Refurbished Products and Green Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study from an Emerging Market

Abstract

There is a growing attention to sustainability among both academics and practitioners. Governments and conscious consumers force companies to implement policies for environmental protection and social welfare into their organizational structures. This study aims to understand sustainable consumption behaviors and, more specifically, consumers’ intention to purchase refurbished products (i.e., a returned product which is updated with new parts and has the same quality as the new one) and its relationship to green mindfulness in the context of B2C market. Previous studies show that consumers with high environmental awareness prefer refurbished products in developed countries. We investigated and discussed this result in the context of an emerging country, Turkey, that has not yet established sufficient policies for sustainability and is in a deep economic recession currently. We carried out 18 in-depth interviews with consumers in Turkey. The analysis benefited from abductive research. We also classified our themes and sub-themes under the stimulus–organism–response framework. Findings indicate that stimuli consist of crises (Covid-19 and economic downturn), ungreen business operations, resources of information (education, governmental regulations, social media) and these factors affect the organism. Organism consists of perceived risk (risks related to hygiene, performance risk) and potentially being mindful which affect the response. Response is an intention to purchase refurbished products. The current study shows that even though consumers are price-conscious during the economic downturn, they intend to purchase refurbished products. Individuals could be more inclined toward end-of-life options during an economic downturn. Refurbished products have discounted prices; therefore, companies can use this advantage to appeal to financially vulnerable consumers. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.