Employee perceptions of how willing consumers are to engage in circular consumption behaviours

Designed with Freepik

In the CircEUlar project, the research teams at the University of Groningen and the LMU Munich conducted two large-scale surveys in five European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Lithuania). One of the aims was to examine to what extent employees have accurate perceptions of consumers’ willingness to engage in certain circular consumption behaviours.

The first survey was conducted among representative samples in the five countries. In the survey, consumers indicated their willingness to live car-less if adequate alternative or car sharing were available and their willingness to live in a smaller house and to share living spaces, such as the kitchen, bathroom, or garden.

The second survey was conducted among employees working in the mobility and building domain that were based in the same five countries. In the survey, employees indicated how they perceived consumers’ willingness to engage in the same circular consumption behaviours.

We then compared consumers’ willingness to engage in the behaviours with employees’ perceptions of consumers’ willingness. Overall, we find that employees in both the mobility and housing domain somewhat overestimate consumers’ willingness to be car-less, live in a smaller home, and to share different living spaces. We found overestimations in all countries, but to slightly different degrees. Examples for willingness to live car-less and willingness to downsize can be seen in Figure 1 and 2.

Figure 1. Distribution of willingness to live car-less – ratings by consumers and employees’ perceptions

Figure 2. Distribution of willingness to downsize – ratings by consumers and employees’ perceptions