IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jbecon/v91y2021i6d10.1007_s11573-020-01020-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability nudges in the context of customer co-design for consumer electronics

Author

Listed:
  • Stephan Hankammer

    (Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences)

  • Robin Kleer

    (Vlerick Business School)

  • Frank T. Piller

    (RWTH Aachen University)

Abstract

In this study, we shed light on the unexplored potential of customer co-design in a mass customization (MC) setting to contribute to the promotion of sustainable consumption. We theoretically derive and empirically test several opportunities for companies to improve sustainable consumption and production in a joint effort with consumers. Our research bridges between the MC and the sustainability literature and shows that MC enables consumers to cohere attitude and action, based on individual sustainability preferences. We empirically assess whether MC companies can nudge their customers successfully towards more sustainable choices by designing sustainability-based starting solutions (Study 1) and by providing transparent sustainability information (Study 2) in MC configuration systems. We do so by portraying a simulated online buying process of a customizable TV with a realistic web-based product configurator. We find that sustainable defaults can play a significant role in promoting sustainable consumption, while providing detailed sustainability information does not show an effect. To get more insights into our results, we discuss the results on a supplementary qualitative analysis based on think-aloud consumer tests (Study 3), revealing several suggestions for further research. Using these findings, we revisit sustainability information in Study 4 and find that intuitive labels significantly influence consumers to choose more sustainably.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Hankammer & Robin Kleer & Frank T. Piller, 2021. "Sustainability nudges in the context of customer co-design for consumer electronics," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(6), pages 897-933, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jbecon:v:91:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s11573-020-01020-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11573-020-01020-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11573-020-01020-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11573-020-01020-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ingo Balderjahn & Anja Buerke & Manfred Kirchgeorg & Mathias Peyer & Barbara Seegebarth & Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, 2013. "Consciousness for sustainable consumption: scale development and new insights in the economic dimension of consumers’ sustainability," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(4), pages 181-192, December.
    2. Christian Hildebrand & Gerald Häubl & Andreas Herrmann & Jan R. Landwehr, 2013. "When Social Media Can Be Bad for You: Community Feedback Stifles Consumer Creativity and Reduces Satisfaction with Self-Designed Products," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 14-29, March.
    3. Paul Christoph Gembarski & Thorsten Schoormann & Daniel Schreiber & Ralf Knackstedt & Roland Lachmayer, 2018. "Effects of Mass Customization on Sustainability: A Literature-Based Analysis," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, in: Stephan Hankammer & Kjeld Nielsen & Frank T. Piller & Günther Schuh & Ning Wang (ed.), Customization 4.0, pages 285-300, Springer.
    4. Eric von Hippel & Ralph Katz, 2002. "Shifting Innovation to Users via Toolkits," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(7), pages 821-833, July.
    5. Mont, Oksana, 2004. "Institutionalisation of sustainable consumption patterns based on shared use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 135-153, September.
    6. Von Hippel, Eric A. & Katz, Ralph, 2002. "Shifting Innovation to Users Via Toolkits," Working papers 4232-02, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    7. Schubert, Christian, 2017. "Green nudges: Do they work? Are they ethical?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 329-342.
    8. Meise, Jan Niklas & Rudolph, Thomas & Kenning, Peter & Phillips, Diane M., 2014. "Feed them facts: Value perceptions and consumer use of sustainability-related product information," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 510-519.
    9. Yue Liu & Ying Qu & Zhen Lei & Han Jia, 2017. "Understanding the Evolution of Sustainable Consumption Research," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 414-430, September.
    10. Kahneman, Daniel & Knetsch, Jack L & Thaler, Richard H, 1990. "Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1325-1348, December.
    11. Kristensson, Per & Wästlund, Erik & Söderlund, Magnus, 2017. "Influencing consumers to choose environment friendly offerings: Evidence from field experiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 89-97.
    12. Farjam, Mike & Nikolaychuk, Olexandr & Bravo, Giangiacomo, 2019. "Experimental evidence of an environmental attitude-behavior gap in high-cost situations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Auger, Pat & Devinney, Timothy M. & Louviere, Jordan J. & Burke, Paul F., 2008. "Do social product features have value to consumers?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 183-191.
    14. Zaichkowsky, Judith Lynne, 1985. "Measuring the Involvement Construct," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(3), pages 341-352, December.
    15. Kalamas, Maria & Cleveland, Mark & Laroche, Michel, 2014. "Pro-environmental behaviors for thee but not for me: Green giants, green Gods, and external environmental locus of control," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 12-22.
    16. Jin, Liyin & He, Yanqun & Song, Haiyan, 2012. "Service customization: To upgrade or to downgrade? An investigation of how option framing affects tourists’ choice of package-tour services," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 266-275.
    17. Erik G. Hansen & Friedrich Grosse-Dunker & Ralf Reichwald, 2009. "Sustainability Innovation Cube — A Framework To Evaluate Sustainability-Oriented Innovations," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(04), pages 683-713.
    18. Sundarakani, Balan & de Souza, Robert & Goh, Mark & Wagner, Stephan M. & Manikandan, Sushmera, 2010. "Modeling carbon footprints across the supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 43-50, November.
    19. Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, 2023. "Libertarian paternalism," Chapters, in: Cass R. Sunstein & Lucia A. Reisch (ed.), Research Handbook on Nudges and Society, chapter 1, pages 10-16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Jonathan Levav & Mark Heitmann & Andreas Herrmann & Sheena S. Iyengar, 2010. "Order in Product Customization Decisions: Evidence from Field Experiments," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(2), pages 274-299, April.
    21. Doris Fuchs & Sylvia Lorek, 2005. "Sustainable Consumption Governance: A History of Promises and Failures," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 261-288, September.
    22. Fabrizio Salvador & de Holan Pablo Martin & Franck Piller, 2009. "Cracking the Code of Mass Customization," Post-Print hal-02312930, HAL.
    23. Cipriano Forza & Fabrizio Salvador, 2006. "Product Information Management for Mass Customization," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-80092-2.
    24. Eric Johnson & Suzanne Shu & Benedict Dellaert & Craig Fox & Daniel Goldstein & Gerald Häubl & Richard Larrick & John Payne & Ellen Peters & David Schkade & Brian Wansink & Elke Weber, 2012. "Beyond nudges: Tools of a choice architecture," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 487-504, June.
    25. Auger, Pat & Devinney, Timothy M. & Louviere, Jordan J. & Burke, Paul F., 2010. "The importance of social product attributes in consumer purchasing decisions: A multi-country comparative study," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 140-159, April.
    26. Katharina Sammer & Rolf Wüstenhagen, 2006. "The influence of eco‐labelling on consumer behaviour – results of a discrete choice analysis for washing machines," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 185-199, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nick Lin-Hi & Marlene Reimer & Katharina Schäfer & Johanna Böttcher, 2023. "Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: an empirical analysis of the role of organizational factors," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 707-746, May.
    2. Lena Ries & Markus Beckmann & Peter Wehnert, 2023. "Sustainable smart product-service systems: a causal logic framework for impact design," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 667-706, May.
    3. Ut-Tha Veenarat, 2023. "Pioneering Eco-Cart: Carbon Reduction Solutions for Thai Online Shoppers," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 18(4), pages 515-536, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nikolaus Franke & Martin Schreier & Ulrike Kaiser, 2010. "The "I Designed It Myself" Effect in Mass Customization," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 125-140, January.
    2. Kolesnik, N., 2023. "Implementation of the concept of sustainable development in food retail: Latent semantic analysis of SMM communication 2015-2021," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 79-102.
    3. Anna S. Cui & Fang Wu, 2016. "Utilizing customer knowledge in innovation: antecedents and impact of customer involvement on new product performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 516-538, July.
    4. Carmen Bălan, 2020. "How Does Retail Engage Consumers in Sustainable Consumption? A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-25, December.
    5. David Schneider & Johannes Klumpe & Martin Adam & Alexander Benlian, 2020. "Nudging users into digital service solutions," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 30(4), pages 863-881, December.
    6. Verônica Feder Mayer & Glauber Eduardo de Oliveira Santos & Osiris Ricardo Bezerra Marques, 2022. "Option framing for upselling tourism services: Does cognitive availability prevent irrational choices?," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(2), pages 476-494, March.
    7. Kibaek Lee & Jaeheung Yoo & Munkee Choi & Hangjung Zo & Andrew P Ciganek, 2016. "Does External Knowledge Sourcing Enhance Market Performance? Evidence from the Korean Manufacturing Industry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, December.
    8. Nicole D. Sintov & P. Wesley Schultz, 2017. "Adjustable Green Defaults Can Help Make Smart Homes More Sustainable," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, April.
    9. Cristiano Codagnone & Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri & Francesco Bogliacino & Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva & George Gaskell & Andriy Ivchenko & Pietro Ortoleva & Francesco Mureddu, 2016. "Labels as nudges? An experimental study of car eco-labels," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(3), pages 403-432, December.
    10. Habicht, Hagen & Oliveira, Pedro & Shcherbatiuk, Viktoriia, 2012. "User Innovators: When Patients Set Out to Help Themselves and End Up Helping Many," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 66(3), pages 277-295.
    11. Maxim Kotsemir & Alexander Abroskin & Dirk Meissner, 2013. "Innovation concepts and typology – an evolutionary discussion," HSE Working papers WP BRP 05/STI/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    12. Joshua Henkel & Georg Schwesinger, 2020. "Establishing Sustainable Consumption - How Future Policies Can Channel Consumer Preferences," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2007, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    13. Chakravarty, Sujoy & Mishra, Rajan, 2019. "Using social norms to reduce paper waste: Results from a field experiment in the Indian Information Technology sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Joerß, Tom & Hoffmann, Stefan & Mai, Robert & Akbar, Payam, 2021. "Digitalization as solution to environmental problems? When users rely on augmented reality-recommendation agents," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 510-523.
    15. Frauke Sander & Ulrich Föhl & Nadine Walter & Vera Demmer, 2021. "Green or social? An analysis of environmental and social sustainability advertising and its impact on brand personality, credibility and attitude," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(4), pages 429-445, July.
    16. Spencer H. Harrison & Kevin G. Corley, 2011. "Clean Climbing, Carabiners, and Cultural Cultivation: Developing an Open-Systems Perspective of Culture," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 391-412, April.
    17. Indranil Goswami & Oleg Urminsky, 2016. "When should the ask be a nudge? The Effect of Default Amounts on Charitable Donations," Natural Field Experiments 00659, The Field Experiments Website.
    18. Alexandros D. Tsangaridis, 2014. "Strategic Financial Analysis Of The Merger Of New Tt Hellenic Postbank S.A. With Eurobank - Ergasias Bank S.A," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 8(1), pages 354-372.
    19. Hung M. Nguyen & George Onofrei & Dothang Truong & Simon Lockrey, 2020. "Customer green orientation and process innovation alignment: A configuration approach in the global manufacturing industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2498-2513, September.
    20. Mark Pigors & Bettina Rockenbach, 2016. "Consumer Social Responsibility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(11), pages 3123-3137, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mass customization; Sustainability; Customer co-design; Consumer choice; Nudging; Product configurator;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M39 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Other
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q59 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jbecon:v:91:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s11573-020-01020-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.