What about Disposition?

Author(s): Jacob Jacoby, Carol K. Berning and Thomas F. Dietvorst

Source: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr., 1977), pp. 22-28
Published by: American Marketing Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1250630
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 22 / Journal of Marketing, April 1977

Jacob Jacoby, Carol K. Beming and Thomas F. Dietvorst

What About Disposition?

What do consumers do with products once they have outlived
their usefulness, and how does this relate to the purchase of
replacement products?

ONSUMER behavior can be defined as the ond sample of 134 consumers. The primary purpose
"acquisition, consumption, and disposition of
of this preliminary study was to determine whether
goods, services, time and ideas by decision makingwas indeed comprehensive. These
the taxonomy
units." As described elsewhere,2 different disci-
developments are described below and are followed
plines typically focus on different portions of this
by a concluding section in which the findings are
behavioral process. For example, marketers and ad-
discussed, additional issues raised, and directions
vertisers tend to focus attention on acquisition (par-
for future research briefly outlined.
ticularly that form of acquisition called purchasing),
whereas home economists and nutritionists are typ-
A Taxonomy
ically more concerned with actual usage or con- for Describing
sumption (e.g., in the preparation andConsumer
consump- Disposition Behavior
tion of foods).
When a consumer contemplates the disposition of a
Examination of the published literature across
product, there appear to be three general choices
those behavioral science oriented disciplines study-
available to him:
ing micro-consumer behavior reveals that, 1. Keepexcept
the product.
for a handful of papers dealing with packaging and
2. Permanently dispose of it.
solid waste disposal, virtually no conceptual or em-
3. Temporarily dispose of it.
pirical work has been addressed to the general issue
If he decides to keep the product, he may either
of disposition by consumers.3
a. Continue to use it for its original purpose.
Accordingly, the present investigation was
b. Convert it to serve another purpose.
undertaken in the spirit of exploratory research.
c. Store it, perhaps for later use.
We started by developing a conceptual
If he decides to get rid of it permanently, he can:
taxonomy to accommodate what we believed to be
a. Throw it away or abandon it.
the major disposition behaviors engaged in by in- b. Give it away.
dividual consumers. Using the taxonomy as our c. Sell it.
guide, we next developed an interview schedule d. Trade it.
designed to probe consumer disposition decisions
Finally, if he decides to dispose of it only temporar
and behavior vis-a-vis six commonly owned dura-
ily, he can:
ble products. After pretesting on one sample (n = a. Loan it.
60), this questionnaire was administered to a sec- b. Rent it to someone else.
These nine specific alternatives are depicted in Ex-
About the Author hibit 1.
JACOB JACOBY is Professor of Psychological Sci- This basic taxonomy can be articulated fur-
ences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. ther. For example, the give it away, trade it, and
CAROL K. BERNING is affiliated with the Procter andsell it options for "get rid of it permanently" can
Gamble Co., Cincinnati, OH all be subdivided according to what will happen
THOMAS F. DIETVORST is associated with the Mayo to the product once this course of action is taken.
Clinic, Rochester, MN.
Will it be used by or be [re-]sold by the recipient

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 What About Disposition? / 23

EXHIBIT 1
Disposition Decision Taxonomy

KEEP IT GET RID OF IT GET RID OF IT

PERMANENTLY TEMPORARILY

I
Use it to Convert it to
I 1 I I
serve original serve a new Store it Rent it Loan it
purpose purpose

Throw it Give it Trade it Sell it

away away

To be To be Direct to Through To
(re)sold used Consumer Middleman Middleman

or, in what is hopefully a more frequently tan area. occur-

Only one was less that 20 years of
ring option, will it be recycled? Especially age and 17 where
were older than 60; thus, 88%
the "sell it" option is concerned, one can ask were between the ages of 20 and 60. Further,
whether this is directly to another consumer, to a 78% were currently married, 13% single, 5%
middleman (as when selling a used car to a used widowed, and 3% divorced. Although the
car lot), or through a middleman (as when using a Lafayette area includes a college community,
realtor to sell one's home). only 5% indicated they, or their spouses,
Not withstanding the potential that such were college students; of those surveyed,
speculative articulating has for enriching the 95% indicated they were from Lafayette and
taxonomy, it was thought that such conceptual ex- the surrounding area, rather than the West
tensions should await at least a preliminary em- Lafayette College community.
pirical assessment of the basic taxonomy. Accord-
Products examined. The products examined
ingly, we now turn to the description of an inves-
tigation carried out for this purpose.
were selected to be representative of com-
monly purchased durable goods. Among the
selection criteria employed were price and
Empirically Exploring the product turn-over. The six products selected
Disposition Taxonomy were: stereo amplifier, wrist watch, tooth-
brush, phonograph record, bicycle, and re-
frigerator.
Methodology
N Subjects. The subjects were 134 residents Interview schedule. Because of its complex-
(38% male and 62% female) of the ity, the questionnaire was designed as an
Lafayette/West Lafayette, Indiana metropoli- interview schedule (containing approxi-

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24 / Journal of Marketing, April 1977

Exhibit 2
Ownership and Disposition Decision Information for the Six Test Products"

Phono-
Stereo Wrist graph
Amplifier Watch Toothbrush Record Bicycle Refrigerator

A. Currently own, but have not

owned before 48 17 0 29 28 20

B. Owned another before most

recent acquisition
1. Still using product acquired first
for original purpose 5 20 6 25 5 8
2. No longer using product for
original purpose 43 84 127 54 33 83

C. Owned product at one time

but not now 13 4 0 11 26 2

D. Number of disposition decisions

for product category (lines (81, B2,
& C above) 81 108 133 125b 64 93

a Rows A, B, and C represent respondents; Row D represents decisions.

b Respondents were able to provide more than one desposition decision for Phonograph Records. Thus, the 79 respondents in Row
B provided 114 disposition decisions.

mately 20 questions per product) and was The number of disposition decisions provided by
administered by a trained interviewer. For these respondents ranged from a low of 61 for
each product, the core items on the schedule stereo amplifiers to a high of 133 for toothbrushes.
asked the respondent if he now owned the (It is of interest to note that one 62 year old re-
item; and, if yes, whether he had owned an- spondent reported never having owned a tooth-
other one previously. If the reply to this sec- brush.) Rows A, B, and C of Exhibit 2 represent
ond question was also yes, the schedule then numbers of respondents in each category. Row D
explored the disposition decision made with represents numbers of disposition decisions. It
respect to the earlier purchased item. That is, should be noted that Row B repondents were
did the respondent convert the earlier pur- able to provide data regarding 1 or 2 disposition
chased item to serve another purpose, did he decisions for the phonograph record category and
store it, throw it away, give it away, trade it, 144 disposition decisions were obtained from
sell it, rent it or loan it to someone? In the these 79 subjects.
event that this item was still being used by As indicated in line B-1. of Exhibit 2, a small
the respondent to serve its original function,
proportion of respondents in each category were
the respondent was asked what he thought still using an earlier acquired product for its orig-
he would do with it once he decided to no inal purpose even though they had acquired an-
longer use it for this purpose. other one of these products more recently. To a
certain extent, this represents the frequency of oc-
S Procedure. A pretest was conducted using an
currence of the "decides to use it to serve the
independent group of 60 respondents, with a
original function" disposition option. These re
larger proportion of these being associated
with the university community. Afterspondents
mod- were next asked what they thoug
ifications were made, the main survey wasthey would most likely do once they were read
conducted in the downtown business center to no longer use this item to satisfy this purpos
and the responses to this question were tallied
of Lafayette and in a Lafayette city park dur-
disposition decisions.
ing July and August of 1974.
Thus, by collecting "disposition intentions
Results data from the respondents actually in the "cur
rently using item to satisfy original function" cat
Ownership information for the 134 respondents egory and adding these responses to those fro
across the six test products is shown in Exhibit respondents
2. who had already made a decision t

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 What About Disposition? / 25

dispose, the original nine specific disposition op- earlier, 70 (66%) kept their old watches. Of
tions were reduced to eight. these, 36 (52.2%) were in working order. The
Combined across all products, the interviews reason most often cited for having more than
yielded 584 disposition decisions. These are one watch that functions properly is that the
summarized in Exhibit 3. The "other" category other watches were received as gifts. Of all
includes those items for which the disposition de- products surveyed, wrist watches were most
cision was forgotten. For each disposition deci- likely to be stored: 48 of the 70 watches
sion, the subjects were asked whether any other (59.7%) are so stored.
disposition decision was considered. In approxi-
mately 80% of the cases, no other disposition was Toothbrushes. Although toothbrushes were
contemplated before the final decision was made. the most likely of all products to be thrown
Given our earlier remarks regarding the in- away, they were also the product most likely
creasing necessity to move toward a conser- to be used for another purpose, such as a
vationist ethic, it is noteworthy that the option to cleaning tool. Despite the fact that they were
discard the item, while only one of the remain- the least expensive product studied, alterna-
tives to the final disposition decision were
ing eight alternative means of disposition, is the
more likely to be considered for tooth-
single most frequent option taken-nearly 40% of
the time. Even large and relatively expensive brushes than any other product.
items which most likely have usable parts (e.g., Phonograph records. If a phonograph record
refrigerators and bicycles) are thrown away ap- is not thrown away, it is likely that it will be
proximately 1 out of 5 times. stored---even though the owner very often
It is also obvious that, while there are some claims he will probably never play it again.
Could this
consistencies, the patterns of disposition differ, As many as 33% (42) of the disposition deci-
change
considerably across the different products. The sions for phonograph records were to store a
as a result of
new
major consistency across all six products is the record that the owner would no longer use.
relative absence of rental and loan decisions. Those phonograph records which the owner
sharing
economy Temporary disposition appears to be a rarely con-becomes tired of are more likely to be stored
consumption sidered option. Perhaps more interesting, al-than those that are scratched.
artefacts? though not unexpected, is the divergence in dis-
position patterns across products. For example,Bicycles. Of all disposition decisions, those
the single most used option for stereo amplifiersfor bicycles were most likely to be forgotten.
was to sell the item (42.6%). This option was Although directly relevant data were not col-
never employed with toothbrushes, where the lected, we speculate that this memory loss re-
single most employed decision was to throw the sulted from having made the bicycle disposi-
old toothbrush away (79.7%). tion decision a long time ago, relative to the
Considered by themselves, these data are other products. Of those consumers who pres-
fairly dull and uninteresting. However, the impli-ently do not own a bicycle but at one time did,
cations emanating from them and the questions 9 (33.3%) could not recall the disposition deci-
raised are not. After a brief description of the sion made.
"highlight" findings regarding each individual Refrigerators. Of all the products studied,
product, we will return to elaborate upon what disposition decisions for refrigerators were
we believe are the noteworthy implications ofmost likely to result in re-sale of the product.
these data.
Refrigerator was the only product category in
S Stereo amplifiers. Of those people who now which the disposition decision was more
own a stereo amplifier and also owned one likely to involve a store rather than family or

earlier, 10 (20.8%) kept their old amplifiers. friends. Consumers were least likely to keep
Interestingly, eight of the 10 amplifiers kept this item when a new one was obtained.
by the owners when they acquired a new
one were still in working order. The most
Discussion
frequently cited reason for acquiring a new
amplifier when the old one was still func- As noted above, the present investigation is con
tioning satisfactorily was the desire for an sidered a highly preliminary exploration of rela-
amplifier of better quality. tively unknown terrain. Its primary goals have
' Wrist watches. Of those who currently own been: to acquire some familiarity with the phenom-
a wrist watch and also owned another one enon, to achieve some insight, and to develop hy-
potheses.

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 26 / Journal of Marketing, April 1977

EXHIBIT 3
Disposition Decisions for the Six Test Products.

All Stereo Wrist Phonograph

Products Amplifier Watch Toothbrush Record Bicycle Refrigerator

% f % f % f % f % f % f %
Converted 46 7.9 1 1.6 2 1.8 23 17.2 12 9.6 1 1.5 7 7.5
Stored 74 12.7 - - 31 28.7 - - 41 32.8 2 3.1 - -
Thrown away 232 39.7 7 11.5 33 30.6 106 79.7 54 43.2 11 17.3 21 22.6
Given away 100 17.1 19 31.1 25 23.1 - 12 9.6 26 40.2 18 19.3
Traded 31 5.3 3 4.9 6 5.6 - 1 .8 2 3.2 19 20.4
Sold 67 11.5 26 42.6 6 5.6 - - - 11 17.3 24 25.8
Rented 4 .7 - - 1 .9 - - - - - 3 3.2
Loaned 2 .3 - - - - - - 1 1.5 1 1.0
Other 28 4.8 5 8.3 4 3.7 4 3.1 5 4.0 10 15.9 - -

I = 584 100 61 100 108 100 133 100 125 100 64 100 93 100

One of the more interesting set of findings 2. Factors intrinsic to the product: condition,
concerns data relevant to the question of why age, size, style, value, color, and power
people acquire new products when the old ones source of the product, technological innova-
they possess are still performing satisfactorily. tions, adaptability, reliability, durability, ini-
Common responses supplied to this question in- tial cost, replacement cost, etc.
clude either receiving the new product as a gift, or
3. Situational factors extrinsic to the product:
purchasing the new product for oneself, because:
finances, storage space, urgency, fashion
It had features which the old one did not (e.g., changes, circumstances of acquisition (gift
the date or second hand on wrist watches). vs. purchase), functional use, economics
(demand and supply), legal considerations
It didn't fit in with the changing environment (giving to avoid taxes), etc.
(e.g., the old refrigerator was the wrong style
and color for the new home). The description of these three categories is
not meant to imply that they are discrete and
It no longer corresponded to one's preferences
non-overlapping, nor does it imply that there is
or self-image.
an absence of interaction among them. However,
Consumers also reported that they sometimes it does assist us in speculating about disposition
used the malfunctioning of a small and repairable decisions and behavior; and it does provide us
aspect of a product as an "excuse" to purchase an with a framework for developing and structuring
entirely new product (e.g., scratches on the lens of a hypotheses-the third function of this exploratory
watch occasionally provided sufficient cause for the study.
purchase of a new watch). Identifying reasons like For example, given the decision alternatives
these and noting their relative incidence in a and the various influence factors, it becomes in-
product-by-product basis should provide market- teresting to speculate about various possibilities.
ing and advertising managers with information Consider a wrist watch which still runs but is no
useful in developing promotional strategies. longer stylish. The consumer is faced with a first
The basic question, however, remains: What level decision: keep it, get rid of it permanently,
factors influence the disposition choice the con- or get rid of it temporarily. Assume he decides to
sumer makes? Consideration of the many varied keep it because of his thriftiness (psychological
responses to the interview schedule suggests that characteristic). He could have also decided to keep
these factors can be grouped into three categories: it because, although it was not stylish, it was still
1. Psychological characteristics of the decision very reliable (product characteristic) or because he
maker: personality, attitudes, emotions, per- had no money for another one (situational factor).
ception, learning, creativity, intelligence, so- At some later point in time, the old watch is
cial class, level of risk tolerance, peer again brought to mind. He may decide to get rid
pressure, social conscience, etc. of it permanently this time because his status
needs are no longer met by the watch (psycholog-

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 What About Disposition? / 27

ical characteristic), the band is worn (product function of product value. The more expensive the
characteristic), and/or he has too many old product, the greater variety in disposition decisions
watches in his dresser drawer (situational factor). made. However, the decision to give a high value
At the second level, he may decide to give it away product away was more popular than the decision
to a charitable institution so that he can claim a to sell it. It would thus appear that not all of the
tax deduction.
findings likely to come from disposition research
The result of such speculations has beenare the
straightforward and to be expected.
development and collection of a large number of
testable hypotheses. For purposes of illustration,
several of these are noted here. Where Do We Go From Here?
Characteristics of the decision maker can be
The present investigation has obviously just
expected to affect product disposition in several scratched the surface of an enormous iceberg. Its
ways: high need for achievement will be moreprimary objective has been to call attention to con-
strongly related to decisions to convert the prod- sumer disposition decisions and behavior in the
uct into something else; highly creative persons hope that, by so doing, this subject would begin to
will be most likely to convert a product, and leastreceive the serious attention it deserves. In our
likely to throw it away; persons highly involved opinion, the study of consumer disposition deci-
(in a sentimental or emotional sense) with a
sions and behavior merits the status of a major
product will be more likely to keep it than will research focus within consumer behavior.
other people; persons high in self-esteem will be To begin, data must be collected regarding
more likely to convert a product or to sell it di- the frequency and rates of disposition decision
rectly than will other people.
and behavior with respect to a variety of con-
0 Product-related factors will affect the disposal sumer products. Such data are necessary both in
decisions in several ways: high value products the sense of establishing benchmarks against
will be more often sold than disposed of in any which to evaluate possible later changes and also
other way; products in good condition will be so that cross-product (or product category) gener-
least likely to be thrown away; products in alizations can be made (e.g., temporary disposi-
poor condition will be least likely to be sold. tion appears to be an infrequently utilized op-
tion).
N Situational factors will affect disposal deci- Relatedly, the systematic ways in which de-
sions: when time is valuable or limited, a mographic, psychological, socio-cultural, and eco-
product will more often be given away or nomic differences may relate to disposition deci-
thrown away. If it is sold, a middleman will be
involved.
sions and behavior should be probed. Important
issues here include:
0 When the individual is concerned with the
* Do different socio-economic segments en-
financial aspect of the disposal, the item will gage in different patterns of disposition be-
be sold, more often to another customer than
havior? If so, how do these patterns relate to
to or through an agent. subsequent acquisition behavior?
N As the amount of available storage space in-
* Under what conditions do consumers retain
creases, the probability that an item will be products longer or convert products to an
kept will increase, and the probability that it other function?
will be thrown away will decrease.
* How do disposition patterns vary over time?
Given the exploratory nature of this investiga-
tion, we believe it appropriate that the data col- Given that adequate descriptive data have
lected be considered simply descriptive and not been
be collected, the next level of understanding re-
quires that we begin to provide explanations for
employed to "test" hypotheses in any strict or for-
"why" certain patterns exist. In particular, why
mal sense of the term. However, it is possible to
(i.e., under what conditions) do consumers dis-
illustrate some of the potential of the approach by
returning to the data to informally examine some pose
of of something that is still functioning satisfac-
these hypotheses. torily? Answering this question should also pro-
Consider the following hypotheses: highervide better understanding of the acquisition pro-
value products will be more often sold than dis-
cess. Another element within this category of is-
posed of in any other way. The data show that thesues is the question: Why do consumers select
range of disposition decisions chosen increases as a type of disposition behavior over another?
one

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28 / Journal of Marketing, April 1977

Prediction and change become the primary ment, and society at large. Hopefully, this article
concern at the next level. How and in what ben- will stimulate some of the needed work.
eficial ways can disposition behavior be
changed? For example, can the value consumers
ENDNOTES
receive from a product be increased by showing
1. Jacob
them new ways to use said product once they are Jacoby, "Consumer Psychology: An Octen-
nium," in Paul Mussen and Mark Rosenzweig, eds.,
no longer using it to satisfy its original function?
Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 27 (1976), pp. 331-58.
As one specific illustration, how many consumers
2. Jacob Jacoby, "Training Consumer Psychologists:
know that they can take refrigerators to an auto-
The Purdue University Program," Professional Psychol-
mobile body (and paint) shop and have it inex-
ogy, Vol. 2 (Summer 1971), pp. 300-302; Jacob Jacoby,
pensively repainted so that it can be made to "fit
"Consumer Psychology as a Social Psychological Sphere
in" with new decor? of Action," American Psychologist, Vol. 30 (October
Independent of prolonging the product's 1975), pp. 977-87; and Jacob Jacoby, "Consumer and
Industrial Psychology: Prospects for Theory Corrobora-
value for the individual consumer, can the prod- tion and Mutual Contribution," in Marvin D. Dunnette,
uct's value to society at large be increased by ed., The Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psy-
educating consumers to dispose of products they chology (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1976), in press
no longer want in ways which satisfy the conser- 3. Arsen J. Darnay, Jr., "Throwaway Packages-A
vation ethic rather than by simply destroying or Mixed Blessing," in David A. Aaker and George S.
discarding said items? What would the impact be Day, eds., Consumerism: Search for the Consumer Interest,
of establishing more recycling centers and making 2nd ed. (New York: Free Press, 1974), pp. 402-14;
Raymond A. Marquardt, Anthony F. McGann, and
consumers aware of the significance of these cen- James C. Makens, "Consumer Responses to the Prob-
ters for their own well-being? lem of Disposable Containers," in Scott Ward and Peter
We have here touched upon only a few of L. Wright, eds., Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. I
the many interesting and important aspects of (Urbana, IL: Association for Consumer Research, 1974),
consumer disposition decisions and behavior. It is pp. 38-50; and William G. Zikmund and William J.
Stanton, "Recycling Solid Wastes: A Channels-of-
an area wide-open for meaningful research and Distribution Problem," Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35
one which has the potential of providing answers No. 3 (July 1971), pp. 34-39.
to assist the consumer, the marketer, the govern-

Marketing Memo

Make no little plans ...

"Never be afraid to take on a really tough problem. When you solve it, the benefits will
be that much greater."
Carl Gerstacker, Chairman (Retired) The Dow
Chemical Company, Quotation appearing in an
Advertisement for McGraw Hill Magazines,
Advertising Age, Vol. 47 No. 38, (September 20,
1976), pp. 34-35, at pg. 34.

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