Attractive Quality and Must-be Quality from the Viewpoint of Environmental Lifestyle in Japan

Summary

In this paper, the evaluation of environmental quality based on environmental lifestyle is discussed using a questionnaire survey, which is conducted by applying the following three approaches:.

• 1. Kano’s approach of subjective quality evaluation: Accordingly, the quality elements can be categorized in “attractive quality”, “one-dimensional quality”,“must-be quality”,“indifferent quality” and “reverse quality”. Kano’s proposal is applied to express the variability of subjective quality.

• 2. Akiba and Enkawa’s proposal concerning the transistion steps of categorized quality elements: The hypothesis is that quality evaluation by customers changes as follows: “indifferent” quality → “attractive” quality → “one-dimensional” quality → “must-be” quality. In this paper, the transition is referred to as “the maturity of quality”.

• 3. The third approach is the theory concerning the environmental lifestyle by Nishio. She classified female subjects to four types, “green”, “ego - eco”, “pre-eco” and “non-eco” in a survey from the viewpoints of the degree of environmental consciousness and of the practical action for the protection of environment.

Our questionnaire survey was performed in November 2005. The questionnaire is composed of two parts. One is for classifying the 277 female respondents to the four types of the environmental lifestyle following Nishio, the other is for categorizing the quality elements of refrigerator and shampoo, which are the environment-friendly products following Kano’s theory.

From the results of our survey, we have established a relationship between “the maturity of quality” concerning environment and the environmental lifestyle. This information might be relevant for planning of products.