted life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology accounts for both product consumption (number of products per household) and impact (cumulative energy demand (MJ) and greenhouse gas emissions (MT CO2 eq) per product), analyzed using a hybrid LCA framework. Despite efficiency improvements in individual devices from 1992 to 2007, the net impact of the entire product community increased, due primarily to increasing ownership and usage. The net energy impact for the product community is significant, nearly 30% of the average gasoline use in a U.S. passenger vehicle in 2007. The analysis points to a large contribution by legacy products (cathode ray tube televisions and desktop computers), due to historically high consumption rates, although impacts are beginning to shift to smaller mobile devices. This method is also applied to evaluate prospective intervention strategies, indicating that environmental impact can be reduced by strategies such as lifespan extension or energy efficiency, but only when applied to all products owned, or by transforming consumption trends toward fewer, highly multifunctional products.

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Section: ■ Materials and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumption-Weighted Life Cycle Assessment of a Consumer Electronic Product Community

Ryen

Babbitt

Williams

2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…Fascination with a constant process of rejuvenation through products that are “presented as new, modish, faddish, or fashionable, always improved and improving,” is a defining characteristic of the consumer culture (Slater, , p. 10). It is strongly linked to “psychological obsolescence” (Packard cited in Cooper, , p. 424), which is the loss of desirability of a product due to erosion of symbolic value caused by fashion changes, competitive consumption, or simply a desire for ‘new.’ This is a key factor in throw away consumption (Cox et al, ; Evans & Cooper, ; Wilhelm et al, )…”

Section: Environmental Sustainability Consumer Culture and Throwawamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Technological improvements in features or functionality of products that lead to the loss of desirability of previous ones is termed “technological obsolescence” (Cooper, , p. 426). This is a key cause of perceived loss in desirability of products and replacement purchase (Bellezza, Ackerman, & Gino, ; Cox et al, ; Evans & Cooper, ; Wilhelm et al, ). This is especially relevant in the sphere of electronics where the speed of change is breathtaking (Park, ), so much so that Park uses the term “ephemeral” (p. 79) in describing electronics.…”

Section: Environmental Sustainability Consumer Culture and Throwawamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This trend has since changed to some extent, and scholars have been paying attention to the wider society, such as the influence of macrosocial values on sustainable consumption (Kilbourne et al, 2002;Kilbourne et al, 2009;Mittelstaedt, Shultz, Kilbourne, & Peterson, 2014) and systemic elements that render sustainable consumption choices difficult for individuals (Little, Lee, & Nair, 2019;Scheurenbrand, Parsons, Cappellini, & Patterson, 2018). However, there still appears to be a strong emphasis on individuals' attitudes and practices in research on unsustainable consumption in general (e.g., Dholakia, Jung, & Chowdhry, 2018;Guillard, 2018;Kristin & Weaver, 2018;Kropfeld, Nepomuceno, & Dantas, 2018;Lim, 2017;White, Habib, & Hardisty, 2019) and throwaway consumption in particular (e.g., Cox et al, 2013;Edbring, Lehner, & Mont, 2016;Lang & Armstrong, 2018;Weelden, Mugge, & Bakker, 2016;Wilhelm et al, 2011).…”

Section: Environmental Sustainability Consumer Culture and Throwamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This behavior is not limited to Western industrialized nations. It is increasingly seen in developing countries (Cox et al, 2013;Holt, 2012;Schaefer & Crane, 2005), indicating the necessity of studying the throwaway phenomenon in developing countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“Throwaway” consumption in a consumerist society: Evidence from a developing country

Wijetunga

2019

Bus Strat Dev

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Consumerism, closely linked with growth‐oriented development, has been identified as detrimental to environmental sustainability. Yet literature on throwaway consumption, a key form of unsustainable consumption, has rarely examined the influence of consumerist social values on individual behavior. This paper examines how the contemporary “liquid” consumerist social trends that elevate transience over durability manifest in individual throwaway consumption. Utilizing a sample of consumers from a developing country, Sri Lanka, the study explored the throwaway consumption of the mobile telephone. It identifies that consumers replace their phones with new ones at quick intervals because they consider novelty as a source of pleasure and technological change as progress, both of which can be considered as manifestations of “liquid” consumerism. Further, the market stimulates both ideas, providing greater impetus for throwaway consumption.

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The importance of product lifetime labelling for purchase decisions: Strategic implications for corporate sustainability based on a conjoint analysis in Germany

Jacobs

Hörisch

2021

Bus Strat Env

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This article studies the influence of product lifetime labelling on purchase decisions. Based on consumer theory of Lancaster, experimental survey data are collected from a population representative sample of 499 German consumers, using choice‐based conjoint analysis. Hierarchical Bayes utility modelling suggests a substantial positive effect of product lifetime labelling on purchase decisions. However, the effect is not linear but decreasing with higher levels of product lifetime. The relative importance of the product lifetime label is found to be higher than that of the product's energy consumption or brand. Additionally, we show that the introduction of product lifetime labelling renders the positive influence of existing brands on purchase decisions less impactful. Therefore, strategic implications for companies differ substantially, depending on companies' current brand‐building. Besides implications for business strategy, the study informs marketers and policymakers about the potential of product lifetime labelling to stimulate the supply of, and demand for, more durable products.

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Consumer understanding of product lifetimes

Cited by 140 publications

References 7 publications

Consumption-Weighted Life Cycle Assessment of a Consumer Electronic Product Community

Consumption-Weighted Life Cycle Assessment of a Consumer Electronic Product Community

“Throwaway” consumption in a consumerist society: Evidence from a developing country

The importance of product lifetime labelling for purchase decisions: Strategic implications for corporate sustainability based on a conjoint analysis in Germany

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