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 audio-visual 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.