Abstract: Electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) is growing fast. The purpose of this study is to examine young consumers’ purchase intention of refurbished electronic devices (REDs) such as laptop, tablet, mobile phone and game console. From literature review the factors that influence young consumers’ purchase intention were identified as ‘environmental awareness’, ‘social acceptance’, ‘seller/brand reputation and availability’, and ‘affordability and value’. For each factor a few statements were developed and used as independent variables in a questionnaire. One statement was added about purchase intention as dependent variable. A Pearson correlation coefficient test us showed a clear positive correlation of ‘environmental awareness’ and ‘affordability and value’ with the intention to purchase REDs, but not for the other two factors. This analysis contributes to knowledge on young consumers’ perceptions of refurbished electronic devices and can inform the design of innovative value propositions and new business models for REDs that contribute to a circular economy
MULTIFILE
The semantic differential is a widely applied measurement technique in the information systems field. As wedemonstrate in this study, however, there is evidence that many of the applications of the semantic differentialseem to be subject to common shortcomings. In this study, we address these shortcomings by creatingawareness of the requirements underlying semantic differentiation. We discuss the requirements of semanticdifferentiation and use them as a foundation to introduce a framework to assist researchers in applying thesemantic differential more adequately. The framework puts renewed emphasis on bipolar scale selection anddimensionality testing, introduces semantic bipolarity as new criterion, and proposes distinct stages for thetesting of wording and contextual contamination. We exemplify the framework using an illustration exercise,which centers on the assessment of the meaning of the concept “electronic marketplace quality”. Using amixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, the illustration exercise clarifies the prerequisites for semantic differentiation and provides suggestions for researchers. The paper concludes with a discussion of several methodological implications.
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In The Guardian, Alan Rushbridger compared the future of newspapers to climate change. Five years ago, many climatologists were sceptical whether climate change was a real and serious issue. Today, most scientists agree that global warm ing is a fact of life. In the world of newspapers, at present, almost everyone agrees that the traditional, particularly quality, newspapers are facing huge problems. The blog ‘Print is dead’ chose a fitting title for Rushbridger’s article: Print is dead: an inconvenient truth. Another traditional icon of the information society, the public library, is facing similar problems as the newspaper industry. The information function, the core business of the library, is under threat. People tend to use search engines at home instead of visiting and accessing the (virtual) library and ask for professional advice. It is important to note that these search engines are more and more driven by commercial interests than by a genuine concern of quality information. Ranking algorithms are more beauty contests and quality stamps. (Local) governments tend to demand more and more new social services included in the library. Commercial publishers’ concerns are understandable. In the United States and Europe the world of the press faces a real crisis, and the battle to survive is a race against the clock. Newspapers, especially the quality press, will only survive if they can persuade the audience of generation Z to read them on the Web. Failure to do this will signal their demise. We will discuss the tensions in this field by addressing the mutual relationships between the stock market driven economic business model and the traditional characteristics of quality journalism as well as the cultural changes in consuming news stories and analyses in print and on the web. The key question is: how these societal tendencies will affect the quality of information consumed by the public and hence the public quality of discourse? This paper aims to address both issues by asking whether quality is really under siege and to what extent can the new, convergent media improve the quality of the information society by fostering the interaction of the roles of journalists and librarians. In the new world of journalism and librarianship both will prove their roles and functions by engagement, enrichment, empowerment and entertainment for both readers and library users.
