Influence of Green IT on Consumers' Buying Behavior of Personal Computers: Implications from a Conjoint Analysis

The increasing attention towards the environmental impact of IT (Information Technology) demands reorientation from IT hardware and service organisations. Consumers are more than ever sensitive about the environmental impact of products and services they buy. Environmental attributes therefore play an important role in the buying process. While the concept of Green IT has been primarily researched from the corporate perspective, the consumer perspective has widely been neglected. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of Green IT attributes of PCs (Personal Computers) on the buying behaviour of consumers. As a contribution to the ongoing discussion of Green IT, we provide marketing data from 500 participants on the importance of Green IT using conjoint and cluster analysis. It is shown that the market share for Green IT PCs could be up to 26.6%. Especially female customers value environmentally friendly attributes. Thereafter, we draw recommendations for the marketing mix of IT hardware and service organisations. The results should provide researchers and practitioners with new insights and measures about the relevance and application of Green IT in the scope of PCs.