Ecodesign Strategies and Customer Value: a Conjoint Approach

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.