This conceptual paper argues that for sustainable product innovation to make a contribution to addressing sustainability issues, we need to understand not only why consumers adopt sustainable products but also what makes them use these in sustainable way. To explain how specific product features can change the ways in which consumers engage with sustainable products in the adoption and usage phase, we draw on affordance theory. Affordances refer to the potential for agentic action of users in relation to a technological object. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how sustainable product innovation can lead to the design of sustainability affordances that stimulate adoption and sustainable usage. The framework shows how three forms of agency—material, firm, and user agency—interact and together influence a product's sustainability affordances that drive adoption and a change in consumer behavior. The framework explains how trade-offs between a product's environmental features and consumer expectations regarding desired functionalities and user experience can be overcome.

中文翻译：

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可持续产品创新和不断变化的消费者行为：可持续性可供性作为采用和使用的触发因素

这篇概念性论文认为，要使可持续产品创新为解决可持续问题做出贡献，我们不仅需要了解消费者为何采用可持续产品，还需要了解是什么让他们以可持续的方式使用这些产品。为了解释特定的产品功能如何改变消费者在采用和使用阶段与可持续产品互动的方式，我们借鉴了可供性理论。可供性是指用户对技术对象的代理行为的潜力。我们开发了一个概念框架，解释了可持续产品创新如何导致设计可持续性可供性，以刺激采用和可持续使用。该框架显示了三种形式的代理——材料代理、公司代理和用户代理——如何相互作用并共同影响产品” 推动采用和改变消费者行为的可持续性启示。该框架解释了如何在产品的环境特征与消费者对所需功能和用户体验的期望之间进行权衡。