The Value of Product Repairability: A Choice-based Conjoint Analysis on Smartphone Preference

Product repairability is one of the key enablers of a circular economic model. European policymakers have started giving consumers the “right to repair” and France has introduced a legally binding repairability index. Still, there is a lack of research on consumer attitudes toward repairability. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent consumers value product repairability when choosing which smartphone to buy with regard to trade-offs between cost, battery life, storage, and the repairability index. A choice-based conjoint analysis was conducted to understand the monetary and functional trade-offs consumers are willing to make to increase smartphone repairability. The 201 collected responses were analysed using conditional logistic regressions. The results showed that consumers significantly value repairability. The average consumer would pay an extra 65.7€, forgo 1.1 hours of battery life or 47.5 GBs of storage capacity for a one-point increase in a smartphone's repairability rating.