Transforming Consumer Values into Eco-Friendly Purchases : A study on young Swedish consumers within the Electronic mobile device market

Abstract: Problem: Although modern people are more aware than ever about the environment and responsible sourcing of raw materials, a gap exists between consumers’ preferences on eco-friendly products and their actual purchasing behaviour. Companies operating in the electronic mobile device industry have been unable to bridge this value-action gap and relatively little research has been conducted on this industry.   Topic & Purpose: This paper aims to investigate and discover the preferences and purchasing behaviour of young Swedish consumers operating in the electronic mobile device industry. This paper will focus on purchasing intentions, willingness to pay, and identify which consumption values have the highest effects on these consumers’ intent to purchase eco-friendly mobile devices.   Method: A descriptive strategy and a deductive approach were applied in order to understand the impact of consumption values, CSR, brand image, and product information on young Swedish consumers. Eight hypotheses were developed to test the influence of each of these factors. The empirical study was was based on a quantitative approach and the data collection was made through an online survey and face-to-face interviews targeted towards young Swedish consumers between the ages of 18 and 28. The data analysis was conducted by using the SPSS program in order to gain numerical values which could be used to analyse the validity of each hypothesis.   Conclusion: This study discovered two out of five consumption values to have a clearly higher impact on young Swedish consumers’ purchasing intentions towards eco-friendly mobile devices. These values were emotional and conditional value, indicating that environmental awareness and situational factors have the highest influence on shaping the consumption values of these consumers. In addition, brand image was seen to be an influential factor for these consumers, as opposed to CSR, or product information. Based on these findings, suggestions for further research were presented.