1

Customer satisfaction: review of
literature and application to the
product-service systems
Final report to the Society for Non-Traditional Technology,
Japan Oksana Mont
Andrius Plepys

Research Associates
International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
at Lund University <
P. O. Box 196 Tegnersplatsen 4
SE- 221 00 Lund Sweden
Phone: +46 46 222 0200
Fax: +46 46 222 0230 Lund, February 28 2003

Executive summary
This feasibility study commissioned by the National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology in Japan (AIST) and supported by the Sustainable Consumption Unit
(UNEP) provided an overview of approaches used in different disciplines for evaluating
consumer behaviour. The study analysed the applicability of existing research concepts,
theories, and tools for evaluating consumer satisfaction with product-service systems (PSS).
It included a discussion of their strengths/weaknesses.
BACKGROUND
It has been recognised that eco-efficiency improvements at production and product design
level can be significantly reduced or totally negated by rebound effect from increased
consumption levels. In line with this problem factor 10 to 20 material and energy efficiency
improvements have been suggested (Factor 10 Club 1994; Schmidt-Bleek 1996; Bolund,
Johansson et al. 1998; Ryan 1998). The improvements, however, if not carefully done, may
still lead to rebound effects through changes in resource prices.
As a potential solution to the factor 10/20 vision, system level improvements have to be
made, contrary to redesigning individual products or processes (Weterings and Opschoor
1992; Vergragt and Jansen 1993; von Weizsäcker, Lovins et al. 1997; Ryan 1998; Manzini
1999; Brezet, Bijma et al. 2001; Ehrenfeld and Brezet 2001).
The product service system (PSS) concept has been suggested as a way to contribute to this
system level improvement (Goedkoop, van Halen et al. 1999; Mont 2000). Here the
environmental impacts of products and associated services could be addressed already at the
product and service design stage. Special focus should be given to the use phase by providing
alternative system solutions to owning products.
A number of examples in the business-to-business (B2B) area exist that confirm the potential
of PSS for reducing life cycle environmental impact. It is, however, increasingly evident that
business examples are difficult to directly apply to the private consumer market. Private
consumers, contrary to businesses, prefer product ownership to service substitutes (Schrader
1996; Littig 1998). Even if accepted, the environmental impacts of “servicised products”
offers depend to a large extent on consumer behaviour.
To address this problem, either behavioural or service system design changes are needed.

The paramount goal of marketing is to understand the consumer and to influence buying
behaviour. One of the main perspectives of the consumer behaviour research analyses buying
behaviour from the so-called “information processing perspective" (Holbrook and Hirschman
1982). According to the model, customer decision-making process comprises a need-
satisfying behaviour and a wide range of motivating and influencing factors. The process can
be depicted in the following steps (Engel, Blackwell et al. 1995):
• Need recognition – realisation of the difference between desired situation and the current
situation that serves as a trigger for the entire consumption process.
• Search for information - search for data relevant for the purchasing decision, both from
internal sources (one's memory) and/or external sources.
• Pre-purchase alternative evaluation - assessment of available choices that can fulfil the
realised need by evaluating benefits they may deliver and reduction of the number of
options to the one (or several) preferred.
• Purchase - acquirement of the chosen option of product or service.
• Consumption - utilisation of the procured option.
• Post-purchase alternative re-evaluation - assessment of whether or not and to what degree
the consumption of the alternative produced satisfaction.
• Divestment - disposal of the unconsumed product or its remnants.
Besides the information processing perspective, marketing analyses consumer behaviour by
employing a psychologically grounded concept of attitudes (Balderjahn 1988; Ronis, Yates et
al. 1989; Luzar and Cosse 1998). It is consumer attitudes that are usually named as the major
factor in shaping consumer behaviour and a wealth of studies is available on the topic of how
attitudes can predict behaviour.
INTER-DISCIPLINARITY OF CONSUMER RESEARCH
Different research disciplines diverge in their presuppositions about human nature, factors
influencing consumer behaviour, market response, etc. Therefore, they naturally employ
different research approaches. However, despite that seemingly insurmountable abyss
between disciplines, we see that many research topics and methods overlap, and that there is
5
no clear-cut line between different domains of consumer research. Many consumption-related

• Networks, are not usually exposed to the customer, but in some cases may be evaluated
when they come into contact with customers.
RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS AND METHODS
A great variety of methods and frameworks for understanding and evaluating consumer
acceptance and satisfaction are used in different disciplines. The study has discussed the
following frameworks: Kano model of customer satisfaction, the Innovation diffusion of
Rogers, the service quality model of Grönsroos, and SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman.
The study has also surveyed a range of tools used for evaluating and measuring consumer
satisfaction. These included surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group interviews,
observations, mystery shopping, and psychographic portrait of customers. A number of
drawbacks and benefits pertaining to the tools have been pointed out and discussed. Both the
research models and the tools, while diverse to a different extent, were found to be useful for
application in the PSS research area.
CONCLUSIONS
6
The environmental impacts of ever increasing consumption throughout the world have been
recently recognised. Many solutions have been proposed to combat the rising levels of
consumption. One of the concepts suggested as a potential solution to reduce consumption
levels is the concept of product-service systems (PSS).
The concept proved to be viable in the business-to-business context. However, in the private
consumer markets, it has been less successful, both in terms of economic viability and
environmental impact reduction. User behaviour has been named as the primary reason for
this situation.
To address this problem, either behavioural or service system design changes are needed.
Changing human behaviour and existing lifestyles contribute to the vision of sustainable
development, but it proves to be an insurmountable task over a short period of time.
Alternatively, changing the design of product-service system to reduce the behavioural
pitfalls could be a potentially easier way towards sustainable development. Changing system
design requires understanding how consumer acceptance of more sustainable solutions is
formed, influenced or changed, what are the influencing factors and what are the leverage

• PSS is a system, comprised of products, services, infrastructures, and networks. The
criteria we want to evaluate this system against should include attributes of each
dimension.
• PSS is a multi-disciplinary area and initiating system level change will require system
level effort. Researchers with various backgrounds need to be involved in developing
ideas and methods for measuring customer satisfaction with PSS. “Non-social” PSS
practitioners should learn methods of social sciences.

8
Table of content
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.....................................................................................................3
1 BACKGROUND..............................................................................................................10
2 METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK AND GOAL OF THE STUDY.................12
2.1 GOAL...........................................................................................................................12
2.2 METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................12
2.3 LIMITATIONS ...............................................................................................................12
2.4 OUTLINE OF THE REPORT .............................................................................................13
3 CONSUMER RESEARCH IN DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES ....................................14
3.1 BUSINESS AND MARKETING DOMAIN............................................................................14
3.2 ECONOMICS DOMAIN ...................................................................................................19
3.3 SOCIAL STUDIES DOMAIN.............................................................................................21
3.4 PSYCHOLOGY DOMAIN.................................................................................................22
3.5 ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES...........................................................................................24
4 FRAMEWORKS AND TOOLS FOR EVALUATING CUSTOMER
SATISFACTION.............................................................................................................27
4.1 FRAMEWORKS FOR EVALUATING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH PRODUCTS .............27
4.1.1 Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction.................................................................27
4.1.2 Innovation framework..........................................................................................28
4.2 FRAMEWORKS FOR EVALUATING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH SERVICES ...............29
4.2.1 Why measure services with different measures? .................................................29

TPB Theory of Planned Behaviour
SERVQUAL Service Quality model
QFD Quality Function Deployment List of Figures
Figure 1 Three levels of approaches for evaluating consumer acceptance of products...........12
Figure 2 Disciplines that study consumption and consumer behaviour ..................................14
Figure 3 Customer satisfaction process (adopted from (Engel, Blackwell et al. 1995), p. 143-
154, 177) ..........................................................................................................................15
Figure 4 The hierarchy of effects models ................................................................................18
Figure 5 The Kano model (Kano, Seraku et al. 1996) .............................................................27
Figure 6 Adopter categorisation on the basis of relative time of adoption of innovations
(Rogers 1995)...................................................................................................................29
Figure 7 The Service Quality Model (Grönroos 1982)............................................................30
Figure 8 The Total Perceived Quality (Grönroos 1988)..........................................................31
Figure 9 Service Quality model (Parasuraman, Berry et al. 1985)..........................................32
Figure 10 Different data collection methods for different type of attributes (Edvardsson,
Gustafsson et al. 2000).....................................................................................................40
Figure 11 PSS dimensions that can be exposed to customer judgement .................................43
Figure 12 Service Attribute Dual Importance Grid (Jacobs 1999) ..........................................46 List of Tables
Table 1 Some attributes for tool library...................................................................................44
Table 2 Customer satisfaction measures for new products in financial services (Edgett and
Snow 1997)......................................................................................................................51 10

life. Our comprehension of this approach is still in its initial stage (Sachs 1999), but what is
clear already is that it is a challenging task to reduce consumption levels, as the entire
economic system is based on presumption of economic growth linked to the increased use of
material resources and products. What is needed instead is consumption that is based on
economic growth, which is decoupled from material resources. We propose the following
definition of sustainable consumption: sustainable consumption is consumption that provides
value by decoupling material-based growth from economic growth and environmental
impact. Following this definition, more value needs to be provided with fewer materials
involved and less environmental impact associated with the production and total delivery of
that value.
The product service system (PSS) concept has been suggested as a way to contribute to the
system level improvement that tries to de-link economic and environmental growth
(Goedkoop, van Halen et al. 1999; Mont 2000). The concept proposes that the environmental

1
Sufficiency solutions refer to organising activities in more intelligent ways, in which the need for product is
eliminated (see Heiskanen, Eva and Mikko Jalas. (2000) Dematerialization Through Services - A Review and
Evaluation of the Debate. Ministry of Environment: Helsinki, no. 436, p. 12)
11
impacts of products and associated services should be addressed already at the product and
service design stage, with special focus on the use phase by providing alternative system
solutions to owning products.
A number of examples (mainly from the business-to-business area) exist that confirm the
potential of PSS for reducing life cycle environmental impact. It is, however, increasingly
evident that these examples are difficult to directly apply to the market of private consumers,
mainly because business customers often prefer services to product ownership (Alexander
1997), while according to some studies it is a formidable challenge for private customers to
adopt “ownerless consumption” (Schrader 1996; Littig 1998). In addition, the environmental
impacts of such offers depend to a large extent on user behaviour. To address this problem,
changes are needed in consumption behaviour; consumption patterns and levels; and

2000), ski rental and washing services (Hirschl, Konrad et al. 2001). The lack of studies that
measure customer acceptance of PSS depends on two main reasons. First, there are still not
many PSS schemes being developed that could serve as test grounds. Second, some of the
research that studied consumer acceptance, focused on adopter categories, habits, attitudes
and intentions, rather than on actually measuring the satisfaction level with the service. The
reason is probably that eco-services and PSS ideas have been promoted by environmental
12
management researchers, engineers and designers, environmental marketing researchers, and
to a lesser extent by sociologists, who hold the banner of research in customer satisfaction.
This report is a result of the feasibility study that is a part of the project on Life-Cycle
Approach to Sustainable Consumption, initiated and funded by the National Institute for
Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan (AIST) and supported by UNEP,
Sustainable Consumption Unit.
2 Methodological framework and goal of the study
2.1 Goal
The goal of the study is to provide ideas and suggestions for how customer satisfaction with
PSS can be evaluated. This goal will be reached in a number of steps. We will first provide an
overview of existing concepts and schools of thought from different disciplines that try to
explain consumer behaviour and consumption patterns. The overview will be followed by the
presentation of frameworks and tools that are used for understanding consumer satisfaction
with products and services. These frameworks will then be evaluated as to whether they
could be used for estimating customer satisfaction with PSSs and what kinds of adjustments
are necessary. Some elaboration on how these tools could be used in the PSS context will be
provided. The study results should be treated as indicative for future more in-depth studies in
proposed areas.
2.2 Methodology
Based on the presented perspectives that are of importance for understanding and evaluating
consumer behaviour, the following framework for this study is suggested.

Disciplines

studies, social studies, psychological research, and the environmental field. The section
identified differences in studying consumer behaviour and consumption. It also highlights the
linkages between the disciplines in their approach towards understanding consumer related
decision-making processes and draws attention to the relevant current contributions to the
discussion from each discipline.
Section 4 provides an overview of the major frameworks and techniques for understanding
and evaluating consumer acceptance and satisfaction, which are used in many different
disciplines. The described frameworks are Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction, Innovation
framework of Rogers, Service Quality Model of Grönsroos, and SERVQUAL model by
Parasuraman. The specific tools for evaluating and measuring consumer satisfaction include
surveys, in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, observations, mystery shopping, and
psychographic portrait of customers.
Section 5 analyses presented frameworks and tools for their usefulness for the area of eco-
efficient services and PSS. Some suggestions are provided as to how to choose the salient
attributes on offer, how to blueprint the service process and provides some hints on how to
evaluate customer satisfaction by operationalising the Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction.
A relevant example of tool library service attributes is presented. The section discusses
whether new tools are needed for evaluating the acceptance of PSS or what kind of
adjustments need to be done to suit existing techniques for the new application area.
Conclusions are drawn and directions for future research are discussed in section 6.

14
3 Consumer research in different disciplines
The study of consumption is increasingly enriched by a growing number of contributions.
The purpose of this section is to provide a selective sampling of literature that deals with
issues or methods, which might be applicable for studying the field of product-service
systems. It is far from an overview of how consumption has been studied by different
disciplines. Instead, the intention is to select useful sources and draw methodological and
theoretical lessons, rather than to provide a thorough literature analysis.
This section provides a selective presentation of how consumption and consumer behaviour is

customer acceptance and customer satisfaction. It provides background to the following
sections, which analyse consumption and consumer behaviour from the point of view of
different disciplines.
Business management and marketing are concerned with ways of satisfying and retaining
customers for the purpose of generating profits, improving companies’ competitiveness and
securing market share. Some of the major themes in the business management domain
include studies of customer relationship marketing, which analyses how customer satisfaction
15
relates to competitiveness and profits, methods for measuring customer satisfaction
(Thomson 1995), and approaches that can help transfer customer satisfaction data into
strategies for improvement of customer relations and their retention (Reidenbach and
McClung 1998), (Johnson and Gustafsson 2000), (Schellhase, Hardock et al. 2000).
The paramount goal of the marketing domain is to understand the consumer and to influence
buying behaviour. One of the main perspectives of the consumer behaviour research analyses
buying behaviour from the so-called “information processing perspective” (Holbrook and
Hirschman 1982). The basic concept is derived from the model of the consumer’s decision-
making process, suggested by Dewey (1910) and adapted by Simon (1955), that includes the
following major steps: problem recognition, search, alternative evaluation, choice and
outcomes (Dewey 1910), (Simon 1955). Later this model was expanded to include other steps
and add more details. One of the models, which will be used in this study as a basis for
understanding the consumer buying behaviour, is the model suggested by Engel et al. (1995),
because it combines the consumer decision process with the influencing factors (Figure 3).

At or above threshold Below threshold
No need
recognition
Degree of discrepancy
Actual state Desired state
Dissatisfaction
Satisfaction

information
processing
•
Motivation
•
Knowledge
•
Attitudes
•
Personality, values,
and lifestyle
Exposure
Attention
Comprehension
Acceptance
Retention
Need
recognition
Information
search
Pre-purchase
alternative
evaluation
Purchase
Post-purchase
alternative
evaluation
Consumption
Divestment
Variables

more expensive products (Engel, Blackwell et al. 1995). The relevance of product
information presented to consumers also affects the purchasing decision. It has been shown
that irrelevant information weakens consumers’ beliefs in the product’s ability to deliver the
outcome and satisfy the need (Meyvis and Janiszewski 2002).
3. Pre-purchase alternative evaluation - assessment of available choices that can fulfil the
realised need by evaluating benefits they may deliver and reduction of the number of options
to the one (or several) preferred.
In this step, a number of alternatives are evaluated and the final option, which is believed to
be able to satisfy consumer need, better than the other options, is chosen. A number of
evaluative criteria, which represent product or service attributes or particular dimensions of
their delivery, are used for the evaluation. The criteria can be functional or expressive in
nature, for example, price, brand name, colour, smell, environmental attributes, etc., which
have different importance to various individuals (Mittal, Ratchford et al. 1990). Ratchford
(1975) posits that consumers may often choose products for the status and image attributes
and less for their functional features (Ratchford 1975).
Differences in product attributes are also reflected in the way the consumer knowledge about
a product can be measured. Functional attributes are more likely to be measured objectively,
while expressive /status/ and image attributes can primarily be measured through subjective
experiences of consumers with products (Park, Mothersbaugh et al. 1994). It has been
demonstrated that these image or intangible attributes are important in customer evaluations,
especially when their tangible features are difficult to evaluate (Olson 1977).
In addition to the choice of criteria, consumers also choose which alternatives they will
evaluate. The set of alternatives for the evaluations process is called the consideration or
evoked set. Research on the evoked set (number of alternatives that are considered in the
evaluation process) has focused on both explaining the process in which close substitutes -
alternatives sharing the same attributes (usually within the same product category, but of
17
different brands) – are being evaluated and on the choice of alternatives from different
product categories - noncomparables, so called across-category choice alternatives (Johnson
1989), (Park and Smith 1989). The difference in the choice process between close substitutes

After the product or service is bought, consumers can use it directly, in a period of time or
could even abort the consumption process all together. Research distinguishes between sacred
and profane consumption, as well as impulsive consumption.
6. Post-purchase alternative evaluation - assessment of whether or not and to what degree
the consumption of the alternative produced satisfaction.
The result of this step can be either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Satisfaction is the result of
a post-consumption evaluation if a chosen alternative met or exceeded expectations of the
customer.
According to Oliver’s expectation-disconfirmation model, consumers have three levels of
expectations about the product or service performance: equitable performance (what the
customer has to receive in return for money and effort spent), expected performance, and
ideal performance (Oliver 1980). The model states that individual’s expectations are either
confirmed if a product performs as expected, negatively disconfirmed when the product
18
performs more poorly than expected, or positively disconfirmed if a product performs better
than expected. A negative disconfirmation results in dissatisfaction, and consumption of the
product is likely to be discontinued. Confirmation or positive disconfirmation results in
satisfaction and the continued use of the product or service.
7. Divestment - disposal of the unconsumed product or its remnants.
Divestment became a focus of customer research relatively recently because of growing
environmental concerns. Most of the research has been focusing on final disposal and
recycling, but recently the secondary use of a product, such as reuse and remarketing, is
gaining more and more attention.
Besides “information processing perspective” presented above, marketing analyses buyer
behaviour by employing a psychologically grounded concept of attitudes. Attitudes are
usually named as the major factor in shaping consumer behaviour and a wealth of studies is
available on the topic of how attitudes can be used to predict consumer behaviour (Balderjahn
1988; Ronis, Yates et al. 1989; Luzar and Cosse 1998). Katz’ functional theory of attitudes
explains the role of attitudes in shaping social behaviour (Katz 1960). People form attitudes
toward products, brands, advertisements, stores, themselves, and other people based on four

Attitude based
on hedonic
expereince
Sales
Customer satisfaction
Positive word-of-mouth
Matrix
Environmental factors
High involvement
Low involvement
Experiential
Inputs Outputs
Beliefs
Behaviour
Affect
Beliefs
BehaviourAffect
Affect Behaviour Beliefs
Attitude based
on cognitive
information
or knowledge
Attitude based
on behavioural
learning
Attitude based
on hedonic
expereince
Sales
Customer satisfaction

Beliefs
Behaviour
Affect
Beliefs
BehaviourAffect
Affect Behaviour Beliefs
Attitude based
on cognitive
information
or knowledge
Attitude based
on behavioural
learning
Attitude based
on hedonic
experience
Sales
Customer satisfaction
Positive word-of-mouth
Marketing mix
Environmental factors
High involvement
Low involvement
Inputs Outputs
Beliefs
Behaviour
Affect
Beliefs
BehaviourAffect
Affect Behaviour Beliefs

on behavioural
learning
Attitude based
on hedonic
expereince
Sales
Customer satisfaction
Positive word-of-mouth
Marketing mix
Environmental factors
High involvement
Low involvement
Inputs Outputs
Beliefs
Behaviour
Affect
Beliefs
BehaviourAffect
Affect Behaviour Beliefs
Attitude based
on cognitive
information
or knowledge
Attitude based
on behavioural
learning
Attitude based
on hedonic
expereince
Sales

Inputs OutputsInputs Outputs

Figure 4 The hierarchy of effects models
19
These models suggest that there are three ways to change attitude: via changing belief, affect
or via behavioural change. Theoretical frameworks dealing with beliefs are described in
section 3.4.
This section described the step-by-step model of the customer satisfaction process stemming
from the “information processing perspective” and the hierarchy of effects models, which are
based on a psychologically construct of attitudes. These two models in a way provide
opposite views of the consumer decision-making process.
The next section will explore the economic theory of consumer behaviour in the last decades.
3.2 Economics domain
“There was once a man who lived in a Scarcity. After many
adventures and the long voyage in the Science of Economics,
he encountered the Society of Affluence. They were married
and had many needs” (Baudrillard 1988), p. 35.
Consumption plays a central role in economic theory. The most popular theories and models
in economic consumer research portray consumers as somewhat passive rational decision-
makers and assume that well-defined and insatiable desires for goods and services drive
consumer behaviour in the market. Traditional neoclassical economists posit that these
desires are not affected by culture, institutional frameworks, social interactions, or the
consumption choices and lifestyles of their social contacts. Furthermore, these desires or
preferences for certain goods are stable by nature and consumers maximise their own utility
in the world of perfect information and market competition. They identify three major
influencing factors that affect consumption - prices, incomes, and personal tastes. As personal
tastes fall outside the realm of economics, most often, traditional economists restrict
themselves to the role of income and prices in determining consumption choices.
Other presuppositions of economic theory of consumer demand are that desires are not
diminishing as more of them are satisfied and that the origin of desires is in the consumers

on changes in tastes, and our preferences depend on experiences in past consumption. This
discussion stems from the psychological learning theory, according to which habits are
formed in the process of continuous reinforcement of influencing factors. Once people are
satisfied with their choice and situation, their behaviour becomes routinised and they do not
tend to search for new solutions, until new signals and influences come that can trigger the
search for better alternative.
These ideas built the foundation for an extensive debate on economic implications of habits
(Pollak 1970), (von Weizsäcker 1971). Economists suggested looking at individual costs as
an explanation of the habitual behaviour. Stigler and Becker (1977) explain stability of habits
with a certain capital, consisting of skills, information and experiences, that was acquired
during consumption of a particular object or service. Triggers for change reduce this
accumulated capital (Stigler and Becker 1977). This discussion is interesting from
environmental point of view as well, as routines and habits often offset sustainable patterns of
consumption.
Another interesting reason for habit stability comes from Leibenstein (1950), who suggested
taking into consideration the desire of people to consume certain goods in order to be
accepted by a social group. As a result, people can be trapped by the desire to adopt to the
most accepted or prestigious way of living (Leibenstein 1950). This mechanism implies that
if the prestigious way of living is unsustainable, it might be difficult to change it, as non-
members will always struggle for being accepted into the prestigious circle. The contrary is
also true: if it is possible to make prestigious life style more sustainable, then it will be easier
to solicit more followers into it.
The work of Sen brings us closer to the area of product-service systems in that Sen argued
that in order to evaluate a person’s well-being it is not sufficient to look at one’s possessions
and at the characteristics of these possessions, but at what functioning these possessions
provide (Sen 1985). Sen defines functioning as “an achievement of a person: what he or she
manages to do or to be. It reflects, as it were, a part of the ‘state’ of that person. It has to be
distinguished from the commodities, which are used to achieve those functionings. It has to
be distinguished also from the happiness generated by the functioning” (p.10). Later he
summarised the conceptualisation of the processes of how utility is realised (Sen 1997):

values are usually explained from a life-cycle perspective (people grow older and their values
change) or from a generational perspective, suggesting that values of all generations are being
replaced by values of the “leading” generation.
Another line of sociological research on consumption analyses institutional influences on
consumption patterns. The main institutions in focus are family, religion, and the education
system. Consumption patterns to a large degree are also affected by social class, because
people who belong to the same class share similar values, lifestyles, and interests.
Sociologists study the role different goods play in distinguishing between different classes
and reinforcing identity within a certain class. Marketing segmentation is also often based on
marketing products to a specific social class by using special language, symbols, and appeal,
which triggers associations of a particular social class (see for example, (Williams 2002), or
(Henry 2002).
At the heart of the sociological view is the role played by goods in marking the distinction
between different social groups and classes and strengthening identity within the group.
Several sociologists investigated how people belonging to the same class use the construct of
taste to choose particular goods. For example, Pierre Bourdieu (1984) maintains that
consumption patterns develop based on taste that is specified by a certain cultural location
(habitus), and that people consume in order to distinguish themselves in the social arena. He
analysed how consumers classify goods in accordance with their taste and how the taste
indicates belonging to a certain social class (Bourdieu 1984).
Personal influence on the consumption patterns is studied by investigating the meanings that
consumers attach to the process of consumption, as part of the dimension of identify
construction. Consumers create themselves and are created by products, services, and
experiences. Four different types of meanings can be distinguished: utilitarian meaning
(perceived usefulness of a product in its ability to perform functional tasks), hedonic meaning
(specific feelings the products evoke or facilitate), sacred products that are very important to
people, and social meanings (products and services are seen as “media for interpersonal
22
communication” and for statements about people’s positions and statuses in social groups)
(Engel, Blackwell et al. 1995).

research focuses on studying how various stimuli from the surrounding world affect
consumer behaviour.
Psychology is interested in learning how the urge of need is created, how different
stimulators influence the personal decision-making process, and how the satisfaction
sensation is created and confirmed. It seems that the focus is given to four major topics:
consumer resources (time, money), motivation, knowledge, attitudes, personality, values, and
lifestyle (Figure 3). Alongside these, three major processes are being studied by
psychologists: information processing, influencing attitudes and behaviour, and learning
processes (Engel, Blackwell et al. 1995).
Several schools of thoughts can be distinguished in psychology. Representatives of the
operant conditioning view of consumer learning investigate the role of rewards and
punishment in consumer decision-making process. Behaviourists are concerned with the role
surrounding conditions have on learning and the decision-making process. Behaviourists that
support a classical conditioning view study how consumers respond to brand names, scents,
23
colour, and other stimuli when making purchasing decisions based on knowledge they have
gained over time. On the other hand, cognitive learning theorists are concerned with studying
internal brain processes.
Psychological studies analyse the influence of the emotional state of consumers on
purchasing decision (see for example (Gardner 1985)). Psychological processes such as
attention, comprehension, memory, and cognitive and behavioural theories of learning,
persuasion, and behaviour modification constitute an integral part of marketing studies on
consumer behaviour and have been outlined in section 3.1. Needs for social appreciation and
status that were discussed before are well grounded in the psychological theory of Maslow
(1954), who postulates that human behaviour could be explained by the universal motivation
to satisfy a hierarchy of needs, and that self-realisation and social acceptance are as important
as the basic needs of food and shelter (Maslow 1954). Some needs are pre-potent and need to
be satisfied before higher order needs. He argues for a development of a society, which
would encourage higher order needs and in such way create a more liberal society that allows
its members to reach full potential. He argues that the system of needs must be protected

which comprise an individual belief that relevant social actors think she should or should not
perform a behaviour and an individual’s intention to comply with this behaviour (Ajzen and
Fishbein 1980). To conclude, according to the theory, the behaviour is performed as a
24
rational decision by the individual, which is in a position to make a decision. It then depends
on the situation whether the attitude or the subjective norms takes over in shaping the
intention.
The Theory of Planned Behaviour is an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen
1988), (Ajzen 1991). It includes the concept of perceived behavioural control, which is the
person’s belief about feasibility of using the provided opportunity. Individual abilities and
opportunities can affect control over the intended behaviour. The main idea is that the greater
the perceived behavioural control, the stronger a person’s intention is to try to perform the
relevant behaviour. However, the perceived behavioural control can also affect behaviour by
making it impossible to perform a certain behaviour despite one’s positive intentions towards
it.
The literature search on psychology, consumption and environment revealed many
psychological studies on the general environmental behaviour of people (see for example(von
Borgstede and Biel 2002), (Iwata 1996)), social and ethical norms that affect it (von
Borgstede, Dahlstrand et al. 1999), or on studying particular behavioural patterns and
behaviours, for example recycling behaviour (Guagnano, Stern et al. 1995), waste sorting
behaviour, or energy-saving behaviour (Poortinga, Steg et al. 2003). An important line of
psychological research is the formation of habits and the environmental consequences of
changing everyday behaviours.
Summing up the previous sections of chapter 3
Overall, the preceding sections showed that consumption patterns are first of all much more
flexible and prone to various influences than was suggested by traditional neoclassical theory.
Further, it was shown that current consumption behaviour is not a stable preference of
consumers but rather one choice of a great number of alternatives generated by the industrial
machine. Economists and psychologists tend to assume and subsequently study consumer
behaviour in isolation from other consumers, while sociologists perceive consumption as

(Jager 2000). Material- and energy-intensive consumption patterns have been analysed and
suggestions for addressing over-consumption have been provided (Røpke 1998), (Røpke
1999), (Brown and Cameron 2000).
An important part of the sustainability discourse focuses on the ways of involving various
stakeholders in the process towards more sustainable lifestyles, including consumers, see for
example Jenkinson (1997) (Jenkinson 1997). The role of raising environmental awareness of
consumers and the importance of streamlining environmental communication and
information provision has also been addressed by a vast number of studies (Zimmer, Stafford
et al. 1994), (Palm and Windahl 1998), (Björner, Gårn Hansen et al. 2002), (Palm and
Windahl 1998), (Niva, Heiskanen et al. 1997), (Imkamp 2000). Another important
development step towards sustainable consumption is the recent acceleration of work on
product-related environmental policies (Niva and Timonen 2001), including extensive work
on Integrated Product Policy, and especially the application of life-cycle thinking to product
policies (Dalhammar 2002).
One of the approaches for dealing with ever increasing consumption is the so-called
dematerialised consumption that is based on the utilisation value of products. Consumers can
extract the utilisation value during the product use and do not necessarily have to own the
material product. However, studies in the area of eco-efficient service and PSS conducted so
far, show that this utilitaristic idea is not that simple to implement in practice, as consumer
behaviour is a much more complex process.
One of the first studies that analysed acceptance of car sharing and apartment launderettes
was conducted by Schrader (1999) (Schrader 1999). Schrader applied the innovation
diffusion concept of Rogers to evaluate relative advantage of the services. He also created a
portrait of potential users of these services, looking particularly at the level of education,
gender influences, apartment size, and household size. As a result, the study provided insights
into potential factors that can stimulate acceptance of eco-efficient services. As crucial
success factors he identified: increase knowledge about the services; guarantee and
communicate the advantages, avoid or reduce disadvantages, and address the target group of
customers. Following the preliminary study, a comprehensive research into customer
acceptance of eco-efficient services was conducted, which resulted in comprehensive