Consumers are often faced with the question of what to do with objects that are still usable but not worth selling and for which they no longer have a use. Our paper shows that some consumers have a tendency to keep them rather than dispose of them. Two qualitative studies and nine quantitative studies were conducted to analyze this recurring behavior and to propose a consumer hoarding scale composed of four dimensions (instrumental, social, economic and sentimental). We show that this hoarding tendency may hinder the product replacement process: Hoarders are likely to postpone the decision to replace a product if they do not know what to do with the one they currently own.
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