Buying new or refurbished? The influence of the product’s durability and attractiveness, contamination risk and consumers ‘environmental concern on purchase intentions of refurbished and new products

This research investigates how a durable and attractive product appearance, the perceived contamination risk, and consumers ‘environmental concern influence the purchase intentions of refurbished products. Consumers often have lower purchase intentions of refurbished products because they associate them with lower durability and fear that they are contaminated with a former user’s traces. The environmental friendliness and lower price incentivise consumers to purchase refurbished products. Limitations of prior research are that it has focused strongly on qualitative research, and a comparison to the factors influencing the adoption of new products is lacking. This research contributes by investigating which factors significantly influence the purchase intentions of refurbished products. It additionally aims to uncover how these factors differ from those influencing purchase intentions of new products.