Dr. Amini Published in the Management Decision Journal

For release:  January 2, 2019

Dr. Mehdi Amini, George Johnson Professor of Marketing and Supply Chain Management recently published a paper entitled "Towards Building Circular Economy: A Cross-Cultural Study of Consumers' Purchase Intentions for Reconstructed Products," in the Management Decision Journal. Dr. Amini's co-authors are Professors Jighyasu Gaur and Ritu Gupta at the T. A. Pai Management Institute, India, Venkatesh Mani at the Montpellier Business School, France, and Pratyush Banerjee at the BITS Pilani, India.

A common triple-bottom-line strategy to corporate sustainability is product reconstruction: remanufacturing, repurposing and recycling. The success of this strategy directly is linked to the consumers' purchase intentions (PI) and willingness to pay for reconstructed products. The study is an early attempt in the literature to capture cross-cultural differences in adopting reconstructed products. The key purpose of this paper is to understand consumers' PI for reconstructed products in a cross-cultural setting for the development of circular economy. In comparing the US consumers versus Indian consumers, the authors found that: (1) US consumers possess altruistic buying behavior; are eco-centric toward waste disposal; strictly follow the regulations and socio-cultural norms; and have harmony orientation toward nature; (2) in contrast, Indian consumers possess utilitarian buying behavior; demonstrate anthropocentric attitude toward waste disposal; do not necessarily follow the regulations; and have mastery orientation toward nature. The practical implications of the findings suggest that: (a) at policy level, government in emerging economies should formulate regulations that promote the use of reconstructed products; and (b) at firm level, firms should exploit promotional and advertisement efforts to enhance awareness about reconstructed products.