Boosting Upcycled Value: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Sustainable consumption research, particularly understanding how consumers realign their purchasing habits toward more sustainable ones (e.g., upcycled products), has swiftly grown in popularity. Upcycling is one of the ways for firms to decrease their waste while enhancing their production processes. It is a way to add value to waste and discarded products and make them new again with a story. Although there is some research on consumer perception of such products in developed countries, the views of consumers in developing countries regarding upcycled goods have not been studied. To address this gap, this paper investigates consumer attitudes toward upcycling products in an emerging economy, namely, Türkiye. We conduct an embedded case study and examine several contextual considerations that firms should consider when embarking upon upcycling programs. In conclusion, we offer a conceptual framework for attitude toward upcycled products.