| Abstract [eng] |
The world’s economic system is based on a linear model whose limitations lead to serious environmental problems such as global warming and increasing overshoot of the planet’s biocapacity as well as economic problems such as resource scarcity. Therefore, the need for a new economic system is rising. The most discussed and well-known solution is a system transition towards a circular economy which is already advocated by several circular economy policies and regulatory initiatives. However, even if benefits, drivers, and policy regulations exist, the concept is still not widely used. One reason for this are customer barriers towards circular innovations as recent developments of circular innovations show rather low adoption rates. Although companies have significant problems in developing user-accepted circular innovation, there is only a little research on circular innovation and even less on the customer perspective within this context. In order to help companies successfully implement circular innovation as part of their transition towards circular economy, exploration on customer barriers towards circular innovation is required, followed by research on how to foster the consideration of the customers’ perspective within the development of circular innovation as well as systematic approaches to identify barriers and develop interventions to overcome these. Therefore, the general research aim is to ground interventions to overcome customer barriers towards circular innovation in the case of European consumer electronics companies. To achieve this aim, the underlying research objectives are: 1. to analyse the problematic situation of circular economy and circular innovation implementation in business and academia context with a special focus on the customer perspective. 2. to perform a literature analysis in order to: a) lay theoretical foundations for circular economy, circular innovation, as well as behavioural change and innovation adoption theories. b) define and categorise customer barriers towards circular innovations. c) analyse existing theoretical approaches to systematically identify and overcome customer barriers towards circular innovation. 3. to ground a research methodology to explore approaches to identify customer barriers towards circular innovation and interventions to overcome such in the practical context of European consumer electronics companies. 4. to empirically explore and validate approaches to identify customer barriers towards circular innovation and interventions to overcome such in the case of European consumer electronics companies. 5. to ground interventions and corresponding actions to overcome customer barriers towards circular innovation. The underlying research method includes an extensive literature analysis that grounds research indicators for empirical research. To explore those in practice, a qualitative research design has been chosen, including the combination of expert interviews and a multiple case study analysis of selected European consumer electronics companies. In total ten interviewees, including four experts and six practitioners of four case companies were selected based on a purposeful sampling technique. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured way following a previously developed interview guide. Furthermore, a qualitative content analysis was performed in order to extract the most relevant information using the software MAXQDA. Key theoretical findings include the clear definition and differentiation of circular economy as opposed to sustainability as well as its key principles. Furthermore, a clear definition and differentiation of circular innovation as opposed to other related concepts including environmental, sustainable, and frugal innovations is provided. Next to this, the introduction of theories on circular behaviour and innovation adoption theories resulted in the identification of twelve general customer barriers towards circular innovations which were further categorised in psychological and functional barriers as well as their relevance for different circular innovation types. In addition, the theoretical application of a three-step behavioural change approach revealed that out of nine dominant behavioural change interventions three, namely “education”, “persuasion”, and “modelling”, have been found to be most applicable to overcome barriers towards the purchase of “re”products. Finally, several theoretical implications for existing and future research could be grounded in the fields of circular economy, innovation development, as well as behavioural economics. Key empirical findings show that barriers including “lack of cultural change”, “lack of trust and company image”, “lack of infrastructure”, “lack of knowledge and information”, and “lack of perceived advantage” are recognized by companies independently of the circular innovation type while “lack of ownership” is mainly relevant for PaaS models and provider of refurbished products are especially challenged by “lack of perceived quality” or “uncertainty about quality”, “lack of status”, and “lack of technical compatibility”. Dominant interventions to overcome these barriers are “education”, “persuasion”, and “incentivisation” whereby the company’s maturity and brand reputation, as well as the circular innovation type, have recognised as the main variables influencing the relevance of barriers as well as the choice of interventions. Additionally, design thinking and lean start-up have been identified as the most dominant approaches to integrate the customer perspective, into the development process of circular innovation while barriers are mainly identified using typical market research methods. In combination with theoretical findings, a systematic approach to identify and overcome customer barriers towards circular innovation has been proposed which next to other aspects provides a prospect for further research. Lastly, a set of managerial implications could be defined. These insights provide valuable recommendations for European consumer electronics companies that want to develop and implement circular innovation. |
