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

Stephan Hankammer (), Robin Kleer and Frank T. Piller
Additional contact information
Stephan Hankammer: Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences
Robin Kleer: Vlerick Business School
Frank T. Piller: RWTH Aachen University

Journal of Business Economics, 2021, vol. 91, issue 6, No 6, 897-933

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Mass customization; Sustainability; Customer co-design; Consumer choice; Nudging; Product configurator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M14 M39 Q01 Q59 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11573-020-01020-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jbecon:v:91:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s11573-020-01020-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11573

DOI: 10.1007/s11573-020-01020-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Economics is currently edited by Günter Fandel

More articles in Journal of Business Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().