From “right to repair” to “willingness to repair”: Exploring consumer's perspective to product lifecycle extension

This paper explores consumer barriers to repair to understand the factors preventing users from extending products' lifecycles. Environment policies to promote Right to Repair stimulate manufacturers to perform proper product lifecycle management. However, the success of such initiatives depends to a significant degree on the consumers' willingness to collaborate. In the case of a product failure, consumers decide what to do with the product. Through a systematic literature review and empirical analysis, we identified 26 barriers to consumers effecting repairs and classified them into three categories. Academic experts and practitioners then evaluated the importance of each barrier through a Delphi study and ranked the importance of the barrier categories. A washing machine was used as an exemplary reference. The study's findings reveal that convenience of repair (in particular, the costs of repair services and limitations in repair infrastructure) and the technical possibility of repair (lack of spare parts and repair manuals) are the most significant barriers affecting consumers' choice to repair or replace a washing machine. Given the limited literature on consumer barriers to repair, the results of this study may be used as a benchmark for testing consumer attitudes in different regions and as a reference to establish policies and repair promotion campaigns to encourage consumers to prolong the lifecycle of their products.