摘要：The lights on the dishwasher panel blink and then go dark. No amount of pushing, prodding, or opening and closing the dishwasher door succeeds in restoring life to the now- defunct home appliance. The consumer faces a decision: should he try to extend the lifespan of the appliance by having it repaired or repairing it himself. Or should he dispose of the broken dishwasher and replace it with a new one. While a significant amount of marketing research has focused on how and why consumers choose to buy new products, relatively little research has focused on product usage and disposal generally and repair specifically. However, repair decisions have an important bearing on environmental sustainability; if more consumers choose to repair rather than replace degraded items, the demand for new items and the natural resources they contain could potentially be reduced, thereby improving the environmental sustainability of consumption. Thus, this research seeks to explore a crucial decision consumers frequently face: when a product no longer functions as it did when it was purchased, should it be repaired or replaced.
