CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AMERICA: THE US ELECTRONICS CONSUMER ATTITUDE TOWARD CIRCULAR ECONOMY ADOPTION

By Jacqueline B Suaverdez

Consumer hesitancy is the main barrier to normalizing circular consumption. While numerous books and articles are written on how companies should pivot to the circular business model, there are limited works of literature available on changing the consumer mindset toward circularity. This study "measures" the consumer re

• Language: English
• Publisher: JB Suaverdez
• Release date: Oct 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9789464376937

Jacqueline B Suaverdez

Doctorate in Business Administration with focus on Circular Economy and Sustainability. 23+ years of work experience in engineering, program management, and new product development in the semiconductor, OEM, and solar industries. Areas of expertise are in both traditional and Agile project management, manufacturing process improvement, problem-solving, and research and development/ innovation management. Proficient in MS Office, MS Project, Slack, Atlassian Confluence, and JIRA. A certified Agile Scrum Master. Knowledgeable in statistical research methods, data mining, and analysis using excel add-ins, JMP and Tableau.

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CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AMERICA

CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AMERICA

CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AMERICA

THE US ELECTRONICS CONSUMER ATTITUDE TOWARD CIRCULAR ECONOMY ADOPTION

Jacqueline B. Suaverdez, DBA

Jacqueline Belandres Suaverdez

CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AMERICA: THE US ELECTRONICS CONSUMER ATTITUDE TOWARD CIRCULAR ECONOMY ADOPTION

DISSERTATION

Presented to the Swiss School of Business and Management Geneva

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements

For the Degree

DOCTOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SWISS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT GENEVA

September 2022

ISBN: 9789464376937

Contents

CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN AMERICA: THE US ELECTRONICS CONSUMER ATTITUDE TOWARD CIRCULAR ECONOMY ADOPTION

1 Dedication

2 Acknowledgments

3 Abbreviations

4 ABSTRACT

5 Introduction

6 Review of Literature

7 Methodology

8 Results

9 Discussion

10 Summary, Implications, and Recommendations

11 Appendix A

12 Appendix B

13 Appendix C

References

1

Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to our loving God, family, and friends. Thank you, our dear Lord, for guiding and blessing me in all my endeavours. To my husband, who not only inspires me but is my rock and my partner in everything, I owe you my heartfelt gratitude. Your encouragement and confidence in me made me a better person. To my son, who never fails to cheer me when I'm down, know that I chose sustainability for this dissertation because I want to help preserve our planet for my son and future generations. Our discussions about how the older generations have managed to exploit and mess up the world triggered my interest in finding ways to help rectify the problem. I hope that, in my own little way, this dissertation helps. Special appreciation goes to my Mom and Dad, who gave me a solid educational foundation, structure, and discipline early in my life. Without them, I will not be here. They are the reason why my passion is research and why I seek knowledge. To my brothers and their families, I will always treasure how you relieve my stress while working on my dissertation. I want my nephews to grow up in a better world where there is less waste, more trees, and nicer human beings. I thank my friends, especially my best friends, A.S.M and N.A.B., with whom I share my small victories and vent my frustrations regularly.

To God be the glory!

2

Acknowledgments

Some special people made this dissertation possible. First, I would like to acknowledge my mentor Dr Isaac Ahinsah-Wobil, for guiding and helping me in all aspects of my thesis and dissertation process. Thank you, Dr. Wobil, for pushing me to dig deeper and think harder to develop more comprehensive research. To the SSBM and Upgrad organizations, I appreciate all the academic and logistical help you have provided. To the movers and shakers of the electronics reuse industry who are instrumental in mainstreaming circularity in their own ways, I owe you my special thanks. After sending over 40 requests for an interview, you are the very few to are willing to help a student like me: Mr. Simo Elalj of Refurbme, who was the first one to reply to my interview request and opened my eyes to the nature of the resale business; Mr. Jack Wright of BuyBackBoss and Again, who explained the refurbishing business to me. Mr. Steve Athwal of The Big Phone Store / ECD Ltd., who I enjoyed learning about the electronic reuse industry; Mr. Steve Haskew of Circular Computing, who explained the remanufacturing business to me; and Mr. Brandon of the Big Phone Store / ECD Ltd., who had been very accommodating and helped me connect with Mr. Steve Athwal. May your businesses and other endeavours continue to flourish.

I am also grateful to all survey takers who shared their opinion with no hesitations.

Thank you all for your kindness.

3

Abbreviations

4IR-Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0)

4Rs-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Remanufacture

A-Attitude

A/C-Air-conditioner

AHI-Annual Household Income

AI-Artificial Intelligence

BAN-Basel Action Network

BFR-Brominated Flame Retardants

BI-Behavioural Intent

BSI-British Standards Institution

CE-Circular Economy

CEC-China Environmental Label

CFC-Chlorofluorocarbons

CO2-Carbon Dioxide

COP-Conference of Parties

DIY-Do – It - Yourself

DTU-Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (Technical University of Denmark)

E-commerce-electronic commerce

EEE-Electrical and Electronic Equipment

EOL-End - of - life

EPA-Environmental Protection Agency

EPR-Extended Producer Responsibility

EU-European Union

FD-Functional Depreciation

FTC-Federal Trade Commission

GE-General Electric

GHG-Greenhouse gas

Ha-Alternate Hypothesis

HCFC-Hydrochlorofluorocarbons

HE-Highest Level of Education

HL-Home Location

Ho-Null Hypothesis

HP-Hewlett - Packard Inc.

IBM-International Business Machine

ICT-Information and Communication Technology

IoT-Internet of Things

IQR-Inter - quartile range

IT-Information Technology

MLR-Multiple linear regression

Mt-Mega Ton

NGO-Non-government organization

OEM-Original Equipment Manufacturer

PACE-Platform for Accelerating Circular Economy

PBC-Perceived Behavioural Control

PSS-Product Service System

R&D- Research and Development

R2-Responsible Recycling

RAD-Responsible Appliance Disposal

SME-Small and medium enterprises

SN-Social Norm

SPSS-Statistical Package for the Social Science

SWOT-Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

TCO-(Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation or Confederation of Professional Employees)

TO-Technological Obsolescence

TPB-Theory of Planned Behaviour

TRA-Theory of Reasoned Action

TV-Television

UK-United Kingdom

UN-United Nation

UNEP-UN environment program

US-United States

USDUS dollar

VCR-Videocassette Recorder

WEEE-Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (a.k.a e-waste)

WPP-Wire and Plastic Products

WTP-Willingness to Participate

4

ABSTRACT

Consumer hesitancy is the main barrier to normalizing circular consumption. While numerous books and articles are written on how companies should pivot to the circular business model, there are limited works of literature available on changing the consumer mindset toward circularity. This study measures the consumer response to various circular economy (CE) practices using the Theory of Perceived Behavior (TPB) framework. The qualitative part of the research identifies the government, the leading technology companies, and the electronic reuse industry's CE initiatives. The first part of the study shows how tech companies use their competencies to provide sustainability solutions to ecological problems and elevate themselves as environmentally responsible firms. The electronic reuse industry is expanding its customer reach by providing reliable products and a positive buying experience. The second part involves quantitative research, which uses a survey and statistical analysis to identify the demographic factors influencing consumers' behavioural intent. Demographic characteristics, like educational attainment, home locations, age, gender, and ethnicity, are shown to have affected consumers' attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioural controls, and behavioural intent pertaining to CE practices engagement. The results proved that different marketing activities must be targeted to different segments in exchange for more customer interest and participation.

5

Introduction

Chapter I

1.1 Introduction

Modern lifestyles and advanced economies afforded many households the means to buy the latest Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) devices. Modern electronics and electrical appliances make our daily lives convenient and socially interconnected. With the fast-paced technology upgrades, electronic consumers accumulate numerous EEEs rapidly. Consequently, the perceived product obsolescence and the throwaway culture are causing the skyrocketing amount of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE or e-waste) in landfills from discarded mobile phones, tablets, printers, computers, electrical appliances, etc. PACE and UN E-Waste Coalition (2019, p.6) reported that 50 million tons of e-waste are generated per year. While many grew to know that recycling helps the environment, only 20% of e-waste generated per year globally was known to be recycled (PACE and UN E-Waste Coalition, 2019). The rest of the e-waste disposal process and destinations are uncertain, but what is certain is that the value, materials, and energy used in the manufacturing and transport of these units were scrapped, along with the disposal of these outdated devices.

Contemporary electrical and electronics products contain precious and rare earth metals that can be reclaimed to reduce procurement burden and shortages (Gollakota et al., 2020). The EEE's integrated circuits, plastic circuit boards, and chassis contain gold, silver, copper, and other non-renewable metals. Discarded EEEs collected through proper channels can be disassembled and processed safely to extract valuable metals or functional components for reuse. These processes lessen the need to mine more virgin materials. However, if these old EEEs were not recovered, these metals would be in landfills. With only 20 % being recycled annually, as aforementioned, we have 40 million tons of scrapped EEEs containing precious and rare metals wasting away.

Recently, the United Nations (UN) emission gap report 2021 and the UN Climate Change Conference (Conference of Parties, COP 26) published the goals of securing global net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and limiting the climate temperature to a 1.5oC increase (UNEP & UNEP DTU Partnership, 2021). The GHG emission reduction pledges from more than 121 countries were vital to avert the projected 2.7 oC temperature increase by the end of the century (UNEP & UNEP DTU Partnership, 2021). The UN is not just asking for commitments from participating governments in the form of policy changes but also invoking an urgent call to action to the populace to do their part to achieve the net zero goals. Relying on government efforts alone will not accelerate the realization of the net zero emission goal. Ordinary people may help drive results by boosting demand for more environmental-friendly products and practices. Businesses are likely to use a customer-centred strategy to provide the right products to their customers (Kotler & Keller, 2016); what the market demands and the firms supply.

It is estimated that, in general, the human population is consuming 1.75 times the earth's endowing capacity, which means that our consumption is 75 % more than what the planet can replenish (Lacy et al., 2020). Needless to say, the resource constraints will continue to inflict supply chain problems if everything is business as usual.

In search of a solution to the mounting e-waste, climate change, and the depletion and supply shortage of precious and rare metals, the Circular Economy (CE) concept has gained traction as potential mitigation. It presents an alternative to the traditional linear consumption, wherein the take, make, waste mindset is prevalent (Lacy et al., 2020, p.5). Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2013, p.7) described CE as an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design. It is a design and manufacturing concept that minimizes waste using the 4Rs framework (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Remanufacture) (Bressanelli et al., 2020). It aims to keep the existing resources in efficacious usage within the economy for the longest viable time (Lacy & Rutqvist, 2015). The CE concept offers a reprieve to the EEE industry from the virgin materials supply burden. Companies will benefit from the secondary source of functional components and precious and rare metals instead of extracting them from their natural source. The value captured from the restored and recycled materials will not only bridge the gap in current resource constraints but will also eventually decouple economic growth from natural resource extraction and usage (Lacy & Rutqvist, 2015) once the businesses convert to circular business models. Transitioning to CE will help save the technology (tech) companies from the escalating materials costs and volatile supply availability and pricing.

Optimizing the life of devices and components preserves the materials used and the energy needed to produce brand-new products and parts, resulting in avoiding carbon emissions from the brand-new production operation. Therefore, CE activities eventually deliver economic and environmental benefits: cost savings, material supply sustainability, and carbon emission avoidance from NOT mining virgin minerals and producing more new devices.

1.2 Research Problem

The consequences of the status quo and staying in the linear economy consumption model are detrimental to the earth and human survival. Improper processing of e-waste pollutes the neighbouring air, land, and water and endangers human health and biodiversity from its hazardous content. Continued natural resource depletion from mining precious and rare earth metals