Circular economy and behaviour change: Using persuasive communication to encourage pro-circular behaviours towards the purchase of remanufactured refrigeration equipment

Abstract

Refrigerated Display Cabinets (RDCs) are used in the retail sector to display chilled and frozen food, and beverages. The manufacture of RDCs is typified by the extensive use of materials and energy, meaning that the development of a Circular Economy in this sector is particularly important.A number of behavioural barriers are preventing the development of the Circular Economy but an appropriate behaviour change intervention could help to overcome them. This paper investigates how effective the use of Persuasive Communication could be in influencing the Behavioural Attitudes, Product Perceptions and Behavioural Intentions towards the purchase of remanufactured RDCs. Participants in this study are engineers and academic experts of retail refrigeration equipment.The study was carried out in three consecutive stages. In the first stage participants completed a questionnaire, which assessed their Behavioural Attitudes, Product Perceptions and Behavioural Intentions. In the second stage participants were exposed to the intervention, which was the Persuasive Communication in the form of an audiovisual presentation. In the third stage participants completed a second questionnaire which assessed the impact of the intervention. The results show that the Persuasive Communication had a positive impact on the participants' Behavioural Attitudes, Product Perceptions and Behavioural Intentions towards the purchase of remanufactured RDCs. This paper demonstrates how effective this type of intervention could be, if developed further to create a target market and generate demand for remanufactured RDCs.

A Methodological Assessment Based on a Systematic Review of Circular Economy and Bioenergy Addressed by Education and Communication

“…Samples of 1 to 50 (27%) participated in research collected by surveys mainly made up of students from different educational levels: basic school level [88], high school [14], undergraduate [62] and postgraduate [61]. There were also samples made up of active professionals [34,65,83], representatives [52] and experts [13,66]. Notable within this interval were samples collected through conversational techniques.…”

“…Notable also was research that attempted to implement strategies based on CE in business models in small and medium sized businesses [64,86] through ecoinnovation [63] and marketing [67]. In science, the studies proposed to measure both students' knowledge of bioenergy [29] and the attitude of consumers for the development of strategies based on CE [34]. They also analysed the participation of stakeholders in projects related with bioenergy [66] and developed methodological proposals for the management of sustainable processes in educational institutions [83].…”

“…An example is found in the research by Skjølsvold [33], focused on measuring interest in the Nordic media disseminating journalistic articles which allow awareness and communication of information on renewable energy. Notable also are studies focused on measuring persuasive communication actions, through the use of audiovisual media, to ascertain the perception of consumers [34].…”

On-Line Communities And Diffusion Of Circular And Sharing Economy Practices

“…A greater role in inhibiting the spread of environmentally friendly practices in society is also played by low economic well-being, which hinders the more rational use of resources. Some of these barriers can be removed experimentally using the Method of persuasive communication (Muranko, Andrews, Chaer, & Newton, 2019) or the information intervention method.…”

Surveying the Perception of the Environmental Advantages of an Adaptable Product

“…Thus, it is necessary to identify user factors and apply appropriate communication strategies, one of which is storytelling (Chamberlin and Books, 2018). In a recent study, persuasive communication techniques proved to have a positive impact on retailer behavior to purchase remanufactured refrigerated cabinets for groceries (Muranko, Andrews, Chaer, and Newton, 2019).…”