The customer acceptance of refurbished smartphones

The customer acceptance of refurbished smartphones

Jockin, B.G.W.

Mugge, R. (mentor)
Bocken, N.P.M. (mentor)
Ballester Salvà, M. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Product Innovation Management

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2015-12-18

This research aims to uncover the factors influencing the customer acceptance of refurbished products. To gain insight in these factors, a quantitative study (N = 250) on the response of customers to the proposition of refurbished smartphones was conducted in cooperation with Fairphone. Fairphone is a social enterprise start-up, aiming to open up and improve the consumer electronics supply chain. It tries to achieve this by making sustainability focused smartphones, which are designed to last and made with conflict-free minerals. The research brought forward a preference for performance enhancing product offers to relieve perceived functional risk. Information provision offers scored slightly lower, confirming that there still many people unaware. Finally, the service oriented offers scored lowest. Based on personal differences between respondents, six customer personas were created (Casual supporter, Sustainability enthusiastic, Conservative critic, Susceptible follower, Proud power-user, Expert techie). The difference in attitude towards refurbished products and the different offers between these clusters was then used to develop a strategy for refurbished smartphones for Fairphone.

smartphones
fairphone
refurbishing
circular economy
customer acceptance

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e3e46b2c-4a7b-46b8-a969-00be3913f452

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Jockin, B.G.W.