Planned Obsolescence: A deal-breaker for
smartphone consumers or not?
A qualitative study of sustainable consumers’ behaviour around Planned
Obsolescence - The case of smartphones
Master’s Thesis
Uppsala University
Department of Business Studies
Master’s Programme of Sustainable Management
Supervisor:
Fredrik Sjöstrand
Authors:
Javier Lobo Pérez
Måns Nilsson
1 June 2022
Abstract:
Planned Obsolescence is a threat to sustainability and is a practice that has increased in recent
years. Manufacturers and companies are often blamed, but recent research has shown that
consumers play a significant role and thus hold considerable responsibility for Planned
Obsolescence practices. This thesis explores the effect that Planned Obsolescence in
smartphones has on sustainable consumers who reside in Sweden. Focus groups and individual
interviews were carried out with sixteen participants who were identified as sustainable
consumers. The results were diverse and related to different situational, social, and
psychological aspects classified into four categories: social elements, implied premature
upgrading, psychological elements, and misalignment in sustainable values and behaviour. The
study concludes that Planned Obsolescence in smartphones creates a social barrier that does
not allow sustainable consumers to maintain their sustainable consuming habits within this
sector and provokes negative feelings within them, which interlink with social circumstances.
Moreover, this phenomenon affects consumers by implying that they constantly should replace
their devices even though they are rather satisfied with their current ones. Finally, Planned
Obsolescence in smartphones broadens the gap between consumers’ sustainable values and
behaviours, and this inconsistency seems to be more significant for smartphones than in other
sectors.
Keywords: Planned Obsolescence, smartphones, sustainable consumers, sustainable consumer
behaviour, sustainable consumption, Attitude-Behaviour-Gap.
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Acknowledgement
We would want to acknowledge and thank several people for their guidance and support during
this Master’s thesis process. Without their contributions and feedback, this final version of the
thesis would not have been where it is right now. Firstly, we would like to thank our supervisor
of the thesis, Fredrik Sjöstrand, for his continuous guidance and encouragement throughout the
thesis process. His assistance has been of great contribution to the thesis, and we are thankful
for his efforts to constantly help us improve our work. Secondly, we want to direct our gratitude
towards our seminar group and peer reviewers for their valuable insights and constructive
criticism on every previous draft of this thesis. We would also like to thank our island friends
and the library café for always enriching our time and making this process a whole lot more
enjoyable. Lastly, we want to express our gratitude to all participants in the study who have
dedicated both their time and energy to provide empirical data and insights for this thesis.
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In loving memory of Laura Pérez
We dedicate this thesis to Laura Pérez, a person who worked her entire life for making this
world a better place. From the head of different institutions like Greenpeace, Save the
Children, and Fundación Vicente Ferrer she gave voice to multiple environmental and social
injustices. She is and will be an inspiration for future generations to continue fighting against
situations of inequality to make this world a more sustainable place.
que descanse en paz
†
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Table of Content
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.
1.1
Background ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.2
Study Rationale and Problem Statement ........................................................................... 2
1.3
Research Question and Purpose......................................................................................... 4
Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 5
2.
Consumer Behaviour ......................................................................................................... 5
2.1
2.1.1
Sustainable Consumer Behaviour .............................................................................. 5
2.1.2
Attitudes and Psychological Core ............................................................................... 7
2.1.3
Attitude-Behaviour-Gap ............................................................................................ 9
Planned Obsolescence ...................................................................................................... 11
2.2
2.2.1
Smartphone Consumption ....................................................................................... 13
2.2.2
Planned Obsolescence in Smartphones and Sustainability........................................ 14
Methodology and Method........................................................................................................ 16
3.
3.1
Research Philosophy and Approach ................................................................................ 16
3.2
Research Design and Methods ......................................................................................... 16
3.2.1
Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 17
3.2.2
Choice of Participants .............................................................................................. 19
3.2.3
Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 20
Empirics .................................................................................................................................. 22
4.
4.1
Social Elements................................................................................................................ 23
4.2
Implied Premature Upgrading......................................................................................... 26
4.3
Psychological Elements .................................................................................................... 27
4.4
Misalignment of Sustainable Values and Behaviour ........................................................ 31
Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 33
5.
5.1
Analysis Social Elements.................................................................................................. 33
5.2
Analysis Implied Premature Upgrading........................................................................... 35
5.3
Analysis Psychological Elements ...................................................................................... 36
5.4
Analysis Misalignment of Sustainability Values and Behaviour ....................................... 37
6.
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 39
7.
Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 41
8.
References ............................................................................................................................... 43
9.
Appendix 1 .............................................................................................................................. 48
10.
Appendix 2 .......................................................................................................................... 49
11.
Appendix 3 .......................................................................................................................... 51
12.
Appendix 4 .......................................................................................................................... 52
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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Planned Obsolescence stems from the broad term of ‘obsolescence’ introduced in the early
19th century. It first became largely known over a hundred years later in Bernard London’s
book from 1932 ‘Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence’, and during the
postwar era of the 1950s awareness and interest for obsolescence increased rapidly (Hartl, Kort,
and Wrzacze, 2022; Mellal, 2020). However, the interpretation and meaning of obsolescence
remains diverse and ambiguous. Obsolescence, in the general term, refers to something
becoming obsolete or outdated. In economics, obsolescence refers to a productive asset
becoming outdated, hence losing its utility solely due to fashion or technological developments
even though the item still is operational and functioning well (Mellal, 2020). In its beginning,
Planned Obsolescence was thought of as a good way of overcoming the Great Depression and
unemployment by increasing consumption and production, but has since grown to become a
widespread harmful practice in many markets and a major challenge to mitigating climate
change (IPCC, 2022; Hartl et al., 2022).
Planned Obsolescence has become a popular allegation towards electronics manufacturers and
especially large smartphone companies in recent years. Planned Obsolescence is defined by
Cooper (2010, p. 4) as "the outcome of a deliberate decision by suppliers that a product should
no longer be functional or desirable after a predetermined period.". But why do companies and
manufacturers engage in this practice and why has it become increasingly popular? Especially
in the durable goods sector, by creating a good that lasts 'forever' companies run a significant
risk of consumers just buying it once then using it 'forever' which would significantly decrease
replacement purchases (Hartl et al., 2022). The objective of Planned Obsolescence is instead
to stimulate consumers into buying products more frequently, thus increasing revenue for the
manufacturer (Guiltinan, 2009). Companies engage in multiple different strategies in order to
accelerate the obsolescence of their product (Wieser, 2016). According to Cooper (2004),
Planned Obsolescence can refer to two basic concepts: That the product's functionality ceases
after a certain time due to factors built into the design, or the more psychological aspect that
users perceive the product as outdated due to marketing strategies around fashion or that other
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newer versions are added to the market. But how does this affect consumers’ consumption
behaviour for smartphones?
It has been found that consumers are forced to replace their smartphones due to designers being
trained to restrict their products from technological updates or simply by reducing the material
quality purposely to last shorter and make it challenging to repair (Cardoso et al. 2018).
Therefore, Planned Obsolescence can influence consumer decision-making, specifically if
consumers desire to act sustainably. However, according to some sustainable consumer
behaviour theories, even though firms have the power to influence consumers to act in a
sustainable way, consumers have the last decision even if this decision is affected by several
factors (White, Habib, and Hardisty, 2019; Testa et al. 2020). Consequently, sustainable
consumption is affected by all the different actors in the economy, thus it is of interest to
investigate the largest group within smartphone consumption, individual consumers. Hence,
this paper will focus on the consumer perspective. Linked to this consumer perspective,
researchers have observed that factors before thought of as having the ability to impact, explain,
and predict consumers' sustainable behaviour do not encompass the whole truth (Carrington et
al., 2010). In almost all cases, there is a rather large inconsistency between the positive attitude
consumers have towards sustainability and what they say they are willing to do and their actual
behaviour within sustainability (Chen and Chai, 2010).
1.2 Study Rationale and Problem Statement
Planned Obsolescence has not only continued to be an occurring phenomenon but rather, these
practices have continued to increase in recent years and, even though it has been difficult to
prove, the broad perception of consumers is that it is a natural business strategy used by most
large smartphone companies (Proske et al., 2016). This development has multiple ethical and
sustainability concerns, such as the ethics of selling things designed to break or the result of
skyrocketing growth of e-waste (Echegaray, 2016). Smartphones are one of the most expanded
and consumed products globally. In Sweden, approximately nine million people use their
smartphone every day, meaning a rate of almost one smartphone per person; consequently, it
is relevant to explore consumer aspects around this widespread product (O’Dea, 2022).
Likewise, Sweden is well known for their sustainability awareness (Berry, 2021). Therefore,
this study will focus on sustainable consumers within this specific country due to their close
relation to sustainability and smartphone consumption. Evidently, Planned Obsolescence in
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smartphones is a highly topical and multifaceted problem that poses a significant challenge. As
an example of the relevance of these topics on the international stage, the European
Commission works with the purpose of eradicating the practice of Planned Obsolescence since
it goes against their goal of working towards a more circular economy by its contributions to
increasing the amount of e-waste (Satyro, Sacomano, Contador, and Telles, 2018). However,
this transition is moving slowly and is focused on the corporate perspective with an emphasis
on physical aspects of Planned Obsolescence (Hartl et al., 2022).
In response to the above, Planned Obsolescence is growing in relevance in the academic
literature; scholars primarily focus on producers' perspectives and often neglect another
important actor within consumption, consumers. According to Guiltinan (2009), there is a lack
of understanding of consumer behaviour regarding product obsolescence, discarding, and
substitution. Furthermore, Echegaray (2016) argues that Planned Obsolescence, in the end,
succeeds because it depends on consumer behaviour in the market; thus, it is relevant to
research, understand, and explore Planned Obsolescence from a consumer behavioural
perspective. Moreover, as late as April 4th, 2022, the new Sixth Assessment Report ‘Climate
Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change’ from the International Panel for Climate Change
(IPCC) about the extremely dire state of our climate was released. In the report, an increased
focus on consumer behaviour and consumption was emphasised to reverse climate change, and
it stipulated those consumers need to behave and consume more sustainably where consumerelectronics and e-waste were highlighted (IPCC, 2022). Echegaray (2016) also addresses ewaste growth as a problem of Planned Obsolescence; however, there is a lack of investigation
of other sustainability issues that Planned Obsolescence arises especially in a consumer
behavioural context. Regarding Sweden, more than half of the e-waste is not recycled hence
Planned Obsolescence which is inseparably linked to e-waste tends to be a threat to achieving
sustainability (Statista, 2021).
When researchers have explored consumer behaviour in terms of obsolescence, not necessarily
planned, it has been done through quantitative studies; hence, there is a lack of qualitative
research in the field that can contribute to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of
consumer behaviour related to this phenomenon. In addition, as Kuppelwieser, Klaus,
Manthiou, and Boujena (2019) have recently researched consumer behaviour from a general
perspective, they now suggest further investigation in consumer decision-making processes
regarding obsolescence within products.
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At the forefront of changing unsustainable social norms and habits are often sustainable
consumers (White et a., 2019). Thus, it is of high relevance when researching consumer
behaviour in relation to the Planned Obsolescence phenomenon to study sustainable
consumers. First, it is crucial to clarify what it is understood as a sustainable consumer;
according to Gilg, Barr, and Ford (2005) a set of three aspects are central to define sustainable
consumers; Environmental values and concern, Socio-demographic variables, and
Psychological factors. For this study, the sustainable consumer term has been defined based on
a sustainable consumption definition. Namely, the consumer who practises the act of
consumption that simultaneously optimises the environmental, social, and economic
consequences of acquisition, use and disposition in order to meet the needs of both current and
future generations (Phipps et al., 2013).
This paper wants to expand the investigation into the field of consumer electronics and its
relation to consumers, specifically smartphones and sustainable consumers, and as asserted
earlier, Planned Obsolescence is a prominent practice to factor-in when looking into this
industry. As mentioned before, almost all consumption decisions, in the end, come down to the
consumer; thus, there is a close relationship between these concepts and the phenomenon.
In sum, Planned Obsolescence is a complex and unsustainable issue that needs more attention,
especially from the perspective of consumer behaviour, in order to be adequately explored.
Further, there is a call for more research regarding different aspects of Planned Obsolescence
and how this affects consumers ability to consume sustainably, and a lack of qualitative
research that aims to explore and provide a more in-depth understanding of consumer
behaviour in this sense.
1.3 Research Question and Purpose
Research question: How does Planned Obsolescence affect sustainable consumer’s
consumption behaviour for smartphones?
This thesis intends to explore the different relationships between sustainable consumers and
Planned Obsolescence in relation to smartphones by researching the consumer perspective of
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this topic. By recognizing the consumer perspective of Planned Obsolescence within
smartphones, we explore how consumer’s decision-making processes and behaviour are
affected by Planned Obsolescence. This research question and purpose is of relevance since it
examines the subjective perspective of sustainable consumers in the context of a complex
phenomenon. Consumer behaviour, its sub-theories, and related theoretical contexts will help
guide and deepen the understanding of Planned Obsolescence impact on consumer behaviour.
2. Theoretical Framework
This section will discuss relevant theories regarding consumer behaviour and Planned
Obsolescence, the two main topics related to the problem formulated in this study. The choice
of the different theories is based on the research question and how the existing literature could
help us analyse the empirical results. Firstly, we will introduce relevant theories about
consumer behaviour with a particular focus on sustainable consumer behaviours to later portray
prominent researchers view on attitudes, feelings, and the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap concerning
consumption. Secondly, we will stress the academic perspective of Planned Obsolescence as a
sustainable issue, firstly in general and then with a special focus on smartphones. In sum, the
theories mentioned in this section relates to, and interlinks with, the research problem, and the
results from the study will be analysed through them. Likewise, this study intends to humbly
contribute to broadening the knowledge these theories have already provided.
2.1 Consumer Behaviour
2.1.1 Sustainable Consumer Behaviour
Consumer behaviour could be argued to be one of the most investigated human behaviours;
many scholars within different disciplines have studied it, especially economists, sociologists,
psychologists, and, more recently, environmentalists. Hence, several research paths have
developed around consumer behaviour to find answers to this complex and uncertain human
behaviour. However, trying to explain any kind of human behaviour is in itself a challenging
task (Ajzen, 1991)
Consumer behaviour has evolved throughout the years into an unsustainable practice where
individuals throw themselves into uncontrolled consumption with terrible consequences for the
5
planet. Sustainable consumer behaviour is presented as an alternative to mitigate consumer
behaviour harmful effects to the environment and society, and it is part of one of these
subdisciplines within consumer behaviour theories. In order to find a clear definition, Phipps
et al. (2013) brilliantly bring together several of the crucial concepts to form a clear and concise
definition about sustainable consumption which will be used in this paper:
“Sustainable consumption is the consumption that simultaneously optimises the
environmental, social, and economic consequences of acquisition, use and disposition
in order to meet the needs of both current and future generations.” (Phipps et al., 2013,
p. 1227)
The key concepts of this definition have been used in previous sections within this paper to
define what is understood by sustainable consumers in this current study. Likewise, around
sustainable consumption, different terms have arisen related to this theory, such as eco-friendly,
environmental-friendly, organic food, or environmental-responsible consumer behaviour such
as green consumption. (Han, 2021; Peattie, 2010; Padel and Foster, 2005; White et al., 2019).
Consumers are seen as crucial actors in implementing sustainable strategies by companies and
marketers in the business environment (Leonidou, Katsikeas, and Morgan, 2013). Hence, some
academic scholars have theorised about transitioning consumer behaviour into sustainable
consumer behaviour. Most of these scholars reference the Theory of Planned Behaviour from
Ajzen (1991) as one of the starting theories on which sustainable consumer behaviour theories
are based (see Figure 1). Additionally, other researchers like White et al. (2019), with their
SHIFT framework or Testa et al. (2020), have tried to explain how to drive consumers into
more sustainable consumption. On the one hand, the SHIFT framework is based on five factors
that can influence the consumer to change their actions to a sustainable behaviour which are
social influence, habit formation, individual self, feelings and cognition, and tangibility. In this
sense some factors from SHIFT framework as social influence, habit formation, or feelings can
be related to the effects that Planned Obsolescence can have on consumers, which will be
discussed in the analysis. On the other hand, Testa et al. (2020) based their investigation on
seven drivers to green consumption, which are behavioural factors, product and producer
related factors, personal capabilities, context, socioeconomic-demographic variables,
intrapersonal values, and interpersonal values. Similarly, these factors related to social context
and psychological structures will be relevant for this study. Nevertheless, both aim to analyse
6
the influences that make individuals consume sustainably and build strategies that help mainly
scholars and marketers understand consumers in a sustainable context.
Figure 1. Ajzen (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (own depiction)
Furthermore, the literature has not only explored the drivers to influence consumers to behave
more sustainably, but also the resistance towards these behaviours. Carrete et al. (2012)
investigated these specific factors and concluded that green or sustainable consumption must
aim to provide direct and short benefits to the consumer because main resistance is the
perception of altruism related to these behaviours and the lack of effectiveness.
Within sustainable consumer behaviour, Balderjahn et al. (2013) introduced the ThreeDimensional Model related to the consciousness for sustainable consumption, defined as the
concern to consume considering environmental, social, and economic factors to increase the
quality of life. In this model, the authors explain sustainable purchasing consciousness in three
different steps: how products or services are made, the packaging, and the disposable when
termination of product and service (Balderjahn et al., 2013). According to this, proper actions
from the consumer part are mainly focused on the purchasing decision making processes which
concern consumers to act sustainably if they have the opportunity to act in that way, and
concern to the rest of the actors of the economy to provide the opportunity to consumers.
2.1.2 Attitudes and Psychological Core
As discussed by Ajzen (1991), attitudes play a major role in influencing consumer behaviour,
and is usually put as a basis for where behaviour springs from since it is used to predict
intentions. Attitudes can be defined as a lasting evaluation of issues, people, or advertisement,
7
or as a general evaluation that imply how much an individual dislikes or likes an action, person,
issue, or object (Fazio, 1995; Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005). Attitudes also help guide individuals’
thoughts affecting their behaviour and influences their feelings, thus impacting consumption
behaviours of people. Accordingly, attitudes can have a strong impact on sustainable
consumers’ behaviour and consumption patterns linked to smartphones. Moreover, attitudes
reflect our overall evaluation of things based on how we associate it, resulting in individuals’
establishing attitudes linked to people, ads, and brands (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005). Hence,
attitudes play a vital role in understanding consumer behaviour, and specifically to this thesis;
understanding how sustainable consumers’ consumption behaviours are impacted by Planned
Obsolescence in smartphones.
A common model used to explain the link between attitudes toward objects and specific
behaviours is the MODE-model. The model asserts that attitudes originate from one of two
ways; either a spontaneous or automatic fashion, or in deliberate or controlled fashion (Ajzen
and Fishbein, 2005). The acronym MODE implies that “motivation and opportunity act as
determinants of spontaneous versus deliberative attitude-to-behavior processes" (Fazio, 1995,
p. 257). Hence, Planned Obsolescence in smartphones can impact the motivation to behave
according to your general attitude towards sustainability.
The MODE-model is consistent with the expectancy-value model of attitude, meaning that this
process influences the consumers attitude towards a behaviour, thus it guides the behaviour
(Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005). In context to the subject of this thesis, consumers with favourable,
or strong, attitudes towards sustainability should also behave accordingly and thus reflecting
their behaviour towards smartphones and Planned Obsolescence. However, the above also
implies that consumers can hold the same attitude towards something, but how attitudes impact
behaviour can look very different.
In addition to the above models, Lerner, Han, and Keltner (2007) argue for an AppraisalTendency framework to explain how specific emotions influence consumer decision making.
It argues that both integral and incidental emotions affect consumers choices and judgements
in decision making for consumption (Lerner et al., 2015). The theory indicates that both the
valence of an emotion, in other words if it is negative or positive, and discrete emotions, that
are core biological emotions, impact the decision making of consumers. Thus, the theory
presents six cognitive dimensions of emotions: control, anticipated effort, pleasantness,
certainty, responsibility, and attentional activity (Lerner et al., 2007). The different elements
8
of these cognitive dimensions lead to different choices and judgements within consumers. For
example, feelings of lack of control and low pleasantness will have a negative impact on
consumers' decision making processes and influence them to strafe further from their values.
In the recent decade the traditional approach to consumer behaviour and especially sustainable
consumer behaviour and attitudes has come under critique from various researchers and
scholars since it fails to address inconsistencies in how people say they are going to behave
and how they actually behave (Joshi and Rahman, 2015; Carrington et al., 2010; Vermeir and
Verbeke, 2008; Chen and Chai, 2010). In other words, there are sustainable attitudes and
intentions but inconsistency in the actual behaviour.
2.1.3
Attitude-Behaviour-Gap
As stipulated by prominent scholars, such as Ajzen (1991), attitude influences intention which
in turn leads to a certain behaviour. Thus, it is not as simple as changing consumers' attitudes
to become more sustainable to actually make them consume more sustainably. The academic
origin of the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap is found in the critique of two cognitive theories: Theory
of Planned Behaviour and Theory of Reasoned Action. These two theories are among the most
widely used behavioural theories and are often applied in studies trying to explain and predict
individuals' behaviour and the correlations between attitude, intention, and behaviour of
individuals (Carrington et al., 2010). However, scholars found that these two theories did not
sufficiently achieve their intended outcome and often failed to both predict and explain
behaviours (Carrington et al., 2010). Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw (1988) found the
relationship between attitudes, intention, and behaviours for consumers to only be around 58%.
There is extensive research on factors that affect consumer behaviour in relation to
sustainability which covers a wide range of elements connected to areas of business, sociology,
and psychology. However, multiple sources and scholars highlight a gap between all the factors
that impact consumers' behavioural attitude and intention and how consumers actually behave
(Tanner and Wölfing Kast, 2003; Vermeir and Verbeke, 2006; Vermeir and Verbeke, 2008).
This inconsistency has lately become prominent and has been found in a large number of
various studies on sustainable consumer behaviour as well. For example, Defra (2006) found
that 30 % of the consumers in the UK expressed concerns of sustainability issues but most
rarely acted on this concern in their purchase behaviour. Furthermore, Chen and Chai (2010)
and Wheale and Hinton (2007) made similar findings and concluded that there indeed is a rather
9
large gap between consumers' positive attitude towards sustainable consumption behaviour and
actually acting on these attitudes and purchasing and consuming more sustainably across most
sectors, including the smartphone industry. Thus, this inconsistency could be found in the
results of this paper too, where consumers express a willingness and intention to behave
sustainable but that does not correlate with their actual behaviour. This can be due to various
factors among which Planned Obsolescence could be.
Carrington et al. (2010) argue that the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap should be used as an umbrella
term for these two inconsistencies Attitude-Intention-Gap and Intention-Behaviour-Gap. The
theoretical concept of the gap is visualised in Figure 2.
Figure 2. The Attitude-Behaviour-Gap (own depiction)
Joshi and Rahman (2015) found that in general, studies observed weak and uncertain
connections between consumers who expressed positive attitudes and intentions towards
sustainable consumption and their actual consumption behaviour. They also highlighted that
almost all studies also had difficulties in trying to definitely explain what lies behind the gap;
thus, factors that impact consumers' attitudes and intentions often fail to capture sustainable
consumer behaviour. The research also showed that this inconsistency exists in all different
sustainability contexts and sectors (Joshi and Rahman, 2015; Terlau and Hirsch, 2015;
Carrington et al., 2010).
Joshi and Rahman (2015) summarised factors that have been found to influence the width of
the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap, in relation to consumers' sustainable consumption behaviour.
10
These factors are divided into two main categories: Individual factors and Situational factors.
Individual factors are related to individual decision-makers and are affected by individuals' life
experiences. Internal variables identified by Joshi and Rahman (2015) to affect the AttitudeBehaviour-Gap within sustainable consumption for consumers are Emotions, Habits, Perceived
consumer effectiveness, Perceived behavioural control, Values and personal norms, Trust, and
Knowledge. Situational factors are external situational forces that either encourages or
discourages sustainable consumer behaviour, the variables here are Price, Product availability,
Subjective- and social norm, Product attributes and quality, Store related attributes, Brand
image, and Eco-labeling and certification (Joshi and Rahman, 2015). Both of these factors have
implications for the intended study of this thesis since the elements from both individual and
situational factors will have an influence on how Planned Obsolescence affects sustainable
consumers’ consumption in relation to smartphones.
Carrington et al. (2010) argue that situational factors can also be internal, such as antecedent
states of momentary mood and the purpose the individual has in the current situation. External
factors found by Carrington et al. (2010) include both Social- and Physical surroundings, which
are argued to have an impact on what level attitudes translate to sustainable consumer
behaviour. Terlau and Hirsch (2015) constructed a decision-making model of sustainable
consumption and listed factors that influenced the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap and divided the
factors into three different categories: Individual Factors, Social Factors, and Situational
Factors. However, within these three categories, we can find almost all factors mentioned by
Carrington et al. (2010) and Joshi and Rahman (2015), with the addition of agenda-setting
within the social factors and socio-economic characteristics among individual factors. Thus,
evidently these factors should apply to the context of this thesis since this discrepancy most
likely occurs within this phenomenon as well.
2.2 Planned Obsolescence
There is an existing heterogeneous definition and colliding opinions within researchers on how
to categorise the different elements of Planned Obsolescence and what it entails. Mellal (2020)
stipulates five categories of obsolescence where Planned Obsolescence are disconnected from
both Psychological- and Functional (physical) Obsolescence and where Planned Obsolescence
only refers to the deliberate act from companies and manufacturers to implement obsolescence
into a product. Hartl et al. (2022) uses the same categorization as Mellal (2020) but emphasises
11
that this addresses Planned Obsolescence in a notably narrow sense. This thesis will take the
broader definition as explained by Cooper (2004) that Planned Obsolescence entails two basic
concepts: That the product's functionality ceases after a certain time due to factors built into
the design, or the more psychological aspect that users perceive the product as outdated due to
marketing strategies around fashion and design, or changes in perceived trends, needs, and
social aspects. This choice was also motivated by Echegaray (2016), though not making a
distinct classification in his paper, the author emphasises the connectedness and
interwovenness between Planned Obsolescence, with its usually emphasis on Functional
(physical) Obsolescence, and Psychological Obsolescence. We choose to visualise our
perspective as shown in Figure 3, where Planned Obsolescence is an umbrella term for types
of obsolescence that aims to reduce the use time of products and increase the replacement rate.
Figure 3. Visualisation of the elements Planned Obsolescence entails. (Own depiction)
What consumers can impact is mostly factors that fall under the psychological (perceived)
aspect of Planned Obsolescence. Psychological obsolescence can be defined as: “the subjective
devaluation of product perception based on learned experience, emotional attachments or
benefits, status achievement, fashion, or esthetic quality” (Echegaray, 2016, p. 192). It usually
results from individual consumers' perception of a decrease in the goods value due to a negative
determination of product desirability (Echegaray, 2016, p. 192).
Research suggests that consumers tend to replace electronics due to psychological factors such
as new technology and fashion at a higher rate than physical elements such as lacking
functionality or declining performance (Evans and Cooper, 2010; Cooper, 2004; Cox et al.,
2013). Furthermore, this was bolstered by Grewal, Metha, and Kardes (2004) who proved that
consumers replaced their electronics more rapidly when driven by psychological aspects of
12
Planned Obsolescence than by physical ones. Even though it has been difficult to prove, apart
from isolated cases, research and studies investigating the consumer perception exhibits that a
vast majority of consumers believe Planned Obsolescence to be a fact and is something that is
prominent on the smartphone market and demand longer product lifetime (Proske et al., 2016).
Actual use time for smartphones is 2,7 years while consumers would appreciate a lifetime of
over 5 years, but in reality, consumers perceive the average use time to be between 1-2 years
(Wieser and Tröger, 2015). According to Wieser and Tröger (2015), when this perceived
average use time is exceeded, consumers often experience the product as ‘psychologically
depreciated’ which makes the consumer more inclined to replace a still well-functioning device
and less inclined to repair it if it were to break.
The above results in smartphones being replaced at a higher rate than actually necessary. This
shifts the interest to consumers and how they choose to behave and how their behaviour is
impacted by Planned Obsolescence. Further, despite this data and these statistics, empirical
evidence shows that consumers are becoming increasingly engaged in sustainable
consumptions and hold a more and more favourable attitude towards behaving sustainably
(Carrington, Neville, and Whitwell, 2010).
2.2.1 Smartphone Consumption
According to researchers, Planned Obsolescence is highly correlated with smartphones;
therefore, consumption of smartphones is significantly affected by Planned Obsolescence.
(Makov and Fitzpatrick, 2021). Smartphones have become an essential object in human lives,
having a noteworthy influence on the way people communicate with each other in both private
and professional environments (Derks et al., 2016). Many researchers have intended to
investigate their influence on society and the recent exponential growth at the beginning of the
current century (Park et al., 2013; Yeh, Wang, and Yieh, 2016). According to Sohn et al.
(2021), smartphone consumers have developed a feeling of attachment to their smartphones
because of the value created by using them. So, this attachment feeling might have influenced
individuals in the way they consume this specific device or what it contains. Consequently,
feelings or attitudes developed toward smartphones correspond to a new era in human
relationships that some can define positively as a feeling of passion or negatively like
separation stress attitudes (Sohn et al., 2021). Furthermore, the intensive use of these devices
combined with the internet’s development has affected consumption in general. This, due to
13
that individual’s, through their smartphones, can purchase at every moment and on every
occasion (Martins et al., 2019). This is something that marketers and advertisers have found
profoundly interesting, making smartphones the leaders in media consumption, over television
or other devices, for the reason that smartphones go with the consumer all of the time (Sohn et
al., 2021). Therefore, controlling the consumption of one of the main tools for consuming is in
itself interesting for researchers and the business environment.
Within the consumption of smartphones, emotional factors play a key role because
smartphones have become external memories where individuals store pictures, nostalgic
moments, or important messages (Vincent, 2015). This emotional attachment has created, on
some occasions, dependent relationships with smartphones or direct addiction to smartphones
(Chou and Chou, 2019) This leads to the importance of remarking that researchers mention the
emotional aspect in terms of smartphone consumption and usage.
Brand loyalty is another aspect that researchers have focused their scope on, also related to
emotions and attitude, that triggers smartphone consumption. Emotions such as trust and
loyalty are shown as two characteristics that make consumers choose when purchasing a
smartphone. Lee et al. (2015) remarked in their study on the lock-in effect, which consists of
creating consumption patterns by repeating their purchase behaviours related to a specific
brand. This process facilitates the transition from old products to new versions of the products
within the same brand and, at the same time, smooths the interaction between different
electronic products linked to the same brand. For this reason, consumers unconsciously become
attached to one brand due to their knowledge, usage, and familiarity based on the experience
(Shi et al., 2018). Consequently, loyal consumers to a particular brand who have developed a
specific level of trust towards a brand will tend less to change their consumption habits in terms
of technology or smartphones. This resistance to brand change is a barrier for sustainable
brands to raise while well-positioned manufacturers strengthen their strategies to maintain loyal
consumers to buy their electronic products.
2.2.2 Planned Obsolescence in Smartphones and Sustainability
Regarding smartphones, some researchers have claimed that Planned Obsolescence is one of
the biggest enemies of sustainability and one of the most common practices among
manufacturers (Makov and Fitzpatrick, 2021). Researchers have mentioned Apple and
Samsung as two significant manufacturers that have developed Planned Obsolescence (Makov
14
and Fitzpatrick, 2021). Nevertheless, researchers have acknowledged that blaming technical or
physical Planned Obsolescence regarding smartphones is inadequate and insufficient when
evaluating Planned Obsolescence implications; so psychological factors are also crucial to
understand the phenomenon as a whole. (Makov and Fitzpatrick, 2021).
Planned Obsolescence is also a practice supported by consumers due to consumers having
expressed elevated levels of desire for the last version of smartphones, which means that
consumers participates actively in this process (Makov and Fitzpatrick, 2021). Despite the
possibility of repairing the devices to lengthen the lifespan of the products, some studies
conducted by the European Commission (2018) have shown that consumers still prefer
replacing them due to manufacturers making these procedures expensive and not accessible for
the consumer. Furthermore, there is a correlation between time of usage and interest for
repairing which shows that more time of smartphone usage makes consumers want to renew
their smartphones instead of repairing regardless of the possibility of repair (Makov and
Fitzpatrick, 2021). Consequently, technical aspects are not the only strong point to investigate
in terms of Planned Obsolescence, and psychological and social aspects and the role of
consumer behaviour is of interest, especially how sustainable consumers navigate this issue.
The exponential growth of smartphone consumption has also affected how these products are
manufactured, delivered, and disposed of, with several consequences for the environment and
society (Suckling and Lee, 2015). Hence, the entire process of consumption needs a large
number of energy sources which are not always clean and involves different types of materials.
According to Apple reports, the impact linked to an iPhone 11 Pro is approximately 110 kg
CO2 (Apple, 2019). Additionally, this wide variety of materials that take part in smartphone
production, makes this specific product hard to recycle apart from all the different social,
political, and conflict consequences related to these disparate numbers of commodities (Reck
and Graedel, 2012). So, as it is shown, smartphone consumption entails several consequences
before and after the act of consumption therefore its impact has been remarked by literature.
Hence, Planned Obsolescence in its role to increase consumption and shorten replacement
periods promotes damaging practices against the environment and to the society.
In sum, in the past years, consumer behaviour has been explored in various ways, but
researchers have recently increased the interest in sustainable ways of consumption. Within
this falls Planned Obsolescence and especially its direct ties to smartphones. Evidently, much
of the research on how Planned Obsolescence impacts sustainable consumers’ consumption in
15
relation to smartphones leaves many aspects unexplored while it simultaneously proves that it
is a highly topical subject with clear links to sustainability and where its implications need to
be explored further.
3. Methodology and Method
3.1 Research Philosophy and Approach
Due to the characteristics of the purpose and research question of this paper being focused on
understanding human behaviour and social constructs, the research philosophy of choice is
interpretivism. Using the interpretivist paradigm enables this paper to interpret and observe
people and the social world in order to increase our understanding of it (Collis and Hussey,
2014). Interpretivism focuses on meaning-making, complexity, and interpretation of social
phenomena and is highly suitable when the phenomenon is not easy to quantify (Saunder et al.,
2019). Thus, interpretivism is appropriate to answer the research question and fulfil the purpose
of this paper. Furthermore, since the phenomenon studied in this paper - behaviour and attitudes
of the interviewed individuals - is not suitable to be quantified, the data needs to be interpreted
subjectively in order to develop theory (Collis and Hussey, 2014). Further, when exploring and
understanding the complex phenomenon under investigation in this thesis, we believe that the
participants are complex individuals whose behaviours are consequences of their subjective
view of the world and how they perceive various social situations, which according to (Bryman,
2016) is enabled by an interpretivist paradigm. This brings value to our research since this can
uncover various perspectives and unforeseen aspects that were not before thought of by the
researchers.
3.2 Research Design and Methods
This thesis will operate a qualitative multi-method research design. Qualitative research
methods are highly suitable when using an interpretive research philosophy and an inductive
research approach (Bryman, 2016). Data from qualitative methods is non-numerical and often
captures emotions and perceptions of people and are therefore suitable for meaning making
and to create understanding (Bryman, 2016). Thus, using qualitative methods is suitable to
gather empirical data that will contribute to answering the research question and fulfil the
purpose of this thesis. The methods used to collect the empirical data in this thesis were firstly
16
focus groups which was then followed by semi-structured in-depth interviews. Limitations to
the methodological choice is further discussed under section 7. Discussion.
3.2.1 Data Collection
Several approaches for data collection were considered when deciding on the optimal approach
to fulfil the purpose of this thesis and to answer the research question. According to Collis and
Hussey (2014), choosing the most appropriate data collection method is crucial since the
validity and reliability of the findings, and later the analysis, are reliant on using an appropriate
data collection method. This thesis intends to understand a social phenomenon in the context
of attitudes and behaviours of consumers, thus qualitative methods are the most suitable for the
research design of the thesis. The two qualitative methods of focus groups and individual semistructured interviews will both be used to gather qualitative data. Focus groups and individual
interviews complement one another well, where focus groups bring broad data from several
perspectives and various mindsets but might lack depth, and where interviews produce in-depth
data but may lack width (Collis and Hussey, 2014; Bryman, 2016). The combination of these
two methods were also tried out in the data collection of a pilot study for this thesis which
yielded useful and insightful findings. First, focus groups will be conducted to gather broad
data on different perspectives, views, and reasonings around the phenomenon after which indepth semi-structured interviews will be conducted to gather more in-depth data. From our
pilot study we learnt that doing in this order would be the most beneficial since it allows for
broader discussions from which we can formulate insightful questions for the semi-structured
interviews.
Focus groups
kkmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The first stage of data collection was done through focus groups. A focus group is a useful
method when discussions and interactions between individuals in a group setting would be
beneficial to the study (Bryman, 2016), this allowed participants to build off of each other's
arguments, reasonings, and thoughts. Bryman (2016) also emphasises that it is suitable when
exploring a specific phenomenon or topic where various perspectives and mindsets are
valuable. According to Bryman (2016), the optimal number of participants ranges from four to
nine individuals thus the number of participants in our focus groups were within this
recommended range with five participants in each group. Two focus groups were conducted in
person with five participants in each. The focus groups were asked prepared questions that
were formulated in a way that induced discussion (Appendix 1). All participants were ensured
17
of their anonymity in order to create a more honest and open discussion. After two focus groups
we felt that many themes and topics were recurring and felt that to uncover deeper insights into
the different aspects and elements of the phenomenon it would be beneficial to conduct
individual in-depth interviews.
Individual Interviews aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
As discussed earlier, interviews excel at creating meaning-making and understanding
individuals’ interactions in social contexts and their perspective of the world. Thus, we decided
on conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews. According to Bryman (2016), semistructured interviews are advantageous in our case since it enables a structure that helps the
interview stay on topic while simultaneously allowing for flexibility to explore various
elements and aspects of the phenomenon under study. To optimise the data collection, the
interviews were guided by an interview guide (Appendix 2) that had been prepared in advance
based on previous research and theories. The questions were primarily open-ended in order to
allow the conversation to become more free-flowing and to encourage the interviewee to
elaborate on their answers and to dig deeper with asking follow-up questions; this was done
with the objective of generating more elaborate, accurate, and in-depth data.
These individual interviews were done with different participants than the ones taking part in
the focus groups. This was done because we did not want the interviewees to be impacted or
skewed from what had been discussed in the focus groups, we rather wanted the interviewees
to talk about their own feelings and experiences on a personal and deeper level to produce more
useful data. All participants were ensured of their anonymity in order to create more honest and
authentic answers. In total six individual interviews were conducted with different participants.
We settled on six interviews since after five we uncovered no new themes and insights, but to
be sure this was not just a coincidence we decided to conduct a sixth interview, but when that
too did not result in any distinct new insights, we considered that we had reached saturation.
These six interviews produced over six hours of data material, with the interviews spanning
between 50 and 70 minutes. In combination with the two focus groups that provided two hours
of data material, a total of around eight hours of audio material was collected from 16 different
participants.
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3.2.2 Choice of Participants
Participants had to follow specific criteria according to our research question. Hence, we
looked for sustainably minded consumers aligned with sustainability values or consumers that
applied sustainability in their daily lives. According to this, defining what a sustainably-minded
consumer is essential. As previously defined in the theoretical framework by Phipps et al.
(2013), sustainable consumption entails different behaviours from the consumer part that
optimises the consumption in environmental, economic, and social terms. Therefore, we
understand a sustainable minded or concerned consumer as a person that practises on a regular
basis the behaviours defined by Phipps et al (2013) as sustainable consumption. Nevertheless,
we acknowledge that it is not an easy task to determine sustainable consumers. For this reason,
we have decided to use a questionnaire based on the one developed by Lee (2009) proven to
be a reliable indicator to determine if someone can be considered to be a sustainable consumer
(Cronbach’s ⍺ = 0.85), this questionnaire can be found in Appendix 3. Bryman (2016),
advocates that a coefficient of 0.80 or higher is a widely acceptable level of reliability. Thereby,
this questionnaire enables us to choose participants that are widely accepted to be considered
sustainable consumers.
We recognize the limitations to basing the sample on the answers in this questionnaire since
there is no way for the researchers to control that the participants answer honestly or that they
do not answer according to their actual behaviour. However, the questionnaire has been used
in previous studies with proven reliability, and we consider it to give an adequate indication to
if the participants could be considered sustainable consumers and thus, we deem it to be
beneficial to our study. Among the respondents, we decided on the individuals that scored
above the average score of 3.55 to be part of the study and we started to reach out to the
individuals who scored the highest and that fulfilled all criterions. Apart from sustainable
consumers, another criterion for being a participant in the focus groups or the semi-structured
interview was that the participants residence was in Sweden and, consequently, a consumer in
Sweden; note that this mean that we do not differentiate between people of other nationalities
as long as they are currently living and consuming in Sweden. Hence, we added some questions
in our questionnaire to discard respondents living in other countries since this study focuses on
Sweden.
Regarding the questionnaire, it was distributed through social media trying to reach as many
possible participants, regardless of the distance that they were as long as they lived in Sweden;
19
because, for the focus groups or interviews, we were willing to use technology such as Zoom,
Skype, or Microsoft Teams in order to reach the most suitable participants for our study, but
with a preference of in-person interviews. In the end, we were able to conduct both focus groups
and all interviews except one in person; the remaining interview was conducted via Zoom due
to distance reasons.
Questions were divided into seven affirmations that respondents had to answer following a
Likert scale from 1 to 5, being 1 equal to disagree strongly and 5 referring to agree strongly.
For this stage, the participants of the questionnaire were not anonymous since they were
informed, they would be contacted to be part of this study with their consent. However, it was
also clarified to the participants that if they were to be a part of the data collection, through
focus groups or interviews, which would be anonymous.
From the questionnaire results, we obtained 34 responses. The average score was 3.55;
consequently, we selected the respondents who scored among the higher on the test to continue
the process to the following stages of the study. However, availability or not responding when
we reached out, and not fulfilling the criteria of currently living in Sweden also impacted who
participated. The scores ranged from 1 to 4.57, see Appendix 4 for a complete table of survey
participants. Consequently 16 survey participants were selected for the two focus groups and
the six individual semi structured interviews.
3.2.3 Data Analysis
The data analysed was collected through interview session transcriptions, focus group session
transcriptions, and notes taken during the sessions. Although all sessions were audio-recorded
for the analysis we found it relevant to have the information written because that would help
us to examine the data subsequently.
In qualitative research, structured and thorough analysis of the gathered data is fundamental
(Bryman, 2016). Multiple data analysis approaches were considered with the final decision
landing on that a thematic analysis will be operated, this was also the data analysis approach
used in the pilot study which yielded useful and insightful findings. Braun and Clarke (2012)
defined thematic analysis to be a “... method for systematically identifying, organising, and
offering insight into patterns of meaning (themes) across a data set.” (p. 57). Thus, thematic
analysis enabled us to derive patterns of relevance to our study across the entirety of the data
20
set. Furthermore, Braun and Clarke (2012) emphasise the usefulness of thematic analysis to
identify and interpret commonalities and relationships in the data when analysing the
qualitative material. This makes the thematic analysis method highly suitable for the purpose
of this thesis where it is central to creating meaning-making and an understanding out of what
participants say. This thesis operated an inductive approach and thus did not have any pre-set
themes or categories, the patterns and categories instead emerged and took shape from the data.
The strength of this is that this creates a bottom-up approach that enables the researchers to
identify unexpected relationships, patterns, and themes that might otherwise have been
neglected (Bryman, 2016).
Both Bryman (2016) and Braun and Clarke (2012) advocate a six-step approach when
conducting a thematic analysis. We will operate according to Bran and Clarke’s (2012) sixphases as we find these different phases describing the analysis process to be simple to follow.
These six phases are:
Phase 1: Familiarise with the data.
Phase 2: Generation of initial codes.
Phase 3: Searching for themes.
Phase 4: Review potential themes.
Phase 5: Defining and naming the themes.
Phase 6: Producing and writing up the findings.
Phase 1: Both Collis and Hussey (2014) and Braun and Clarke (2012) suggests that one of the
better ways of familiarising yourself with qualitative data is to first re-listen to the recording
and to transcribe all the recorded data; to afterward enable the researcher to read and re-read
the transcription and take notes. Thus, we took the same approach. Firstly, the data was relistened to and then transcribed; Secondly, the transcriptions were re-read while taking down
notes.
Phase 2: In this phase the data was coded. This was done by reading through the transcriptions
while identifying and marking keywords or phrases that potentially could be of relevance to
the research question and purpose.
Phase 3: In this step we formed themes and categories from the code. Themes could be defined
as capturing something in the data that is of importance to the purpose or research question,
and it often represents a meaning or response pattern in the data set (Braun and Clarke, 2012).
This was done by going through the coded data and identifying commonalities and
21
relationships in the codes. This was done in order to capture the most important data to the
research that presented relationships of interest to the study.
Phase 4: During this stage, the categories and themes that had been derived from the coded
data were reviewed to see which actually were of importance to the purpose and research
question. Thus, several themes were reconstructed, and some were eliminated. Already in this
phase links could be drawn between different themes and relationships started to take form.
Phase 5: In this phase the themes were mapped-out and we started to name and define them.
We followed the recommendation from Collis and Hussey (2014) to create a series of labelled
nodes consisting of themes/categories and visualise it through a network where we could draw
links between the different nodes to realise and present commonalities and relationships
between them. In this stage we also began to add quotations from the transcribed data to bolster
and explain the theme, which adds credibility to the research. Throughout this phase findings
were also continuously summarised which in combination with the created network simplified
the last phase of the data analysis.
Phase 6: To create a strong and useful analysis in qualitative research it is essential that the
writing and analysis process is heavily intertwined (Braun and Clarke, 2012). Thus, even if the
major part of the writing of the analysis took place in this phase, writing and analysis has been
conducted throughout all six phases. The short summaries of findings and thoughts around the
findings and analysis were very helpful in this stage of writing up the results.
4. Empirics
This chapter presents the results of our two conducted focus groups and six interviews, where
16 participants shared their insights, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions regarding how Planned
Obsolescence affects their consumption of smartphones. In this sense, the data has been
analysed and the results sorted into four different categories that share common data and
patterns from the sustainable consumer scope; therefore, in order to summarise and give an
overview of the results found from this mixed method the results were classified into: Social
Elements, Implied Premature Upgrading, Psychological Elements, and Misalignment of
Sustainable Values and Behaviour. These four main themes continuously emerged through the
data analysis and were not determined beforehand. These four categories intend to explore and
understand sustainable consumers and answer the research question of how Planned
22
Obsolescence affects sustainable consumer consumption towards smartphones. Furthermore,
these four categories are also interlinked because some answers can touch upon more than one
category at the same time.
In this chapter, results will be presented mainly by quotes extracted from the different sessions
which will be briefly introduced, explained, and put into a context for a better understanding,
and in the following section, the results will be analysed more in-depth, supported by the
literature, theories, and theoretical understanding gathered in previous sections.
4.1 Social Elements
Planned Obsolescence was found to have multiple social effects on the decision-making and
behaviour of the participants and their consumption behaviour of smartphones. One participant
expressed that they felt affected by their social surroundings and that it had an influence on
social status when people around them, or in their social sphere, kept updating their phones.
“…every year like they would have a new phone. And there, I think it's also important
to those kinds of places to keep updated because it's also part of the social status or
something. So, I can see that that's a feeling in society or around me…” - [Participant
6]
Multiple other participants expressed similar influences that Planned Obsolescence practices
and strategies affect them through social elements. To demonstrate one example among many,
when a participant was asked how they were impacted by this pressure created by psychological
obsolescence practices, they stated that;
“It's almost like it's more than just the idea of social pressure, it's more like a social
functioning..” - [Participant 7]
When asked why they upgraded their phone to a newer model with more features, other
participants took the same perspective even though their previous phones were functioning
well. They placed emphasis on the importance of connectedness to their social context.
” So you needed a smartphone to have WhatsApp and to be part of these WhatsApp
groups with your friends. So I think that was more or less the only thing I really bought
the phone for, just because I wanted to be part of the group, so peer pressure” [Participant 12]
“You don’t have many options or you go offline with and you are out of the social
environments” - [Participant 15]
As evident, having the feeling of being outdated or disconnected from your social sphere by
23
them upgrading to newer models has a psychological impact.
However, several participants also emphasised that the level of effect that Planned
Obsolescence has on them varies depending on what social context they are situated in. As put
by one participant.
“We're surrounded by sustainable and sustainably minded people, so I think that can
also add into our social expectations that we have. (…) also, kind of given the context
because I can also feel like especially like in our environments where everyone is so
sustainably minded, I can almost feel like sometimes it's a reverse. It really comes down
to like the psychological comfort. I think, like it feels a bit weird like buying new
things.” - [Participant 9]
Or as one participant expressed, in their social sphere it has become a competition on who can
keep their smartphone the longest.
“So I will manage to have it for such a long period of time. So for me, it does become
like I'm in the competition, like how long can I manage to keep it?” - [Participant 3]
As expressed by this participant, being in a context of sustainable people makes you more
resilient to Planned Obsolescence practices that would otherwise have had a larger influence
on them. As implied, it also makes them more comfortable in their actions which shapes them
to portray a more sustainable consumption stance towards Planned Obsolescence. Furthermore,
as another participant indicated, the decision-making gets shaped by the social context, which
in less aware spheres, Planned Obsolescence can have a greater influence, especially in the
psychological elements. When asked about why purchasing a smartphone from a brand that the
participant earlier on had recognised to engage in Planned Obsolescence practices, they said:
I made the choice because it was also easy. Like I had apple before, like I'm going to
buy Apple again, my friend has an apple, like a new one. It works. Yeah. So I think if
there was maybe more of an awareness or discussion going on around these other kinds
of alternatives that I think I might be more drawn into and try them. - [Participant 11]
However, the same participant did not like their choice in hindsight.
I'm just trying to think what it is like, what's made me choose the ones, it's like it's an
easy choice to go for the ones that have gone for it because a lot of people have them.
But so in that sense, I didn't really like why I got an iPhone 13 Pro. - [Participant 11]
Another recurring aspect that multiple participants brought up was the social aspects of the
camera in the smartphone. It seems that the quality of photos, and hence the camera plays a
24
significant role in how obsolete or outdated consumers feel that their smartphone is and thus
had influenced them to buy a new smartphone even though their previous smartphone was
well-functioning.
“It was why I chose to buy at that time, the newest phone, because I really wanted a
good camera to take pictures.” - [Participant 3]
They linked the camera to social influences through social situations, for example, when they
wanted to take photos because they always had to ask another friend with a newer phone, or
their other friends had better pictures, and because of this, several participants expressed they
replaced their phone even though it was still functioning correctly.
“In our society, you need a phone with a good camera. Because everyone wants to
take nice photos, to post nice photos, and to send nice photos.” - [Participant 12]
“One was mainly the camera”
“There's social influence to get a better camera.”
“The moment I had to choose a new one, I just wanted one with a good camera.” [Participant 13]
This is in line with what other participants said. Moreover, this could be seen as both pressure
from external social elements as the photo quality is directly compared to that of your social
surrounding or come from within as a sort of self-fulfilment and habits; other participants
expressed the two views:
“I feel like the social surrounding, yes, could affect because you see that, oh, I couldn’t
get these sorts of pictures with this kind of phone.” - [Participant 14]
“My habits also influence my phone purchase because I don't know if I do a lot of sports
or I want to take pictures in sport or when travelling. I want to have a nice phone for
both pictures or sports apps like, you know.” - [Participant 15]
“I think it's for me, it's to do with the camera. I think for me, it's like photo quality is
sort of a huge thing.” - [Participant 11]
“So I think for me, it was actually why I chose to buy at that time, the newest phone,
because I really wanted a good camera to take pictures. (...) you actually start to feel
outdated or you can’t maybe even use your phone. (...) So, yeah, and it sometimes also
feels kind of forced that you have to change at some point.” - [Participant 5]
From these quotes, we can derive that one aspect of the psychological part of Planned
Obsolescence affects sustainable consumers: they can develop a desire, and act on this desire,
to buy a new smartphone even when their current phone functions correctly. Among other
25
aspects, the camera is a reason to shorten the smartphone replacement period, and
consequently, the social influence or peer pressure makes them want to upgrade their phone to
get the newest camera which allows for higher quality photos.
4.2 Implied Premature Upgrading
Different participants from focus groups and interviews mentioned that premature upgrading
fostered by Planned Obsolescence was a crucial factor when deciding to replace their
smartphones. This factor can be related to the physical or more technical aspect of the phone
but also related to the psychological or social part of Planned Obsolescence; thus, for some
participants, it was difficult to draw the line between both aspects. It is remarkable that
according to the results gathered, some participants openly admitted their purpose and desire
to operate with their current smartphones, but the continuous upgrades linked to phones made
them change phones.
Some participants admitted having been tired of often updating the few apps that they
frequently needed to use, and they said that once the moment when those new versions stop
working for a specific smartphone, the consumer is forced to prematurely replace it and buy a
new phone, although the phone could work.
“I really struggled with the apps that are more important for me.” - [Participant 15]
“So like all the functions, like my alarm in the morning, stopped working and all these
kinds of things. So that's when I got a new one.” - [Participant 4]
Others felt affected by this phenomenon when the software for their phone stopped having been
upgraded from the manufacturer, which again forced them to replace their smartphones
prematurely.
“I bought a new one because my phone was quite old. I think it was an, I don't know,
6S iPhone and I just thought, I have to at some point because otherwise the software
won’t work anymore.” - [Participant 1]
“...you actually start to feel outdated (...) so, yeah, and it sometimes also feels kind of
forced that you have to change at some point.” - [Participant 5]
They also acknowledge that they had a smartphone that had correctly worked, but these implied
updates made them replace it because the improvement was notable, although when they
bought the phone some time ago, they could not detect any flaws.
26
“Like the other phone still worked like I could have used it for a longer time, It was a
big improvement from the new phone.” - [Participant 15]
Other participants pointed out the psychological aspect of Planned Obsolescence linking this
concept to constantly upgrading and marketing campaigns. They feel that Planned
Obsolescence affects them when companies continuously launch upgrades for new versions in
terms of both software and hardware, even when they have recently launched another new
phone. So, these kinds of practices force consumers in a way to shorten the replacement periods
and make smartphones obsolete or outdated, although their performance could be considered
to be more than enough for a smartphone.
“In my experience, phones upgrade or switch to newer models mostly because of
psychological aspects such as marketing strategies from companies that make you feel
that you need to upgrade constantly otherwise your phone will be outdated. I believe it
is often that upgrades happen even if the phone is still relatively new or functioning.” [Participant 16]
“...what I think mainly Apple does with the release presentation every September, and
it's such a big marketing campaign that people queue for their phones. And I think
they've kinda built up this hype that you feel you have to get it, even though it isn't even
that different from the one that was released the previous year.” - [Participant 2]
Therefore, according to these participants, the upgrades promoted by companies have more to
do with the need companies create by constantly releasing new versions than with the fact that
the phone has reached the end of its lifespan.
The results gathered under these common insights related to the implied premature upgrading
were linked to research participants' technological and psychological effects. They will be
analysed through the literature in the analysis section.
4.3 Psychological Elements
Planned Obsolescence also inflicted and fostered many feelings that influenced the attitude and
perceptions of sustainable consumers. Participants expressed a plethora of negative feelings
that Planned Obsolescence induced in them. Several participants declared that they felt
annoyance over the Planned Obsolescence practices and how it impacted their smartphones.
“I feel annoyed, actually. Yeah, I did. I don't want to change it but now I feel like I
really need to change it now because of the battery. (...) they keep saying, if I don't
have enough room, and I keep deleting everything but I still don’t have any room, so
27
really annoyed.” - [Participant 6]
“…so these kinds of Planned Obsolescence are a little annoyances, you know…” [Participant 8]
“It annoys me that it can be like more worth buying a new one like me, restoring the
one you already have.” - [Participant 9]
Various participants also expressed frustration, or that it made them feel sad or that they felt
that it was depressing.
“I think for me, one of the most prominent feelings is frustration…” - [Participant 10]
“I mean, it is frustrating with these Planned Obsolescence practices.” - [Participant
11]
“I think it's pretty depressing. So yeah, I think electronics are not made to last
anymore.” - [Participant 15]
“so sad because it was just the battery that was not working so well anymore, So, yes,
yes, I'm very sad about this” - [Participant 12]
Evidently, Planned Obsolescence generates negative feelings that could have an impact on
sustainable consumers' decision-making and behaviour. Interestingly, another term used by
several participants was the term 'outdated,' and commonly used as an argument or justification
to purchase a new phone even if there was nothing specifically wrong with the product; it was
just that they had a feeling or perception of it being outdated. In the table below, extracts of
quotes referring to, or using, the term feeling 'outdated' is summarised.
Table: Extracts of participants feeling outdated.
“…mostly because psychological aspects such as marketing strategies from companies that
makes you feel that you need to upgrade constantly otherwise your phone will be
outdated.” - [Participant 16]
So my phone is three years old now, and I bought it because my… I felt like my old phone
was outdated…”- [Participant 5]
“...were also kind of getting outdated from what I remember.” - [Participant 2]
“There's many cases for my job, actually, because I felt like I was on my own, one was
getting a bit outdated.” - [Participant 7]
“You can consider it as outdated because of fashion or that newer versions were added to
the market, even…” - [Participant 3]
28
“They feel outdated or a lot of my friends also like, are not taking good care of them, like
the screen…” - [Participant 8]
“…operators work because usually there's a two year subscription on your phone and
when done that is outdated…”- [Participant 4]
“...there is this design change and you can specifically see that there is a person who's not
having the latest iPhone, and I think that's actually quite a big push, even though they're
tiny. These little design changes basically make people feel like they are outdated.” [Participant 1]
“And basically that you maybe also people feel like they are outdated because of that.” [Participant 14]
“…years would be great to have more control over that, like just change it up to five years
and not feel outdated…” - [Participant 16]
“I knew it was outdated, but I still was happy with it…” - [Participant 11]
“…changed the outlets where you can charge and stuff like so many times that you actually
start to feel outdated…”- [Participant 15]
In addition to the negative feelings and the feeling of being outdated, participants expressed
that Planned Obsolescence put them in a spot where they perceived that they could not really
change their behaviour to act more sustainably due to the power relations between consumers
and smartphone companies. They feel forced into the obsolescence discourse to which they
perceive there is no option.
“It's a bad thing because I think also what you can do as a person is very limited,
especially in the world that we live in now where you cannot live without your
smartphone, like if you want to function within it. I think that gets really tough. If you
don't have a smartphone, you know, to be in touch with the workplace or as a student
or friends. So I guess you can call that an excuse, but I think also that is something
that’s forced upon you. And do you want to put yourself outside of society? That's the
question, too. Maybe that's not totally the right solution.” - [Participant 6]
Other participants expressed the same reflection on power relations and how they affected their
behaviour.
“...these sorts of power relations affect your behaviour as well because they change it
(...) so you're kind of forced into it as well.” - [Participant 4]
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“Like my behaviour changes because my position in power is very different when it
comes to those kind of purchases. So it's a very complex power relationship between
consumers and suppliers of phones.” - [Participant 14]
“Obviously, there is power behind it because most people are reliable and dependent
on our phones and the industries are exploiting that” - [Participant 12]
They feel that they cannot act as they would want to due to a lack of alternatives, and that
bolsters an attitude that they are in the hands of the smartphone companies or the whole
industry. Consumers perceive that they are forced into a particular way of behaving due to
Planned Obsolescence. Consumers are reliant on purchasing smartphones at a higher rate than
they would prefer despite that it goes against their sustainability values, but there is no real
alternative. Evidently, this has an impact on the attitude of sustainable consumers in regard to
their decision-making and behaviour.
“I think the main change you would want to see happening is not something you feel
like you have an influence on yourself. It's more something that can change through
regulations and the government policies and stuff. Mhm. Yeah. And that's like I can buy
a phone from a different company, but then I would make. Yeah. I will not feel like I
would make a change then.” - [Participant 5]
“I believe the responsibility lays with the companies (…) but the companies does not
prioritise it which makes it very difficult for me as a consumer.” - [Participant 16]
It seems that the participants feel powerless to change anything or make a difference because
they perceive the smartphone industry to be a certain way and cannot affect that. Hence, they
put the blame on the smartphone companies and industry instead. As disclosed by other
participants:
“But I would like the opportunity to buy something more sustainable. But I know, like
Samsung and iPhone decide the terms, you know, so it's like, OK, it's not really my
fault, so to say, they need to do something.” - [Participant 7]
” …it's mostly super forced by the market like they... It's like the market and the
companies make you be unsustainable.” - [Participant 15]
Evidently, Planned Obsolescence affects sustainable consumers' decision-making and
behaviour through how it impacts their feelings around the phenomenon, which in turn
influences the participants' attitude towards how they are going to behave. Moreover,
consumers feel that they are in no power to make an impact via their consumption decisions,
and thus land in that the consumers instead blame the smartphone companies and want them to
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change rather than themselves
4.4 Misalignment of Sustainable Values and Behaviour
In this research, sustainable consumers were selected to explore more about this specific group
of consumers that will lead the future sustainability pace. During the sessions and through
questions asked, the participants admitted a separation between their values and behaviours
when buying smartphones in terms of sustainability. At the beginning of each session,
participants went over their sustainability values and which everyday actions and purchases
they took for considering themselves sustainable consumers, such as being vegetarian,
consuming local, buying second-hand clothes:
“I create choices in my daily life that could improve my lifestyle to be more sustainable.
I mean, I am a vegetarian, so I don't eat meat or fish. So, I guess I have some sort of
awareness.”- [Participant 14]
“I buy meat, then I know where it comes from or like also at home that I just try to
consume a lot less than usual or local products”- [Participant 3]
“In terms of clothes I didn't usually buy. And whenever I tried to do it in second hand
stores”- [Participant 13]
These are three examples, but the sustainable pattern around these answers was followed in
both focus groups and interviews. All participants affirmed to be aligned with sustainable
values and in several actions related to purchasing decisions, which correlates with the filter
applied for selecting the participants for this research in previous stages. Nevertheless, as the
sessions progressed, this alignment became more unclear when discussing purchasing
smartphones and Planned Obsolescence; in fact, most of them were aware of this gap between
values and behaviour when smartphone decision-making purchases came.
“In all honesty and reality. I feel there is still a gap between how what I buy and how
what I want to buy.” - [Participant 12]
“I'm not really proud of my decision when it comes to these decisions.” - [Participant
14]
“So still my behaviour… you know what I mean? Like, even though I know it's bad. I
still do these things…” - [Participant 4]
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Although they were aware of the issues that Planned Obsolescence in smartphones entails for
the environment and society, they still affirmed to behave far from how they usually consume
in other fields. However, they stated several reasons why they think this gap between values
and behaviour is caused:
“I think when it comes to the phone industry, you can't really make... You can make less
bad choices, but you can't make good choices.” - [Participant 4]
As it is seen, some of them directly accused the industry of not providing options to consumers
to choose sustainable solutions regarding this specific product. Additionally, they provided
examples from other sectors like food or clothing that they do have the opportunity to behave
as they would like to behave, but they affirmed that they could not apply those sustainable
purchasing strategies to the smartphone industry.
“I do have that in mind more when it comes to consumption regarding like clothes and
shoes and these kind of things like that's where I'm probably the most aware (…) like
when it comes to food or clothing, they are much more choices” - [Participant 14]
“Changing my food habits, it was a big change for me in the beginning, but I do feel
like that is where I can make the biggest impact and not in buying a sustainable phone
because it not that often” - [Participant 5]
They also added another reason related to the belief that through other purchasing actions in
other situations, they can make a more significant impact in terms of sustainability due to a
smartphone purchase is not an everyday life action. Nevertheless, they are still pointing at the
corporations that do not give options to the sustainable consumers and create this gap. If
companies control Planned Obsolescence, consumers are just mere victims of this close loop
that forces them to consume and support unsustainable practices such as Planned Obsolescence
against their sustainable convictions.
“I see a gap there. Absolutely. And yeah, for me, it was Planned Obsolescence
regarding the smartphone. I use it every day, but it's not something I want to actually
spend a lot of money on” - [Participant 12]
“I absolutely believe there are problems within this industry that makes it difficult for
me to consume sustainably, because producing with the philosophy that the goal is to
use-up a phone and replace it again within 1-2 years” - [Participant 16]
In this sense, some participants justify their misalignment in sustainable values and behaviour,
blaming the widespread Planned Obsolescence practices within the smartphone industry.
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Therefore, participants imply through their answers that Planned Obsolescence directly affects
how sustainable consumers would like to behave when buying smartphones.
5. Analysis
This chapter will analyse the results gathered through interviews and focus groups through the
theoretical framework presented in previous chapters. The chapter has been divided into the
same subchapters as the results chapter: analysis of social elements, analysis of premature
upgrading, analysis of psychological elements, and analysis of misalignment of sustainable
values and behaviour.
5.1 Analysis Social Elements
As shown by the empirical data gathered, Planned Obsolescence had several social implications
on sustainable consumers’ consumption. Many participants expressed that they felt a form of
social pressure to upgrade their phone from their social surroundings due to the effects of
Planned Obsolescence. They did not want to feel outdated or disconnected from their social
sphere since this could influence their social status. This is in line with what has been stressed
in the theory about sustainable consumer behaviour by White et al. (2019) and Testa et al.
(2020) which emphasises how social influence from your surroundings are a prominent feature
in how you as a consumer behave.
Furthermore, many participants expressed that falling behind the curve of upgrading their
phones to newer models made them risk lower their connectedness to their social environment
by not being able to relate to new upgrades. Furthermore, participants expressed the importance
of the smartphone camera within social influence. This could be linked back to feelings of
social pressure, and can be linked to both internal and external pressures (Testa et al. 2020),
since they want to take good photos for their self-fulfilment but can also relate to social pressure
such as being able to take nice photos to show others through social media where photo quality
is directly compared (Vincent, 2015). Although this could present a rather myopic perspective,
it seems that camera quality can be viewed as an indicator of outdatedness.
Moreover, this links back to what has been expressed by White et al. (2019), this social
influence is a barrier that is common when individuals want to consume sustainably but by
doing so experience various social drawbacks. Carrete et al. (2012) theorised that sustainable
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consumption needs to provide direct benefits to the consumer in order for individuals to
consume sustainably since the main resistance to it is the perceived lack of effectiveness and
benefit. Similarly, Balderjahn et al. (2013) noted that consciousness for sustainable
consumption is linked to that it should increase the quality of life. Thus, Planned Obsolescence
influences sustainable consumer consumption of smartphones negatively from a sustainability
point of view since it indirectly, through social elements such as fear of disconnecting from the
social sphere, or losing social status and feeling outdated, creates an increased consumption of
smartphones through unnecessary premature upgrading often related to convenience.
Another noteworthy element found is that even though consumers are aware that the brand they
currently have are engaged in Planned Obsolescence activities most of the participants would
not consider changing from that brand. For example, as expressed by Participant 11 when asked
why they chose to buy a phone from Apple even though they knew about their Planned
Obsolescence practices.
“I made the choice because it was also easy. Like I had Apple before, like I'm going to
buy Apple again, my friend has an apple, like a new one. It works.”
This can mainly be linked to two aspects, habits, and brand loyalty. Habits, in the sense that
they pose a barrier for changing behaviour since it is more difficult to change behavioural
patterns than continuing with the current ones (White et al., 2019). Moreover, brand loyalty
highly relates to attitude and emotions, and for the case of smartphones these two aspects are
often interlinked through a lock-in effect (Lee et al., 2015). From the results we can see that
this lock-in effect trumps consumers' desire to move away from brands that they know engage
in Planned Obsolescence and even have experienced it first hand. This confirms what Shi et al.
(2018) found that it seems to be mainly due to the fact that consumers deem it more convenient
because of familiarity and usage experience. Furthermore, it highlights what was introduced
by Chou and Chou (2019) that consumers have started what could be defined as dependent
relationships with their phones, which seems to have an impact on sustainable consumers
decision making as well.
This aspect is evidently highly connected to the psychological part of Planned Obsolescence.
It seems that Planned Obsolescence affects sustainable consumers through various sources of
social aspects. In sum, these social aspects make it more difficult for sustainable consumers to
act sustainably within decisions linked to smartphone consumption due to social influences,
34
habits, and brand loyalty. This agrees with the existing theory around brand loyalty and habits
from social influence described by Lee et al. (2015) and White et al. (2019), but the findings
make new contributions to the reasons behind this, and the reasoning of sustainable consumers
in relation to this phenomenon.
5.2 Analysis Implied Premature Upgrading
Analysing the results related to the implied premature upgrading, it was seen that the primary
thoughts from the sustainable consumers were their opposition to this unsustainable practice.
But after some questions and discussions, their answers aligned with the theory that consumers
tend to replace their phones before the product lifespan ends (Wieser and Tröger, 2015).
Obviously, it did not occur in all cases due to the fact that this study has been conducted among
sustainable consumers whose tendencies are more inclined to consume products until the end
of the products lifespan. Nevertheless, within this group of sustainable consumers, the
sensation of being perceived as outdated was decisive in shortening the replacement periods.
The majority of the participants blamed the manufacturers and marketers for creating this need
to improve the phone quality on them constantly, and consequently, they made them
responsible for the implied premature upgrading. On the contrary, Wieser and Tröger (2015)
affirmed that once consumers have experienced one or two years of product usage, it is
psychologically depreciated even though it could still work. For example, Participant 15
confirmed these authors' statements.
“Like the other phone still worked like I could have used it for a longer time, It was a
big improvement from the new phone.”
They had replaced their smartphone because the new one was a significant improvement, even
though their previous smartphone was working well. In this sense, it is reasonable to think that
since smartphone companies' objective is to maximise profit, they have to develop strategies
to maintain the level of consumption such us implied premature upgrading. However, as Makov
and Fitzpatrick (2021) indicates, consumers play a significant role in following the implied
premature upgrading strategies which is linked to some answers from this study.
After analysing the results regarding to this theme, two patterns among sustainable consumers
towards premature upgrading in the smartphone were identified. Firstly, they try to place the
blame on the manufacturers and marketers for constantly launching upgrades which makes
35
consumers reduce the replacement periods, and, therefore, it is one of the main effects of
Planned Obsolescence within smartphones. Secondly, sustainable consumers follow
companies' strategies in terms of implied premature upgrading, despite their complaints. Thus,
Planned Obsolescence makes consumers replace their phone faster than what they
communicate would be desirable due to functional aspects. However, this study confirmed
what Wieser and Tröger (2015) reported that consumers do not hold true to this value, and this
is also the case for sustainable consumers. Hence, there are clear correlations between that
sustainable consumers feel an urge and pressure to upgrade more frequently and both
psychological and functional elements of Planned Obsolescence.
5.3 Analysis Psychological Elements
From the psychological aspects of the results, we could gather some significant results for
analysis. As evident by the empirics, Planned Obsolescence induced several negative feelings.
Despite this, it is unclear how these specific feelings impact sustainable consumer
consumption. However, these feelings can have a direct or indirect influence on the attitude of
the consumer (Fazio, 1995), and as stipulated by Ajzen and Fishbein (2005), attitudes can have
a rather large effect on the consumption behaviour of consumers since they reflect the overall
evaluation of things. Thus, it is relevant to look at what kind of feelings that Planned
Obsolescence sparked in the consumers and speculate on how it would impact their
consumption behaviour for smartphones. Since the feelings were of negative connotation, the
theory, through the MODE and expectancy-value model, tells us that this in many cases will
also have a negative impact on their behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005). Meaning, in the
case of this paper, that sustainable consumers will move further away from maintaining their
sustainable values when consuming smartphones due to Planned Obsolescence.
Another prominent term used when describing feelings and perceptions related to Planned
Obsolescence was the term ‘outdated.’ The term could be analysed through both the scope of
social and psychological elements; however, it can be argued that in the end it comes down to
the internal feeling of the individual even if its roots come from social influences. Using the
appraisal-tendency framework by Lerner et al. (2007) we can make an attempt to clarify in
what way these emotions impact sustainable consumers decision making for smartphones in
the context of Planned Obsolescence. By applying what is stated by Lerner et al. (2007), the
term outdated can be interlinked with the other feelings expressed by participants and since
36
they are that of a negative connotation this will also impact the consumers in a negative way.
Furthermore, that participants expressed feelings of powerlessness due to unfair power
relations in the smartphone industry is something that according to Lerner et al. (2015) would
force consumers into a discourse that would not reflect that individual's usual values. The
participants also expressed that they felt that the lack of alternatives pushed them to behave in
a way that they would not have behaved otherwise. Echegaray (2016) expressed this to be a
result of psychological obsolescence and thus could have both a direct and indirect influence
on attitude, intention, and/or behaviour.
However, one should be careful of putting too much blame on the smartphone providers and
discredit one's own impact by referring to powerlessness. As found by Chou and Chou (2019),
internal emotional factors that have little connection to Planned Obsolescence could be the true
reasoning behind a different attitude to smartphone consumption that often is blamed on other
factors, such as an unhealthy relationship to their smartphone through emotional attachment.
Generally, sustainable consumers tend to be more hesitant towards replacing their smartphones
only due to psychological aspects as opposite to what was found by many researchers who
studied general consumers and in the case of the broader term of electronics (Evans and Cooper,
2010; Cooper, 2004; Cox et al., 2013; Grewal et al., 2004). However, as highlighted by Hartl
et al. (2022), sustainability in relation to the smartphone industry and their Planned
Obsolescence practices has grown in awareness in recent years. Hence, this study showed an
opposite result to what older studies have found can also be a result of a change in society and
a turn of tide for sustainability’s influence on large electronic industries such as the smartphone
industry.
5.4 Analysis Misalignment of Sustainability Values and
Behaviour
The misalignment of sustainable values and behaviour results from the participants are very
related to the attitude behaviour gap, investigated previously. This time this gap between values
and behaviour is considered by this study as one of the major effects that Planned Obsolescence
leads to sustainable smartphone consumption. The inconsistency is something that is
characteristic of all human behaviour, so it can be applied to consumption, more specifically
to sustainable consumers in the smartphone industry. In this case, it is seen through the results
37
a significant disconnection between sustainability attitudes and behaviour in terms of
smartphone consumption.
The results confirm the patterns identified by studies from Defra (2006), Chen and Chai (2010),
and Wheale and Hinton (2007). They suggested that consumers have different behaviours that
do not match their values and attitudes in terms of consumption; these authors investigated this
attitude-behaviour gap in consumption in all sectors; nevertheless, participants of our study
showed consistency in terms of food and clothing consumption, but they showed that gap when
they were asked for smartphone consumption. Hence, participants showed more willingness to
consume sustainably within sectors like clothing or food; however, their sustainable values
became difficult to match with their behaviour when consuming smartphones. In this sense,
sustainable consumers tend to match values and behaviour more when consuming in sectors
related to clothing or food than when consuming smartphones. Thus, Planned Obsolescence
practices, characteristic of the smartphone industry, are one of the main causes that do not allow
sustainable consumers to behave sustainably towards smartphone consumption.
Furthermore, the results showed that participants wanted to justify this misalignment of
sustainable values and behaviour towards smartphone consumption. Consequently, it was
perceived as a feeling of guilt because they had been able to show consistency in other sectors,
but within the smartphone industry, they could not. Their responses were very related to Joshi
and Rahman's (2015) factors which, as explained in section 2.1.3, distinguish between
individual and situational factors, so in this case, our participant's answers are more related to
the situational factors like product availability, and product attributes and quality. On this note,
other scholars such as Terlau and Hirsch (2015) and Carrington et al. (2010) addressed similar
factors that can be linked to the responses from our participants gathered in this study, but in
this case, they added another category called social factors; apart from individual factors and
situational.
According to the responses gathered and the attitude-behaviour gap theory, it is reasonable to
affirm that the lack of sustainable options within the smartphone industry motivated by Planned
Obsolescence practices affects sustainable consumers to broaden this gap between attitudes
and consumption. This lack of sustainable smartphone options is linked to one of the factors
emphasised by Joshi and Rahman's (2015), product availability: The sustainable consumer
would like to follow sustainable consumption values as they do in other sectors, but they cannot
since it does not exist enough options that allows them to do so. Consequently, when consumers
38
blame the industry for the lack of sustainable options that do not follow Planned Obsolescence
for their misalignment, in a way, they are responding to the product availability factor explained
by Joshi and Rahman (2015) within the attitude-behaviour gap theory.
Moreover, another situational factor identified in both the results and Joshi and Rahman (2015)
investigation, is the product quality and attributes. Sustainable participants found it challenging
to match their sustainability values and consumption because they wanted to own smartphones
with specific characteristics such as a good camera or long battery life from certain brands.
Therefore, Planned Obsolescence developed by these brands, which directly affects both
attributes, makes them consume unsustainably.
Overall, Planned Obsolescence affects sustainable consumers to broaden the gap between
attitudes and behaviour when consuming smartphones. Sustainable consumers admit that they
are more likely to behave in line with their sustainable values in other sectors but not in the
smartphone industry. Consequently, this study has identified that among multiple factors
discovered by the attitude-behaviour gap theory that can affect the attitude behaviour gap, what
addressed the specific sustainable issue of Planned Obsolescence are situational factors. In
concrete, product availability and product attributes are situational factors from attitude
behaviour gap theory that enlarge the misalignment in sustainable consumers.
6. Conclusion
The aim of this study was to explore qualitatively how Planned Obsolescence affects
sustainable consumer consumption of smartphones. In this sense, different theories related to
consumer behaviour, Planned Obsolescence, smartphone consumption and sustainability
helped in the analysis of the results to come out with the conclusions in this thesis.
The empirical results combined with the theoretical framework show social implications
related to the phenomenon of Planned Obsolescence. The sensation of being disconnected from
society if they do not constantly update their devices provokes in the sustainable consumers a
deviation in their sustainable consumption habits. For instance, social status is influenced by
some applications like cameras or batteries if it is not the latest version of them; both
applications are largely affected by Planned Obsolescence, making sustainable consumers
shorten the replacement periods of their smartphones. Moreover, social implications go beyond
when sustainable consumers feel attached to brands that support unsustainable practices
39
through business strategies to increase brand loyalty. These brand loyalty strategies prevent
sustainable buyers from being able to change their behaviour because they are locked in this
system. Thus, Planned Obsolescence influences consumers through several social implications
that push sustainable consumers away from consuming sustainably.
The implied premature upgrading is one of the ways that companies exercise Planned
Obsolescence; therefore, sustainable consumers see this strategy as a barrier for them to behave
sustainably. Although the sustainable consumers complain about it, they still consume
smartphones when they feel outdated due to this implied premature upgrading. Thus, it is
reasonable to assume that Planned obsolescence might pressure consumers to update their
devices more rapidly.
Additionally, feelings play a relevant role in consumption, therefore, this study concludes that
Planned Obsolescence provokes feelings with negative connotations into sustainable
consumers. This study identifies feelings like being outdated, frustration, or annoyance.
Consequently, sustainable consumers seem to be more reluctant to replace their devices due to
these negative feelings linked to their sustainable values, although companies' strategies to
increase consumption and social pressure push them to behave unsustainably. These negative
feelings come mainly from not being capable of maintaining their sustainable values within
this specific industry. In addition, some of these feelings are related to social influences and
pressures created by this phenomenon due to psychological and social implications being
clearly interlinked.
Finally, this study detects that Planned Obsolescence broadens the gap between sustainable
values and behaviour for consumers. This phenomenon creates in sustainable consumption a
misalignment between values and consumer behaviour. Despite sustainable buyers' efforts to
consume in line with their sustainable values, Planned Obsolescence in smartphones moves
them away from behaving sustainably. Sustainable consumers admitted that they are more
likely to consume more sustainably in other sectors, such as food or clothing, but they showed
reluctance within the smartphone industry. The participants and researchers addressed the
reasons behind this as a lack of sustainable products that do not follow Planned Obsolescence
strategies and the desire to have certain latest versions of specific applications or products to
be connected to society or their social sphere. Hence, psychological, and technological Planned
Obsolescence in smartphones, both played simultaneously, clearly makes the misalignment
between sustainable values and behaviours more than it could occur in other industries.
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7. Discussion
Contribution and Practical Implications
This thesis makes contributions to the field of Planned Obsolescence research and theories
around consumer behaviour. Firstly, this explorative study adds a deeper insight and
understanding of how Planned Obsolescence impacts sustainable consumers’ consumption of
smartphones, which makes a valuable contribution to a body of research that up until now
existed mostly of quantitative studies that have aimed to explain rather than explore. Secondly,
the qualitative insights gained from this study have yielded results that shed light on
understanding how sustainable consumers resonate and navigate Planned Obsolescence in their
smartphone consumption, something that was recently called for by scholars in the field such
as Kuppelweiser et al. (2019) and Hartl et al. (2022).
Thirdly, the study adds insight to the theoretical concept of the Attitude-Behaviour-Gap, where
it confirms that this inconsistency is true for this phenomenon in this context. More generally,
it also shows that Planned Obsolescence as a situational factor is prominent in its contribution
to the gap between attitude and behaviour through the themes found in this paper. Lastly, this
paper adds value since it can be used as a good foundation to keep exploring this phenomenon
more thoroughly since it explored a rather broad research question where many different
avenues and focuses could be investigated further.
From the empirics, it is evident that sustainable consumers are affected by Planned
Obsolescence and that it influences their consumption behaviour in a variety of ways. Thus,
marketers and decision makers in firms can look to this study to see how to better cater to
sustainable consumers’ needs and values. Furthermore, when analysing the material, it became
apparent that businesses could also use this study to better project and predict sustainable
consumer behaviour in the smartphone industry in the context of Planned Obsolescence.
Moreover, since the study had a focus on consumers in Sweden, it can also have implications
for Swedish governmental bodies and institutions as well as policymakers for regulating
Planned Obsolescence in the smartphone industry to promote a more sustainable transition for
the future.
41
Limitations
Some general limitations to the study will be highlighted in this subsection. Firstly, since the
study focused on consumers in Sweden, it did not differentiate between the different
nationalities of the participants as long as they lived and thus consumed in Sweden. This led to
some participants not being Swedish by nationality. Building on this, since they have a different
nationality, some participants might only stay in Sweden for a limited time. Hence it can be
difficult to use the result to generalise the results to markets with predominantly Swedish
consumers. Another limitation of the study can be found in the method of focus groups. Since
the participants for the focus groups were chosen for their sustainability values, it is possible
that this had an effect on their answers since they wanted to seem sustainable in front of the
group due to social pressures. In turn, this could have skewed the results to seem more
sustainable. Lastly, this thesis only looked at the major types of Planned Obsolescence, and its
scope did not cover all different categories and elements of Planned Obsolescence, thus, certain
aspects can have been overlooked since they were not within the scope of this study.
Future Research
Future research should keep investigating and trying to understand the implications of Planned
Obsolescence in smartphones on sustainable consumers. We call for research that focuses on
the differences of influence between functional and psychological elements of Planned
Obsolescence since the differences between the two remain largely unexplored. Furthermore,
we believe that it would be of benefit to the body of literature to investigate other elements of
Planned Obsolescence, such as systemic-, technological-, and legal obsolescence, to see how
these types interact with the more major Planned Obsolescence aspects covered in this thesis.
Moreover, it would be interesting for future researchers to look into the impact of Planned
Obsolescence in other consumer gadgets apart from smartphones to uncover similarities and
differences in consumer behaviour between the different gadgets. Lastly, even if some research
has explored country specific impacts of Planned Obsolescence, such as Echegaray’s (2016)
study on Brazil, more country specific studies for Planned Obsolescence would be of interest
to see the variations or commonalities between different countries, especially countries of
different socioeconomic status and opportunity.
42
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9. Appendix 1
Focus Group Guide
How is sustainability affecting you in daily life?
- Do you have sustainability in mind when you do purchase decisions
Hey, Now can you show us your current phone and tell us how old is it and which brand?
What was the reason that you bought the phone you have right now? The last one broke or
other factors such as influence from others, new upgraded model release.
Planned obsolescence can refer to two basic concepts; one more technical that the
product has a built-in time that it will function and the more psychological that the
product is still functioning but is outdated because of fashion or new versions added
to the market.
Speaking from your own personal experience, or experiences from other people, what part of
Planned Obsolescence do you think makes people buy a new phone the most? That it breaks
or that people buy a new phone because of other factors?
Do you believe that your values linked to sustainability or responsible consumption is
something that can be maintained when buying a new smartphone? Do you feel that your
behaviour matches your values and attitude towards sustainability?
How much would you say you consider sustainability when making decisions around your
smartphone, compared to other purchases such as clothes or groceries? Is it the same? more
or less?
What factors do you think affects behaviour around what decisions you make when deciding
to buy a new phone. Social influence, habits, social norms?
In the beginning you said that you were really committed to sustainability in your purchases
decisions, e.g. food, clothing. Now why do you think it is difficult for you to act sustainably
when buying smartphones? (lack of options, lack of information, it is not that impulsive, lack
of frequency, you acknowledge Planned Obsolescence and you can’t do anything)
Do you think there is a gap between how you want to behave and how you actually behave?
48
10.
Appendix 2
Interview Guide
How does sustainability affect you in daily life?
How do you consider sustainability when you make purchase decisions?
Planned obsolescence can refer to two basic concepts; one more technical that the
product has a built-in time that it will function, and the more psychological that the
product is still functioning but is outdated because of fashion or new versions added to
the market.
Have you ever heard about Planned Obsolescence before? How do you feel it affects your
behaviour? How do you feel about this phenomenon?
Now can you show us your current phone and tell us how old it is and which brand? What
was the reason that you bought the phone you have right now? If they need help, we can
go with: Broken? Upgrade? Social influence? Peer pressure?
What triggers you to behave sustainably? How do you apply that to smartphones? What
measures do you take in order to consume more sustainably?
What led you to purchase your last couple of phones? How many times have you changed
your smartphone in the last five years?
Speaking from your own personal experience, or experiences from other people, what
part of Planned Obsolescence do you think makes people buy a new phone the most? Do
they buy new products because of marketing/social influence factors or because the product
stopped working correctly?
Do you believe that your values linked to sustainability or responsible consumption is
something that can be maintained when buying a new smartphone? Do you feel that your
behaviour matches your values and attitude towards sustainability?
49
-
If not, why do you think this is? What factors influence you to not always behave
according to your values? How does this make you feel?
How much would you say you consider sustainability when making decisions around your
smartphone compared to other purchases such as clothes or groceries? Is it the same?
More or less?
Lastly, do you think there is a gap between how you want to behave and how you actually
behave? How does Planned Obsolescence practices affect this?
Have you ever tried to fix your smartphone?
What would be your response if you could buy a less fashionable but more durable smartphone?
What would be your response if you could buy a fixable smartphone?
Would you like to be more informed about the life span of the mobile phone that you buy?
How do you feel when you do not have that information?
50
11.
Appendix 3
Questionnaire for Participant Selection
- Name:
- Age:
- E-mail address (for contact only):
- Gender:
- Current country of living:
Sustainable purchase behaviour was measured using the following items (Reliability
Cronbach’s 𝛼 = 0.85)
Five-point Likert type scales were used in all measures. They ranged from 1 = Strongly disagree
to 5 = Strongly agree.
Q1: I often buy organic products.
Q2: I often buy products that are labelled as environmentally safe.
Q3: I often buy products that are against animal-testing.
Q4: I often buy products that contain no or fewer chemical ingredients.
Q5: When I consider buying a product, I will look for a certified environmentallysafe or organic stamp.
Q6: I often buy products that support fair community trades.
Q7: I often buy products that use recycled/ recyclable packaging.
51
12.
Appendix 4
Selected survey participants for the qualitative research
Survey Participant
Score
Survey Participant
Score
Participant 1
4.57
Participant 9
3.74
Participant 2
4.43
Participant 10
4.28
Participant 3
3.74
Participant 11
4
Participant 4
4.57
Participant 12
3.87
Participant 5
4.42
Participant 13
3.57
Participant 6
4
Participant 14
4.57
Participant 7
4.57
Participant 15
4.57
Participant 8
4.42
Participant 16
3.85
Survey participants discarded for the qualitative research
Survey Participant
Score
Survey Participant
Score
Discarded 1
4.28*
Discarded 10
3.14
Discarded 2
4**
Discarded 11
3.14
Discarded 3
3.85**
Discarded 12
3
Discarded 4
3.85**
Discarded 13
2.85
Discarded 5
3.71**
Discarded 14
2.85
Discarded 6
3.71**
Discarded 15
2
Discarded 7
3.57*
Discarded 16
1.42
Discarded 8
3.42
Discarded 17
1.42
Discarded 9
3.28
Discarded 18
1
Note: Scores under 3,55 were not considered for this research
*Answered they were not living in Sweden
**Not available to participate in the study
52