Noah Kampas

Abstract: This paper examines the effect that proprietary versus independently remanufactured (IR) hardware has upon the perception of ownership within the smartphone models currently in use by students at a medium-sized suburban high school. The concept of ownership has generally been associated with factors like control, repairability, autonomy, and trust in the product. Research into this topic indicates that proprietary technology creates a decrease in perceptions of ownership of the smartphone devices by the students, while IR technology indicates an increase in those perceptions of ownership of the devices. However, the existing research on this topic has largely been theoretical in nature.

Through the creation of a scenario-based survey that asked students to evaluate a variety of smartphone devices with different characteristics in relation to hardware, this study intends to investigate the preferences of the students for those devices and the reasons for their selections. The results of the scenario-based survey indicated that devices with IR characteristics were ranked as more “ownable” by the students in comparison to devices with proprietary characteristics, which relates to the factor of control of the devices.

Beyond the hardware characteristics of the smartphones, other factors that relate to ownership by the students include factors like brand recognition, reliability, and the cost of the devices. Students indicated a preference for devices from brands that they were more familiar with, despite the lack of control that they provided over the devices. Thus, these results help to indicate the influence that both hardware and psychological factors have upon ownership of technology by consumers.