Ecodesign Strategies and Customer Value

Abstract

Despite increasing attention to environmental issues, studies of ecodesign reveal that the market and the customer are two of the main external barriers to the effective implementation of ecodesign in industrial companies. Moreover, studies adopting this perspective mostly evidence the difficulties in interpreting customer perception as a source of customer value. Contributions exploring specific techniques that may be useful to support ecodesign strategies in a customer-based perspective are scarce. To fill this gap in the literature, this chapter revises the literature on ecodesign, adopting a customer-based perspective focusing on the controversial results regarding eco-products and customer value. To identify techniques suitable to support ecodesign strategies in a customer-based perspective, and considering the challenges affecting customer perception of eco-products, the chapter shows—through an empirical analysis conducted on ecological washing machines—how conjoint analysis can be successful in this aim.