Evaluation of Young Consumers' Remanufactured Products Purchase Intention Within Context of Extended Planned Behavior Theory

Introduction

From the 1970's to the present, sensitivity to environmental issues has continued to increase both in marketing literature and in business literature. From the point of view of marketing, from manufacture to distribution and sales activities, there is the increasing number of consumers who care about changing climate, environmental issues and sustainability of the resources. In developed societies, concerns about environmental awareness and the sustainability of the world have led to the emergence of current marketing concepts such as sustainable marketing, green marketing, and increased ecological awareness. Even later in the developing societies, the amount of the consumers who has environmental sensitivities have reached a quantity that businesses cannot ignore. More conscious of the consumer than ever, businesses have been pushed to increase their green marketing activities to influence consumers as well as the various practices they make to comply with the obligatory regulations imposed by providing sustainability globally. Even though business practices such as green marketing and green logistics on the business front come to the forefront within the scope of sustainability, it has become more important to transform the macro-scale supply chain into a sustainable structure. One of the activities that will enable both production and consumption in the supply chains to become sustainable is the closed-loop supply chains (Khor & Hazen, 2017). In the closed-loop supply chains, the process of product (forward supply chain) starting from the producer and ending with the consumer (customer) is included in the processes that involve the reverse flow of the products used (Lieder & Rashid, 2016, p. 45). The closed-loop supply chain also includes activities such as repairing, remanufacturing, recycling and disposal, as opposed to forward supply chain operations (Yilmaz & Belbag, 2016, p. 2). Remanufacturing from these activities is as an ultimate form of recycling and an engine of the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) process (Hazen, Boone, Wang & Khor, 2017, p. 716). The purchase of remanufactured products, which are the output of reproduction, is considered a pro-environmental consumer behavior (Vafadarnikjoo, Mishra, Govindan & Chalvatzis, 2018, p. 231). In this direction, closed-loop supply chain practices and remanufactured products which can be considered as the common field of green marketing have emerged as a remarkable research area. Remanufactured products are notable for their businesses, especially in various sectors operating on a global scale (tire, mobile phone, computer, etc.), and for certain characteristic consumers, both in terms of ensuring sustainability and in terms of providing profitability to enterprises with cost advantage. Although the concept of remanufactured products in developing countries such as Turkey is exactly unknown, it is observed that young consumers' information in the environmental issues has increased the purchasing trends towards environmentally friendly products (Oflac & Gocer, 2015) and that environmental-friendly consumption behavior appears to be moderate, though. This case increases the likelihood that the young people market in Turkey could create the potential, for remanufactured products. On the other hand, the ability of sellers to offer remanufactured products at lower quality and price (Guide & Wassenhove, 2001, p. 149) could be an option for consumers who have low purchasing power and price sensitivity to these products, especially in developing countries. Sustainable consumption requires structural changes for both producers and consumers. There is a need for producers to evolve to technologies that reduce resource use and to manage the perceptions of consumers (Tseng, Han, Geng & Govindan, 2016).