Own Brand or Any Brand? The Impact of Recycled Material Sources on Consumers’ Purchase Intentions

Against the backdrop of increasingly severe global resource shortages and environmental pollution, product recycling has become an important strategy for addressing environmental challenges. However, existing research largely focuses on the impact of the external attributes of recycled products on consumer purchase intentions, with few studies examining the source of the recycled materials themselves. Based on signaling theory, this study explores how recycled materials from different sources affect consumer purchase intentions. This study categorizes recycled material sources into two types: own-brand and arbitrary-brand, and examines their influence mechanisms through three experiments. Experimental results show that the source of recycled materials significantly affects consumers' purchase intentions for recycled products. Specifically, when recycled materials originate from their own brand (vs. arbitrary-brand), consumers have a stronger purchase intention for recycled products, with perceived brand essence playing a mediating role. Further research indicates that brand status and product category moderate this relationship. This study enriches the research on purchase intentions for recycled products and provides new insights for companies to improve the market acceptance of recycled products.