TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent a consumer’s repair strategy impacts the annual costs of ownership of a washing machine and two types of vacuum cleaner.Design/methodology/approach The annual cost of ownership is determined by calculating the annual life cycle cost (LCC) for the respective devices. The annual LCCs of the different scenarios allow a comparison of the different repair strategy options. A Monte Carlo simulation is run to introduce parameter variability. The device’s failure rate is estimated by a combination of data sets on the devices’ performance.Findings Results demonstrate that the repair of the devices considered is a more favourable option over replacement. A consumer who aims for the lowest annual LCC should allow for a high number of repairs per device, without putting a maximum on the cost per repair. However, the consumer should become more cautious when a device approaches the end of its expected lifetime. Finally, the purchase of warranty can be interesting when the warranty covers a sufficiently long proportion of the device’s (expected) lifetime and when its cost does not exceed a threshold proportion of the initial purchase price.Research limitations/implications The costs for repair might be overestimated. Future research can focus on the reduction of repair costs following self-repair.Practical implications The results provide strong arguments in favour of repair instead of replacement of broken devices.Originality/value This is the first research to quantify the influence of consumer behaviour in the context of repair of devices on the ownership costs of these devices.
VL  - 33
IS  - 4
SN  - 1741-0398
DO  - 10.1108/JEIM-12-2018-0283
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-12-2018-0283
AU  - Brusselaers Jan
AU  - Bracquene Ellen
AU  - Peeters Jef
AU  - Dams Yoko
PY  - 2019
Y1  - 2019/01/01
TI  - Economic consequences of consumer repair strategies for electrical household devices
T2  - Journal of Enterprise Information Management
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 747
EP  - 767
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -