18+-SP

Dougherty, Deborah, and Trudy Heller. "The illegitimacy of successful product innovation in established firms." //Organization Science// 5.2 (1994): 200-218. -Identifies ways in which product development and innovation is illegitimate. In the beginning of this article, I certainly had some confusions as to what they meant by illegitimate as to say that a process of innovation and implementation of an idea was “false”. It soon became clear, through the examples of business leaders, that they were just referring to the success that a new idea has in the market and how certain models and methods for generating new innovations and carrying them out verify that these new products were in fact based on sound ideas for appropriate users.

Hybs, Ivan, and John S. Gero. "An evolutionary process model of design."//Design Studies// 13.3 (1992): 273-290. -Blessed me lucky charms! I’m so glad this article is available in its entirety through the RPI library. The relation and comparison between evolution in nature and iteration in design is key topics I want to get expand upon in great depths in my thesis. The things I get excited about nowadays are truly strange and I suppose this article is on that list. In this study, they discuss what it really means to be a designer. They state that design is a series of transformative processes that include the behavior of the designed product in its environment. This extended model is then recast through an analogy with evolution in nature as an evolutionary process model of design through the inclusion of the iterative processes of cross-over and mutation as well as the introduction of design genes and the notion of inheritance from one generation to the next. I’ve developed somewhat of a theory similar to the model discussed in this paper. This work may serve to support some of the elements in whatever I eventually include.

Von Hippel, Eric, and Ralph Katz. "Shifting innovation to users via toolkits."//Management science// 48.7 (2002): 821-833. -In this work, the authors argue that developing adequately responsive products to a user groups’ needs is a difficult task that is slowed by a designing groups need to understand the needs of the end user. This article proposes and supports an alternative approach where products are developed far faster and at lower costs through the use of toolkits to be used by the end users themselves. The encourage a design method of user innovation by transferring parts of the design process to the hands of those who are most effected by the success of the product in meeting the user needs because they are the actual user. They go into the details of how such a proposition would effectively work to speed up product development

Hvam, Lars, Niels Henrik Mortensen, and Jesper Riis. //Product customization//. Springer, 2008. -This is a full length book that examines the topic of customization of consumer products and the grey area between mass produced and hand made a modern age of 3D printers and individualism. Market strategies strive for adherence to the most profitable user group from a proposed product. This is often the wrong way of doing things and it is far more effective to start with a need or problem faced by a specific user. The extenuating circumstance is when a new technology is discovered or developed that enables new capabilities in a product. A product is then being fit to a yet to be discovered market. With customization, there is always a cost tradeoff as production quantities are far lower although customers usually are more likely to pay more for a product that is more tailored to their specific needs and preferences.

Miodownik, Mark. //Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World//. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. -This book takes on a chemist’s perspective as he goes to great lengths discussing the origins and mechanisms that have led to the development of modern materials and intern, the modern civilized world. The stories of these materials and various applications thereof are explored along with their contribution to what the world is made of today. I can certainly find this book to be useful. If not in the analysis of environmental impacts of various materials and production methods then perhaps in the examination of the various methods for discovery of new sustainable materials or even the application of certain materials to different functions never tried before (only after a solid grasp of the associated material properties). Everything we see and touch in the world around us as well as ourselves are made of atoms.

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M., and Behnam N. Tabrizi. "Accelerating adaptive processes: Product innovation in the global computer industry." //Administrative science quarterly// (1995): 84-110. -This article advocates for the idea of global collaboration to overcome some of the greatest challenge our society is faced with today. It’s always best to start out small to prove a concept works and then expand. This same type of trial run is advocated for and involved global participation but with select and qualified designers. Most ideas aren’t all that helpful so it is important to have a method of filtering through the noise to find the gems and perhaps even combine subpar ideas into great ones. This is a tricky process and it is likely that some ideas may go unnoticed and others may never connect with the other ideas that would make them great. This is the problem space of innovation and collaboration that I am attempting to tackle to an exent.

Greer, Douglas F. "Case against Patent Systems in Less-Developed Countries, The." //J. Int'l L. & Econ.// 8 (1973): 223. -I have somewhat of a bias on this topic and I definitely back Douglas on his view that open source collaboration is the best way to grow and progress in currently underdeveloped nations. I might even take this one step further and apply it of all nations. It is a proven and still entirely lucrative model to run by as continuously proven in software development. We are giving users a stake in the game. There are certain circumstances where secrets are necessary and patents would certainly be justified but there are many problems with the patent system that must function in tandem with a dysfunctional legal system and must comply with diverse political systems.

Boldrin, Michele, and David Levine. "The case against intellectual property."//American Economic Review// (2002): 209-212. -This is where the good stuff lies. I heated debate over individuals’ rights to ideas. It seems I am at war with myself right now and I am not sure what conclusion I will come to just yet. I believe that individuals should be acknowledged and rewarded for their good ideas and hard work, but imagine a world where the sharing of ideas was infinite. No secrets, all information was and accessible by anyone. We would all collaborate toward common goals and trade secrets would no longer be secret. From a perspective grounded in capitalism, there would be no opportunity for competitive advantage and therefor no incentive to advance, but look at CERN the particle accelerator project. Some of the greatest feats of human achievement were accomplished under a collaborative environment and free flowing ideas and collective innovation.

Jaffe, Adam B., and Josh Lerner. //Innovation and its discontents: How our broken patent system is endangering innovation and progress, and what to do about it//. Princeton University Press, 2011. -This paper talks about the flaws inherent in the patent system and supports the idea that it serves as a hindrance to innovation more often than it actually helps. The actually reality is that if you are not financially backed and able to allocate sufficient funds to protect an idea once file and challenged, you are likely to either lose ownership of the idea or just not be able to prevent others from stealing it. In these cases, the patent system just provided a platform for others to steal your idea, all its potential for profit and your credit for its inception. I will seek to address these unfortunate but all too common cases.

Lee, Yung-Li, ed. //Fatigue testing and analysis: theory and practice//. Vol. 13. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005. -The big thing that I got from a few of the sections of this work relates to the importance in stressing the difference between part design and failure prediction in theory vs in reality and actual practice. There exist many discrepancies between physical tests and virtual models within factories of companies that do fatigue testing of a sample set of their mass produced products. There are always elements that can’t be factored in relating to the user but the interesting part of this literature discusses just how accurate we can be in predicting when a part will fail and the conditions under which certain types of failure will occur. Material use optimization had a big tie in to sustainability. This is one design perimeter where companies are actually incentivized to be more sustainable to a certain extent. This due to the fact that reducing part material often reduced the cost of a part and saves on material that is eventually released into the environment. If a product needs to be lighter, this is also an effective practice. The type of manufacturing process does need to be considered however because if a subtractive process like CNC machining is being used, More intricate and optimized structures may often result in higher energy use and higher costs from longer machining time an increase in scrap materials. Plastic injection molding is a prime example of a process that greatly benefits from intensive part structure optimization because it is an adaptive process and a little less material goes a long way when dealing with mass production and high part output. The section dedicated to mold design sheds light on the planning involved in such an endeavor. I would like to look more into the timeline of part mold design and the shift to aluminum for tool steel molds as product life cycles become shorter and there is a demand for new plastic parts continuously.

Stephens, Ralph I., et al. //Metal fatigue in engineering//. John Wiley & Sons, 2000. -There are parts of this work that are currently far above my level of understanding but it is good for me to get a solid grasp of the engineering standard practice that goes into determining the durability of specific parts of a product in various environmental conditions. I have had a small bit of experience with FEA and I am self-taught with different CAD packages and this is definitely something that I need to include in my paper. I am starting to understand though this paper and others just how difficult it is to design for a specific timeframe of operation. There is most certainly a fare bit of guesswork that occurs in estimating when a part will fail and under what conditions. Definitely a great discussion within my argument for the complexity of design and the inevitability of intrinsic obsolescence brought about by unpredictable variables. Some of these discussed in this article were abnormal circumstances like high stress environments or misuse by the user that is not cost effective to attempt to prevent.

Day, George S. "The product life cycle: analysis and applications issues." //The Journal of Marketing// (1981): 60-67. -Discusses issues in creating meaningful applications of the product life cycle. Key points include 1. It is not possible to estimate accurately the time a product will remain in each stage. 2. There is no way to know in advance the shape of the life cycle curve and the curves will be different for different products, 3. Market conditions such as pricing, manufacturing cost, competitive products, and environmental regulations have significant influence on the true life cycle of a product. This is all useful for me.

Cooper, Tim. "Inadequate life? Evidence of consumer attitudes to product obsolescence." //Journal of Consumer Policy// 27.4 (2004): 421-449. -This article is essential to my understanding for the background of product life choices and the emergence of planned obsolescence. It will help me with my timeline development. Environmental awareness and the impact of product lifespan are both increasing. This paper draws upon recent data from research into discarded household appliances to track down our waste in an effort to identify what needs to change. This may be a great source for me and I suspect it is a portion the ideas in Cooper’s book

Buse, Stephan, Rajnish Tiwari, and Cornelius Herstatt. "Global innovation: An answer to mitigate barriers to innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises?." //International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management//7.03 (2010): 215-227. -Most interesting to me is this paper’s discussion about the various barriers to innovation and challenges to global innovation in large and small businesses. Innovation will play a large role in my contribution and I want to make sure I am not stating things that have already been said or I want to at least support different ideas and make sure I give credit where it is due.

King, Andrew M., et al. "Reducing waste: repair, recondition, remanufacture or recycle?." //Sustainable Development// 14.4 (2006): 257-267. -Our landfill waste problem is global and incredibly important to solve if we are to reverse environmental degradation and become a sustainable society. This is one thing I will argue for in my thesis and the possible steps to get their through improved waste management and strategies for elimination of waste are detailed in this article. The paper describes and compares four alternative strategies to reducing end-of-life waste within the context of extended producer responsibility.

Schor, Juliet B. "Sustainable consumption and worktime reduction." //Journal of Industrial Ecology// 9.1‐ 2 (2005): 37-50. -An interesting idea is proposed in this book where they recommend a reduction in work hours will enable more suitable and perhaps reduced consumption. It is a new economic theoretical concept that is discussed and supported with empirical evidence. I don’t know if I’ll agree with most of it but the arguments are reasonable. If it were embraced, the implications would be profound. The key take away I found from this reference, and what I will try to reason against was their argument that technological changes will be insufficient to achieve sustainable consumption patterns. They go on to state that averting continued increases in the scale of consumption through trading income for time is imperative. I suppose it all depends what we chose to do with the extra time.

Van Nes, Nicole, Jacqueline Cramer, and Ab Stevels. "A practical approach to the ecological lifetime optimization of electronic products." //Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, 1999. Proceedings. EcoDesign'99: First International Symposium On//. IEEE, 1999. -This article is an amazing resource for my thesis. It dives right into answering the question of what circumstances allow for either the extension or shortening of product lifespan. It states that two factors determine when a product is obsolete and replacement is necessary. 1. When efficiency if use or compromise in product functionality is evident. 1. When new functionality or improved efficiency becomes possible through new tech development and inventions or becomes necessary to match market demand and stay competitive. I will really take a deeper look into this work and try to fill in the gaps or make them bigger.

Tse, David K., Franco M. Nicosia, and Peter C. Wilton. "Consumer satisfaction as a process." //Psychology & Marketing// 7.3 (1990): 177-193. -This work discusses obstacles in researching satisfaction as a process. I intend to understand the crossroad of technology and marketing to enable for a better understanding of consumer needs and market trends as early in the design process as possible. This can be accelerated through proper advancements in marketing and survey tools, big data tracking like Google’s add analysis and other new tech like eye tracking and market data computing.

Akgün, Ali E., Gary S. Lynn, and John C. Byrne. "Taking the guesswork out of new product development: how successful high-tech companies get that way."//Journal of Business Strategy// 25.4 (2004): 41-46. -This paper is the result of a seven‐ year research project on the intersection of entrepreneurship, marketing and technology. “The focus of their research was to identify factors that lead to better, faster and less expensive new product and service development. The study investigates new product development practices and the authors have identified critical success factors in the new product development projects.” This is specific to high caliber projects like electronics and computer, biotechnology, military software, space, and electronic machinery projects, but many of the same principles are applicable to the team based design I plan on discussing.

Grupp, Hariolf, and Shlomo Maital. //Managing new product development and innovation: A microeconomic toolbox//. Edward Elgar, 2001. -It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to access this work seeing as it may be in Russian but it seems very relevant to my interest in innovation within business structure. This work talks about managing these structures to support new product development. They detail criteria and market evaluation strategies that are largely based from a corporate mindset.

Antonides, Gerrit. //The lifetime of a durable good: An economic psychological approach//. Vol. 12. Springer, 1989. -This book could be extremely useful for me to understand what drives the decisions of various stakeholders relating to durability of consumer products. This is written by a psychologist and the first part of the book attempts to integrate psychological theories of attitude, perception, motivation and decision into economics. He uses consumer surveys and it seems he comes to some interesting conclusions. I am hesitant to get too much into human behavior with my contribution but it is important that I understand what others have to say about our motivations of and against durable consumption.

Orbach, Barak. "The Durapolist Puzzle: Monopoly Power in Durable-Goods Market." //Yale Journal on Regulation// 21 (2004): 67-118. -More of a legislative fix to the issue is proposed and I want to stear away from this. Understanding the durable goods monopoly tendency is important though.“This Article's major contributions are (a) expanding the conceptual scope of the durapolist problem, (b) presenting the durapolist problem as an explanation for many common business practices employed by durapolists, and (c) analyzing the legal implications of strategies employed to overcome the durapolist problem.”

Rogers, Heather. //Green gone wrong: How our economy is undermining the environmental revolution//. Simon and Schuster, 2010. -I don’t think I will be using this book a reference for my work. It seems very interesting but a bit off topic. It does however point to a lot of the same obstacles present in making product development sustainable. “Do today’s much-touted "green" products—carbon offsets, organic food, biofuels, and eco-friendly cars and homes—really work?” Discussions on greenwashing could be helpful because I intend to discuss its implications within the same section as marketing in my thesis.

Raymond, Jennie E., T. Randolph Beard, and Daniel M. Gropper. "Modelling the consumer's decision to replace durable goods: a hazard function approach."//Applied Economics// 25.10 (1993): 1287-1292. -This article was not what I expected and I was lost for half of it. I can’t seem to grasp regression models and even if I did, I’m not sure this technical approach is something that would at all help to clarify any of my points. The paper analyses consumers’ durable good replacement decision using hazard models. The conclusions are interesting and understandable but how they got there couldn’t be more confusing to me.

Bayus, Barry L. "Accelerating the durable replacement cycle with marketing mix variables." //Journal of Product Innovation Management// 5.3 (1988): 216-226. -This resource is pure gold for my thesis. It provides studies and statistical analysis of marketing strategies and what drives companies to decide when to introduce new product generations and replacements. The study has been carried out to determine the optimal time for this replacement based on various factors and market pressures. I can certainly use this to help explain product life cycle drivers and why product no longer last long and also use their findings as argument for planned obsolescence as the solution to this where it is necessary.

Cooper, Tim. "The durability of consumer durables." //Business Strategy and the Environment// 3.1 (1994): 23-30. -This journal article is very enlightening and may just be a small piece of Cooper’s book and life’s work. It may be somewhat dated as well. Nevertheless, the concepts are still sound and covers a lot of what I hope to discuss in great detail. “This paper explores the significance of product life spans and identifies currently available data on the life-span of consumer durables. It defines product life and argues that, from an environmental perspective, optimum product life, rather than maximum product life should be the goal. It suggests that potential advantages to businesses of manufacturing and retailing products with longer life spans include improved environmental foresight. The paper identifies some of the influences upon manufacturers which encourage shorter product life spans. Finally, some means by which longer life products might be encouraged are proposed.”

KOLLMANN, KARL. "Hidden costs of consumption." //Journal of Consumer Studies & Home Economics// 16.3 (1992): 273-281. -This work discusses the durability of various consumer goods and the hidden resulting costs of consumer goods. It eventually provides advice to consumers making purchase decisions. “Consumers often underestimate the costs resulting from their consumer decisions.” This is especially the case when purchasing durable consumer goods. There is often a disregard or ignorance for the costs of subsequent use connected with the purchases of everyday objects. This paper will be helpful for understanding consumer purchases to tie this into marketing and perceived obsolescence. It will also be a great source to support arguments for product life extension and the challenges to getting there under the right circumstances.

Stahel, Walter. "The utilization-focused service economy: Resource efficiency and product-life extension." //The greening of industrial ecosystems// (1994): 178-190. -This book, //The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems// is a great resource that is primarily focused around manufacturing methods and energy and waste management service revisions. It differentiates industrial and service ecosystems yet points out their interconnectivity in the end. I have only read this chapter and not the whole book but the rest seems pretty dry and not all that useful for my focus.

Klöpffer, Walter. "Life-cycle based methods for sustainable product development." //The international journal of life cycle assessment// 8.3 (2003): 157-159. -This article was not as useful as the tittle lead me to believe, however it was still useful to read. LCA or life cycle assessment and LCC or life cycle costing are essential elements in sustainable product design. This paper goes into the specifics of the various standards to be followed in the LCA in early stages of product development. It was good for me to get an understanding of the way things are currently done but they do not really suggest evolving strategies and the future of these highly regulated methodologies.

Kaebernick, H., S. Kara, and M. Sun. "Sustainable product development and manufacturing by considering environmental requirements." //Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing// 19.6 (2003): 461-468. -This is another science direct paper so I can access it through the RPI Library. This article is very technical and engineering based and details how to best implement alternative methods of design and production to produce more sustainable products. It goes to great lengths discussing environmental regulations and the need for a new way of approaching these problems. I think it is important for me to have articles like this for guidance on the political, regulatory, and legislative side of things because I am not all that interested in policies as solutions but they do have their place and therefore should be included in my thesis if only briefly.

Hertwich, Edgar G. "Life cycle approaches to sustainable consumption: a critical review." //Environmental science & technology// 39.13 (2005): 4673-4684. -This paper reviews how life cycle analysis has been used in sustainable consumption to inform policy making, select areas of action, identify more sustainable lifestyles, advise consumers, and evaluate sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption and production are big players in my thesis and this paper may help me to understand lifecycle analysis and its importance in design on a deeper level.

Roy, Robin. "Sustainable product-service systems." //Futures// 32.3 (2000): 289-299. -This article goes into the details about sustainable product-service systems. It states specific goals of reducing environmental impacts by a factor of between 4and 20 times in the near future. This must be done while maintaining acceptable service and quality production. The work details different services that contribute to the new area including product life extension services, (which is most interesting to me) shared utilization services, result services, and demand side management. It could be a good starting point for my background reading on product life extension practices and practicality.

McDonough, William, et al. "Peer reviewed: Applying the principles of green engineering to cradle-to-cradle design." //Environmental science & technology//37.23 (2003): 434A-441A. - This article reviews engineering guidelines and strategies that can be used in designing more sustainable products and processes. It states the principles of green engineering and how they can be applied in C2C design. I do see some contradictions or at least design compromises in their principle of using less amount of material compared to product durability. There are also concerns with integrity of more sustainable materials. Guidelines can be established but these engineering decisions are still very difficult to make given all the variables that must be taken into account.

El Haggar, Salah. //Sustainable industrial design and waste management: cradle-to-cradle for sustainable development//. Academic Press, 2010. - Explores problems and solutions concerning waste generated in industry. Proposes regulations and cooperate accountability as possible solutions to reducing waste in product life cycles. It covers sustainable development, industrial ecology, environmental reform, and current practice vs future practice. It is argued that disposal stages of waste management must be eliminated and proposes strategies for how. This work is of interest to me because it explores alternative production methods and legislative approaches to sustainable product design and production as well as life cycle analysis and waste management, tied to obsolescence. It is important for me to fully analyze the different views about cradle to cradle and various waste management solutions.

Bulow, Jeremy. "An economic theory of planned obsolescence." //The Quarterly Journal of Economics// (1986): 729-750. - Explains the economic factors that drive different businesses to design less durable products. Idea of increased product rentals being profitable to certain oligopolists’ business models is proposed and examined. It will be good for me to have a solid understanding of the economic factors that drive obsolescence and under what circumstances do I feel they are necessary according to studies and outcomes of various business models.

Nahm, Jae. "Durable‐ Goods Monopoly with Endogenous Innovation." //Journal of Economics & Management Strategy// 13.2 (2004): 303-319. - This article explains how well designed, durable goods create a second-hand market and a disadvantage in staying competitive with rival companies. This has led these companies to produce less durable products to stay profitable. This is a good consequence of current business practice to tie into my paper.

Maycroft, Neil. "Consumption, planned obsolescence and waste." (2009). - This paper explores the social and environmental impact that planned obsolescence has had; an area that is not often covered or even known. This may give me ideas on how to contribute to this area of research and finding solutions to reverse the negative impact of planned obsolescence. It may also help me refine my currently vast coverage of consumer culture.

Lidwell, William, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler, and Kimberly Elam. Universal Principles of Design: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design. Beverly, Mass: Rockport Publishers, 2010. Print. - I actually have this book in print and since I am looking into product design and innovation, I looked to the section on iteration on page 142 which talks about the necessity of iteration for developing good design. “Quality does not occur without iteration”. Sometimes products need to be tested in the actual marketplace and further iterations are designed based on user feedback and initial product successes. You can never fully know how the public will react to an innovation or new product. Just as in nature where complexity only occurs through iteration and the testing out of different structures and functions, so too must designs be tested. But perhaps there are ways that trends and best features can be anticipated and tested through computer modeling before a product is even introduced. Design requirements and product performance can be tested in a lab and with computer models to refine the design of a durable good; however, reading the market is hard to test out without introducing a minimum viable product. Software is far easier to design using this iterative approach because the financial barriers to entry are far less and there is no inventory or physical product to be introduced and tested out.