Green marketing cradle‐to‐cradle: Remanufactured products in Asian markets

• Author: Adrian T. H. Kuah,Pengji Wang
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21925

COMPANIES IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Green marketing cradle-to-cradle: Remanufactured products in

Asian markets

Pengji Wang | Adrian T. H. Kuah

James Cook University Australia, Singapore

Campus

Correspondence

Adrian Kuah, James Cook University Australia,

Singapore Campus, 149 Sims Drive, Singapore.

Email: adrian.kuah@jcu.edu.au

Remanufacturing, a key circular economy practice, is a new way of sustainable thinking without

depleting additional economic resources. Because remanufactured goods come from direct

reuse of returned or already used goods, the environmental impacts of production are reduced

and product longevity is extended; therefore, these products can be considered “green pro-

ducts.”Are they appealing to the green consumers, however? Our questionnaire survey of

more than 1,168 consumers from eight Asian countries shows that the “real”green market for

remanufactured products is not yet ready. Reactions to green attributes of remanufactured

products are disproportionate from Asian consumers with different consumption values.

Status- and value-conscious consumers may buy into remanufactured products if they perceive

them as greener. However, the findings suggest that environmentally conscious consumers do

not show a high appreciation for the green concept of remanufactured products in Asia. The

results highlight important takeaways for remanufacturers in the circular economy and those

selling remanufactured products: to identify and define the right selling point of “greenness”to

align with Asian consumers' inherent values.

KEYWORDS

Asia, circular economy, consumer adoption, remanufacturing

1|INTRODUCTION

In the past decade, companies have increasingly recognized the need

for sustainability in all aspects of their business practices (Berns et al.,

2009), resulting in the pursuit of a circular economy model (Tse,

Esposito, & Soufani, 2015). One key business practice in the circular

economy model is remanufacturing, which refers to an industrial

process whereby used products are restored to like-new condition

for resale on the market (Atasu, Sarvary, & Van Wassenhove, 2008;

Blackburn, Guide, Souza, & Van Wassenhove, 2004; Wei, Tang, &

Sundin, 2015).

The business and environmental benefits of remanufacturing are

many, including energy savings and lower manufacturing costs

(Agrawal, Atasu, & Van Ittersum, 2015; Michaud & Llerena, 2006).

Many firms have implemented recycling and remanufacturing prac-

tices, turning their businesses into a profit in the process (Atasu &

Souza, 2013). In the process of remanufacturing, the remanufacturer

disassembles and cleans the products that users return and then

replaces or restores all missing, defective, worn, or broken parts

before reassembling and testing those rebuilt products (Lund, 1984).

The product, now fully restored, goes back on the market for resale

(Guide & Van Wassenhove, 2009), thus forming a loop of efficient

resource use. Prior research has largely focused on the analysis of

these activities from a supply standpoint, such as product acquisition

for remanufacturing (Wei et al., 2015), design for remanufactured

products (Hatcher, Ijomah, & Windmill, 2011), and inventory and pro-

duction planning in a remanufacturing environment (Lage-Junior &

Godinho-Filho, 2012; Vercraene, Gayon, & Flapper, 2014). However,

the body of research from a demand or consumer standpoint is dis-

proportionally sparse (Ovchinnikov, 2011), leading researchers to call

for further empirical research (Guide & Van Wassenhove, 2009).

In recent years, a number of studies have examined the market-

ing activities and strategies for remanufactured products (Hamzaoui-

Essoussi & Linton, 2010; Michaud & Llerena, 2011). Much of the

existing literature has made assumptions and assertions about how

consumers perceive remanufactured products. For example, Atasu

et al. (2008) assume that consumers pay attention to the greenness

of remanufactured products and have knowledge of such greenness.

DOI: 10.1002/tie.21925

Thunderbird Int Bus Rev. 2018;60:783–795. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tie © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 783