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The literature provides evidence of consumers’ willingness to purchase (WTP) refurbished products. However, the studies focusing on young consumers’ (18–24 years) purchasing behaviour of refurbished products from online platforms/stores are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct a qualitative study to identify the key attributes/factors that influence young consumers’ WTP refurbished products.

Two qualitative techniques, focus group discussion (FGD) and depth interviews (DI), are used for data collection. Criterion sampling is used for sample selection. Consequently, 37 participants (20 for FGD and 17 for DI) from India were recruited.

The study’s findings indicate six broad attributes/factors (purchase attributes, product attributes, credibility, reviews/support, refurbishment process and ecological factors) that influence young consumers’ WTP refurbished products. In each attribute, some characteristics are unique (for example, greater trust in online platforms/stores, preference for video reviews and historical information of the product) to young consumers.

The current study integrates three literature streams: consumer behaviour in the online/offline context, young consumers’ inclination towards an online purchase and WTP refurbished products. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to do it.

Researchers in supply chain transparency have called to expand the boundaries by disclosing various types of information to multiple stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of transparency about supply chain sustainability on consumers as critical stakeholders and investigate the effectiveness of message characteristics.

This study utilizes two scenario-based experiments grounded in a refurbished goods context: Study 1, which employs a 2×2 between-subject experiment investigates the effects of product type and sustainable information provision on consumers evaluations, and Study 2, which employs a 2×1 between-subject experiment examines the effects of sustainable information direction on consumer evaluations. A total of 348 participants were recruited from the Amazon M-Turk platform across the two experiments. Data are analyzed with regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS and the Johnson–Neyman technique.

Contrary to prior research that assumes that refurbished products are associated with lower quality, quality perceptions are moderated by individuals’ environmental involvement (EI) and the information presented by the firm. More importantly, consumer evaluations are influenced by specific characteristics of sustainable supply chain messages: high EI individuals have higher willingness-to-pay a premium (WTPP) when the message is consistent with original beliefs (pro-attitudinal). In contrast to prior theory, there was no difference in the WTPP of consumers with high EI and low EI for counter-attitudinal messages.

The study shows that what to say, how to say it and to whom, are critical for firms who seek to nudge consumers to support their sustainable practices.

The value of communicating information on sustainability has been well established. However, little is known about such association when the information provided trades off environmental benefits and product quality. This research addresses the gap in a refurbished product context. The research studies the effect of sustainable supply chain transparency and message characteristics on stakeholders’ evaluations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how services might impact a general consumer sense of everyday well-being or life satisfaction.

It was decided to focus on the existential benefits of refurbishing services and see how they might impact owner sense of self and overall life satisfaction. A qualitative study was fielded which consisted of analyses of website testimonials of customers of refurbishing services for products such as pianos, watches, boats, bicycles and other durables. Also analyzed were results from one-on-one qualitative interviews of customers of refurbishing services and selected refurbishers of similar products.

The study suggests that refurbish services provide a mix of hedonic and eudaimonic benefits. They provide an enhanced sense of self and general well-being insofar, as the newly restored item connects owners to loved ones, to other collectors or fans and to their own personal life histories. It also connects them to the refurbishers and their “magic”. Insofar as refurbishers invite customer involvement in the process, they co-create how the process will proceed, so customers feel a special involvement and gain an understanding of the workings of the item and how to best use it.

Refurbishing services might offer, like all the new internet-mediated sharing services, a more sustainable alternative to the buy-and-dispose consumption behaviors found in most world economies.

This paper provides insights into the lives of products after purchase and the roles of relevant service providers. It also provides examples of how service providers in general might deepen and facilitate customers’ feelings about themselves and their daily lives. It shows how service providers can enhance customer hedonic and eudaimonic appreciation of provider knowledge, skills and efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of three green strategies on key consumer metrics. More specifically, it aims to measure consumers' purchase intentions of new green, recycled/refurbished products, green company processes and a non‐green product/process.

Between subjects 2×2×4 experimental design with two levels of price (high and low), two levels of brand name (known and unknown) and four levels of green strategies.

Purchase intentions for green product and process strategies are significantly higher than non‐green approaches. However, post‐hoc analysis shows no significant advantage of one green strategy over another. Price and brand name do not have significant interactive effects with green strategies.

Although it is essential that companies develop green strategies for the eco consumer it is not important what specific strategy is selected i.e. going green is the key. Also, despite the continued growth in the demand for green products, price is still the most important driver for consumer purchase – even for the eco consumer. Lastly, despite continued improvements in functional performance, green products do not have a significant advantage in perceived quality. Companies cannot focus completely on the green nature of their products or processes.

Consumers believe that purchasing green products or products from green companies may be a way they can help the environmental problems society faces today. This project provides guidance to companies pursuing this market by evaluating different product and process approaches to this growing social trend.

This project is one of the first to focus on the consumer impact of different corporate approaches to the green market.

The purpose of this paper is to explain what determines the influence of reverse logistics onto green supply chain competitiveness and to find out if that influence is always uniform.

The paper contains an empirical research conducted using a survey-based study, which encompassed a sample size of 228 participants and final consumers that have experience in buying/using products derived from the reverse logistics process.

The results indicate that the influence of reverse logistics onto green supply chain competitiveness is dependent on the product return option and is mainly negative with Serbian consumers, since the perceived quality of each of the three return options is considered to be inferior compared to new products.

The study's empirical results show the there is a generally negative perception among consumers regarding the perceived quality of each of the three product return options, thus directly questioning the general justification of using reverse logistics in Serbian business practice. That is a sign for Serbian managers to enhance their efforts to raise future awareness of the green initiatives importance among business partners, but also final consumers.

The study`s contribution is twofold: first, it helps to additionally test the established and known methodology created by Hazen et al. (2011), thus contributing to the practical dimension of international comparability concerning consumer perceptions. Second, the study adds to research by addressing the gap in practical surveys regarding the reverse logistics practices.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors that enable or inhibit the contribution of product service systems (PSS) to circularity. It is informed by the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and the multi-level perspective as theoretical lenses.

A theory elaboration approach is used through three in-depth case studies of UK and German manufacturers. Case studies provide use- and result-oriented PSS for personal computers, power tools and wind turbines. Multiple sources of evidence, including 20 semi-structured interviews, company documents and quantitative data, are triangulated to improve the validity of the results.

Empirical evidence for relationships between macro-, meso- and micro-level contextual factors show significant barriers to the extending and cycling of resource loops, primarily through maintenance, repairs and refurbishment. A firm’s environmental awareness has a determining role in the contribution of PSS to circularity. The evidence from two use-oriented PSS reveals different circularity maturity levels.

This research makes three key contributions. Firstly, it elaborates on NRBV by showing that a firm’s environmental awareness determines product stewardship. The type of product stewardship practices depends on the enabling and inhibiting effects of macro- and meso-level factors. Secondly, it shows that use-oriented PSS have different circularity profiles and proposes three circularity maturity levels. Finally, it provides an empirically validated framework of macro-, meso- and micro-level enablers and barriers and how they interact to enable or inhibit circularity in PSS.

An effective return policy is used as an important competitive weapon in the marketplace to substantially influence product sales. However, return policy is also seen as a problem for all parties in the supply chain due to the headache in processing returned merchandise. While retailers are efficient in selling, they do not usually have the expertise in handling the reverse flow. The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of a fourth party logistics (4PL) as a return service provider, and develops optimal decision policies for both the seller and the 4PL.

A profit‐maximization model is presented to jointly obtain optimal policies for the seller and the 4PL through the use of Stackelberg like game theory, where the seller acts as the leader and the 4PL acts as the follower.

Optimal values for the seller's and the 4PL's decisions are presented. Conditions under which profits for the seller and 4PL both increase are shown.

This paper offers a number of managerial guidelines for using marketing and operational strategy variables to influence the market reaction parameters so as to obtain the maximum benefit from the market.

This paper offers insights to seller and 4PL on how return policy may affect their strategic alliance. Treating return policy as a continuous variable is an original contribution of this paper as is the joint optimization of the seller and the 4PL.

Some essential issues about modeling of reverse logistics (RL) systems and product recovery networks include consideration of the qualities of the returned products, taking into account uncertainty and integrating the forward and reverse flows. The purpose of this paper is to develop the integrated RL model, which focuses on the control of inventory and production planning problems in a case of uncertainty in demand, quantities and qualities of returns.

The model involves a forward production route, three alternative recovery routes and a disposal route. Various levels of qualities are considered for returned products. A fuzzy mixed integer programming model (FMIP) is developed to provide a solution for the problems of production planning and inventory control. After maximizing the satisfaction degree, different solutions can have the same maximum. Moreover, policies that use all recovery routes and reduce the overall uncertainty have no chance to be chosen. To tackle these problems, a two-phase approach method is applied.

According to the results of the numerical example, using different and appropriate recovery options based on the quality of returns can significantly decrease the recovery costs. Similarly, it is shown that the two-phase approach can be an effective and efficient method to reach a satisfactory solution for such problems.

In this study, after maximizing the FMIP model, a two-phase approach ‒ as a novel optimization technique in this research ‒ is employed to achieve a desirable solution.

This paper aims to consider the price premium that consumers state they are willing to pay for products with reused or recycled content. It also aims to address the effect of the impact of product category on consumers' willingness to pay premium prices.

Willingness to pay was studied for seven different product categories (n=49).

Perceived functional risk is an important determinant of the price that consumers are willing to pay for products that have recycled or reused content. It was also found that consumers will switch from a recycled product to a new product within a smaller range of price for products with high functional risk.

The study is exploratory, while it serves its purpose by raising initial questions and finding that this is a complex area that is worth studying. Additional work is clearly required to consider the wide range of potentially relevant variables and a sampling plan that ensures an understanding of the generalisability of findings across the population within a region and across regions.

A technique for understanding consumer willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) is provided and insights into differences are offered between products in terms of WTP for greener products. Practitioners can use this technique to determine the price range and indirectly the profitability of a version of their product based on recycled or reused content.

An understanding of WTP for products with recycled or reused content is developed. This is important as legislation in many countries aims at diverting disposed product from waste dumps to consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the prices and consumer behavior at Woot.com, a deep discount online retailer, and compare two selling mechanisms it uses – the regular “one deal a day” and the “woot‐off” mechanisms. The paper also compares the “one deal a day” business model with the mainstream multi‐product retail business model.

Product, pricing, and sales data for products sold on Woot.com were collected using an automatic online data‐collection agent. The data set of 572 products includes 270 products sold using the regular “one deal a day” format and 302 products sold on ten woot‐off days.

Two periods of the day were identified when most orders were placed. It is found that Woot.com's prices were usually lower than the lowest found elsewhere online, and the price differences were even greater during woot‐offs. The analysis reveals that the price elasticity at Woot.com is lower than those at internet retailers such as Amazon.com or BarnesandNobile.com. In addition, factors such as having the lowest online price, a large customer base, and selling during a “woot‐off” and on weekdays all help increase sale outcomes. The comparison of the “one deal a day” and the multi‐product retail business model suggests that the former focuses on niche markets and primarily sells closeout and refurbished products to online bargain hungers.

The current study contributes to both research and practice toward understanding prices and consumer behavior at “one deal a day” web sites. Future research can examine other aspects, such as the order arrival on these sites.