Conference Agenda

The adoption of second-hand goods among consumers may be hindered by the feeling of being poor, socially disapproved of, and disgusted when adopting used goods. By contrast, such behavior is also fostered by the feeling that one is managing money wisely, behaving sustainably, and receiving the approval of others. We posit that these barriers and facilitators, depending on which one prevail, may depress or enhance one’s image. Specifically, we investigate how second-hand consumption is influenced by perceptions of financial savvy, environmental consciousness, social approval and disgust in relation to one’s self-image (how one sees oneself), perceived social image (how one believes is seen by others), and second-order self-image (how one believes other see themselves). We elicit these considerations in a vignette-based experiment conducted on a large, nationally representative sample of the Italian population (N = 10, 496). We find that the relevance of the four determinants of second-hand adoption differs across image perspectives. Interestingly, the determinants are generally more relevant and more positive under self-image than second-order self-image and social image, implying that consumers feel they are more open toward second-hand than others are, but also recognize that their social image is not enhanced by second-hand adoption as their self-image is.