IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/prbchp/978-3-031-90054-9_16.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

What Stops Consumers from Purchasing Refurbished Smartphones?

Author

Listed:
  • Mehmet Cem Bölen

    (Ataturk University)

  • Embiya Çelik

    (Ataturk University)

  • Erol Kılıç

    (Ataturk University)

Abstract

Smartphones have a short lifespan and are often replaced in today’s fast-paced market. As a result, refurbishment has become an essential method for extracting values from devices. Therefore, people worldwide are increasingly turning to digital device recycling platforms to sell, trade in, or recycle smartphones, highlighting their growing significance. However, several challenges may hinder the widespread adoption of refurbished smartphones among consumers. While previous studies have primarily focused on the general factors and individual differences that affect the decision-making process for buying refurbished products, research on resistance towards refurbished products is still in the early stages and seems to be quite limited. Therefore, it is essential to comprehend consumers’ decision-making processes to boost their intention to purchase refurbished smartphones. To fill this gap, the main objective of this study was to identify and analyze the factors that act as barriers to consumers when purchasing a refurbished smartphone. Drawing on the innovation resistance theory, we developed a research model to explore the relationship between theory-driven adoption barriers (specifically, usage, value, risk, tradition, and image) and consumer resistance. To test the proposed model, data were collected through a cross-sectional online survey of 430 individuals who neither owned nor expressed a desire to purchase a refurbished smartphone. The collected data were analyzed using partial least-squares structural equation modeling. The results show that value, tradition, and image barriers positively influence consumer resistance to refurbished smartphones, whereas the role of usage and risk barriers received no empirical support. The proposed model explains 61% of the variance in resistance intention, which indicates a significant explanation for consumers’ resistance to refurbished smartphones. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding by elucidating how usage, value, risk, tradition, and image barriers interact with consumer resistance in the context of refurbished smartphones.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehmet Cem Bölen & Embiya Çelik & Erol Kılıç, 2025. "What Stops Consumers from Purchasing Refurbished Smartphones?," Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics,, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-90054-9_16
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-90054-9_16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    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:prbchp:978-3-031-90054-9_16. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.