Exploring the drivers behind visiting repair cafés: Insights from mental models

Community initiatives play a critical role in fostering a circular economy. Repair cafés, as free community repair events, have been found to be successful in promoting the culture of repair and educating diverse audiences on product durability. However, research on what drives visitors’ participation in such events is scarce. This information is needed to understand how the initiatives can develop and reach more visitors. This study aimed to explore the drivers behind visiting repair cafés using a mental model approach. Thirty visitors to Dutch repair cafés mapped their mental models of the motivational process behind attending the events by drawing influence diagrams and submitted to interviews that provided more in-depth discussions of their mapped mental models. The findings highlight the key drivers of repair café attendance — namely, environmental concerns; profiting from the knowledge, skills and materials available at repair cafés; the desire to demonstrate the importance of repair; and being part of a social movement. Interestingly, meeting others or experimenting with new repair methods were not seen as important drivers of visiting repair cafés. In conclusion, this study complements the earlier repair motivation literature and offers implications for how to promote consumer participation in repair initiatives.