Investigation of consumer's acceptance of product-service-systems: A case study of cell phone leasing

Product-Service-Systems have been introduced as a practical way to implement the Circular Economy concept. Consumer acceptance of such systems has been a barrier to their widespread implementation. However, it is not clear what contributes to the consumers’ likelihood of acceptance of product service systems. This article investigates consumers’ acceptance of leasing cell phones instead of buying them through conducting a survey analysis. A regularized logistic regression model has been developed to construct the consumers’ decision model. The decision model then has been used to develop an Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) framework in order to model the effects of social influences, previous decisions, and heterogeneous personal traits on consumers’ decisions to lease. The results of the study suggest that a segregation exists within the consumer attitudes toward leasing. Meaning that the consumers who are currently leasing their cell phones are more prone to lease again in the future and the consumers who own their current cell phone are more prone to also buy their future cell phones.