Environmental Sensitivity and Awareness as Differentiating Factors in the Purchase Decision-Making Process in the Smartphone Industry—Case of Polish Consumers

Abstract

The first of the research objectives discussed in this article was to analyze the differences related to the valuation of particular factors influencing the purchase process in the smartphone industry, expressed by respondents with different sensitivity and environmental awareness, as well as the assessment of their knowledge about the impact of smartphones on the natural environment. The second objective of the research was to determine whether the level of environmental sensitivity, awareness and knowledge about the impact of smartphones on the environment has a statistically significant influence on the respondents’ choice of smartphone brand. The survey was conducted using an on-line questionnaire, distributed by a specialized research agency on a representative sample of over 1000 Polish residents. In order to identify the various customers clusters, the expectation-maximization algorithm and the v-fold cross-validation were used. Additionally, in order to analyze the significance level of differences between clusters the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U-test was carried out. The results show unequivocally that people with a different approach to ecological issues demonstrate statistically significant differences in their purchasing behaviors in the smartphone industry. Furthermore, it was noticed that in the case of comparing some smartphones brands, there is a statistically confirmed difference in the environmental sensitivity and awareness of the customers who use them. Moreover, the research has shown that in Polish customers’ consciousness smartphones are mistakenly considered to be relatively safe and environmentally friendly products.