IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i24p16630-d1295518.html

Is This Right for You?: The Key Role of Shop Assistants in Promoting Energy-Efficient Household Appliances

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriella Francesca Amalia Pernice

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, Italy)

  • Valeria Orso

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, Italy
    Human Inspired Technology Research Center, University of Padova, 35121 Padova, Italy)

  • Luciano Gamberini

    (Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, Italy
    Human Inspired Technology Research Center, University of Padova, 35121 Padova, Italy)

Abstract

In 2021, a significant update was made to the household appliance classification system in Europe with the introduction of a new energy-efficient label (EE). This update is a step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 7 of the United Nations, which focuses on sustainable energy. The EE label is an effective tool for reducing overall energy consumption. However, its success relies on the awareness and decision making of consumers when making purchases. During the purchase phase, shop assistants have the potential to play a crucial role in promoting energy-efficient choices. Surprisingly, this aspect has been largely overlooked in previous research. In an attempt to fill this gap, we conducted an exploratory study employing a mixed-method approach, encompassing 22 in-depth interviews and questionnaires administered to shop assistants from various appliance stores. Our findings revealed that shop assistants face challenges in promoting energy-efficient choices, particularly after the introduction of the new EE label, due to a lack of training. This may result in incorrect advice that could impact consumer purchases and their daily energy consumption. Our study emphasises the need to support shop assistants in promoting energy-efficient purchases, to enhance their training, and to incorporate tools such as augmented reality to foster energy-efficient-orientated purchases.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriella Francesca Amalia Pernice & Valeria Orso & Luciano Gamberini, 2023. "Is This Right for You?: The Key Role of Shop Assistants in Promoting Energy-Efficient Household Appliances," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-20, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16630-:d:1295518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16630/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/24/16630/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gergely Nyilasy & Harsha Gangadharbatla & Angela Paladino, 2014. "Perceived Greenwashing: The Interactive Effects of Green Advertising and Corporate Environmental Performance on Consumer Reactions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 693-707, December.
    2. Ritu Agarwal & Jayesh Prasad, 1998. "A Conceptual and Operational Definition of Personal Innovativeness in the Domain of Information Technology," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 9(2), pages 204-215, June.
    3. repec:aen:journl:ej34-4-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Hennink, Monique & Kaiser, Bonnie N., 2022. "Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    5. Brent, Daniel A. & Ward, Michael B., 2018. "Energy efficiency and financial literacy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 181-216.
    6. Benedetta Barchielli & Clarissa Cricenti & Francesca Gallè & Elita Anna Sabella & Fabrizio Liguori & Giovanna Da Molin & Giorgio Liguori & Giovanni Battista Orsi & Anna Maria Giannini & Stefano Ferrac, 2022. "Climate Changes, Natural Resources Depletion, COVID-19 Pandemic, and Russian-Ukrainian War: What Is the Impact on Habits Change and Mental Health?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    7. Li Hua & Shanyong Wang, 2019. "Antecedents of Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Energy-Efficient Appliances: An Empirical Study Based on the Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-17, 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. Paul MUKUCHA & Divaries Cosmas JARAVAZA & Philip DANGAISO & Forbes MAKUDZA, 2025. "The Role of Gender Matching in Personal Selling of Embarrassing Products: An Empirical Study in Zimbabwean Fashion Boutiques," Management and Economics Review, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 10(2), pages 431-447, June.
    2. Choi, Sunhwa & Yi, Youjae, 2025. "The impact of service agent type on satisfaction in green purchasing: A comparative study of AI and human agents," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

    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. Riffat Ara Zannat Tama & Md Mahmudul Hoque & Ying Liu & Mohammad Jahangir Alam & Mark Yu, 2023. "An Application of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to Examining Farmers’ Behavioral Attitude and Intention towards Conservation Agriculture in Bangladesh," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Rhiannon Thompson & Lucy Brown & Rakhi Biswas Evans & Rayhan Mahbub & Amelia Rees & Molly Wilson & Lindsay H. Dewa & Helen Ward & Mireille B. Toledano, 2024. "Change, Adversity, and Adaptation: Young People’s Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic Expressed through Artwork and Semi-Structured Interviews," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(5), pages 1-26, May.
    3. Gülüm Özer & İdil Işık & Jordi Escartín, 2024. "Is There Somebody Looking out for Me? A Qualitative Analysis of Bullying Experiences of Individuals Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-22, January.
    4. Koomson, Isaac & Churchill, Sefa Awaworyi & Smyth, Russell, 2025. "Financial literacy and clean energy adoption in South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Samani, Ali Riahi & Talebian, Ahmadreza & Mishra, Sabyasachee & Golias, Mihalis, 2025. "Evaluating consumer shopping, delivery demands, and last-mile preferences: An integrated MDCEV-HCM approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    6. Alalwan, Ali Abdallah & Baabdullah, Abdullah M. & Rana, Nripendra P. & Tamilmani, Kuttimani & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2018. "Examining adoption of mobile internet in Saudi Arabia: Extending TAM with perceived enjoyment, innovativeness and trust," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 100-110.
    7. Júlio Belo Fernandes & Diana Vareta & Sónia Fernandes & Ana Silva Almeida & Dina Peças & Noélia Ferreira & Liliana Roldão, 2022. "Rehabilitation Workforce Challenges to Implement Person-Centered Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-9, March.
    8. Chikako Ishizuka & Kei Aoki, 2024. "Drivers of sustained brand engagement: cases of long-term customers of hedonic and utilitarian brands in Japan," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(4), pages 979-989, December.
    9. Sujin Park & Ali Tafti & Galit Shmueli, 2024. "Transporting Causal Effects Across Populations Using Structural Causal Modeling: An Illustration to Work-from-Home Productivity," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 686-705, June.
    10. Sara Moussawi & Marios Koufaris & Raquel Benbunan-Fich, 2021. "How perceptions of intelligence and anthropomorphism affect adoption of personal intelligent agents," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 31(2), pages 343-364, June.
    11. Joseph M. Buguis & Reynaldo Castro, 2025. "Construct Development and Validation of Service Quality in the Context of Private Hospitals," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(7), pages 6053-6077, July.
    12. Wei Li & Weining Li & Veikko Seppänen & Timo Koivumäki, 2022. "How and when does perceived greenwashing affect employees' job performance? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1722-1735, September.
    13. Sébastien Foudi, 2024. "Are risk attitude, impatience, and impulsivity related to the individual discount rate? Evidence from energy-efficient durable goods," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(4), pages 627-661, June.
    14. Kaur, Puneet & Dhir, Amandeep & Bodhi, Rahul & Singh, Tripti & Almotairi, Mohammad, 2020. "Why do people use and recommend m-wallets?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    15. Nistor, Cristian, 2013. "A conceptual model for the use of social media in companies," MPRA Paper 44224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Mohammad Iranmanesh & Suhaiza Zailani & Soroush Moeinzadeh & Davoud Nikbin, 2017. "Effect of green innovation on job satisfaction of electronic and electrical manufacturers’ employees through job intensity: personal innovativeness as moderator," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 299-313, March.
    17. Minh Pham & Anh Tuyet Thi Nguyen & Duy Thien Tran & Tam Toai Mai & Vinh Trung Nguyen, 2023. "The impact of entrepreneurship knowledge on students' e-entrepreneurial intention formation and the moderating role of technological innovativeness," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-30, December.
    18. Adel Ben Youssef & Ludovic Ragni, 2008. "Uses of Information and Communication Technologies in Europe's Higher Education Institutions: From Digital Divides to Digital Trajectories," Post-Print halshs-00937212, HAL.
    19. Winai Nadee & Laddawan Kaewkitipong & Peter Ractham & Suwanna Sayruamyat, 2024. "An Investigation of the Intention to Visit Smart Tourism Destinations: Domestic Travelers vs. International Travelers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-18, November.
    20. Patricia Baudier & Galina Kondrateva & Chantal Ammi, 2020. "The future of Telemedicine Cabin? The case of the French students’ acceptability," Post-Print hal-02928918, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:24:p:16630-:d:1295518. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.