소비자의 순환경제 인식 유형별 중고거래 지속이용의도에 관한 연구 = Consumers’ Circular Economy Perception and Continuance Intention in Secondhand Transactions

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study focused on Secondhand Transactions as a practical means of achieving the circular economy from the consumer perspective. The purpose of this study was to measure consumers’ perception of the circular economy, classify the types of perception, and explore the usage characteristics of Secondhand Transactions within each group. In addition, it aimed to comprehensively analyze whether the factors influencing the intention to continue using Secondhand Transactions differ across perception types.
To achieve these objectives, a structured survey was conducted with 400 users who had used Danggeun Market within the past six months. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, K-means cluster analysis, multiple regression analysis, t-tests, and one-way ANOVA.
The results showed that consumers’ perception of the circular economy could be divided into three groups—high, medium, and low awareness—representing 42.5%, 32.7%, and 24.8% of the respondents, respectively. The high-awareness group exhibited a relatively higher proportion of respondents with university or graduate-level education and a higher frequency of Secondhand Transactions compared to the other groups. Furthermore, their social, economic, and hedonic motivations, trust in trading partners, and intention to continue using Secondhand Transactions were all significantly higher.
Through this study, the potential contribution of Secondhand Transactions to achieving the circular economy was explored. From both the platform industry and policy perspectives, it is necessary to promote and disseminate the concept of the circular economy and emphasize that Secondhand Transactions are not merely economic exchanges between individuals but meaningful activities that contribute to sustainable circularity. The findings provide fundamental insights for establishing consumer-oriented strategies to expand the values of the circular economy and are expected to encourage further in-depth research on the relationship between circular economy perception and consumer behavior.