Technologies in Decline Koretsky, Zahar; Stegmaier, Peter; Turnheim, Bruno ...
2023, 20221230, 2022-12-30
eBook, Book
Open access
The central questions of this book are how technologies decline, how societies deal with technologies in decline, and how governance may be explicitly oriented towards parting with ‘undesirable’ ...technology. Surprisingly, these questions are fairly novel. Thus far, the dominant interest in historical, economic, sociological and political studies of technology has been to understand how novelty emerges, how innovation can open up new opportunities and how such processes may be supported. This innovation bias reflects how in the last centuries modern societies have embraced technology as a vehicle of progress. It is timely, however, to broaden the social study of technology and society: next to considering the rise of technologies, their fall should be addressed, too. Dealing with technologies in decline is an important challenge or our times, as socio-technical systems are increasingly part of the problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequalities and geo-political tensions. This volume presents empirical studies of technologies in decline, as well as conceptual clarifications and theoretical deepening. Technologies in Decline presents an emerging research agenda for the study of technological decline, emphasising the need for a plurality of perspectives. Given that destabilisation and discontinuation are seen as a way to accelerate sustainability transitions, this book will be of interest to academics, students and policy makers researching and working in the areas of sustainability science and policy, economic geography, innovation studies, and science and technology studies.
Does being green facilitate product innovation? This study examines whether green management in firms operating in China fosters radical product innovation to a greater extent than it does ...incremental product innovation and investigates the underlying institutional mechanisms involved in the relationship between green management and product innovation. The findings show that green management is more likely to lead to radical product innovation than to incremental product innovation. Moreover, government support as a formal institutional benefit more strongly mediates the effect of green management on radical product innovation than its effect on incremental product innovation; whereas social legitimacy as an informal institutional benefit more strongly mediates the effect of green management on incremental product innovation than its effect on radical product innovation. These findings provide important implications for explaining how firms employ green management to facilitate product innovation.
Green product innovation has been recognized as one of the key factors to achieve growth, environmental sustainability, and a better quality of life. Understanding green product innovation as a ...result of interaction between innovation and sustainability has become a strategic priority for theory and practice. This article investigates green product innovation by means of a multiple case study analysis of 12 small to medium size manufacturing companies based in Italy and Canada. First, we propose a conceptual framework that presents three key environmental dimensions of green product innovation such as energy minimization, materials reduction, and pollution prevention as identified in the life cycle phases of products. Based on insights gained from in-depth interviews, we discuss firms' motivations to develop green products, environmental policies and targets for products, different dimensions of green product innovation, and challenges faced during developing and marketing of green products. Results from the study are then synthesized and integrated in a toolbox that sheds light on various aspects of green product innovation and provides solutions to challenges and risks that are faced by firms. Finally, implications for managers, academia and public policy makers are discussed.
A product-harm crisis is a discrete event in which products are found to be defective and therefore dangerous to at least part of the product’s customer base. Product-harm crises are not only ...dangerous for consumers; they also represent a major threat to the reputation and equity of brands or companies, which often struggle with how to best respond. The marketing literature has witnessed a surge in interest on the consequences of product-harm crises for a variety of stakeholders, including consumers, the brand or company itself, its investors, as well as competitors. This article offers a systematic review of research on product-harm crises in the marketing literature. We discuss the antecedents and consequences of product-harm crises, their moderators and mediators, and the theories and methodologies used. We identify commonalities and differences between the studies, as well as gaps in the literature and avenues for future research. Finally, we synthesize the managerial implications across studies.
There is a huge scarcity of good, practical resources for designers and students interested in minimising the environmental impacts of products.
Design + Environment
has been specifically written to ...address this paucity.
The book first provides background information to help the reader understand how and why design for environment (DfE) has become so critical to design, with reference to some of the most influential writers, designers and companies in the field. Next,
Design + Environment
provides a step-by-step approach on how to approach DfE: to design a product that meets requirements for quality, cost, manufacturability and consumer appeal, while at the same time minimising environmental impacts. The first step in the process is to undertake an assessment of environmental impacts, using life-cycle assessment (LCA) or one of the many simpler tools available to help the designer. From then on, DfE becomes an integral part of the normal design process, including the development of concepts, design of prototypes, final design and development of marketing strategies.
Environmental assessment tools and strategies to reduce environmental impacts, such as the selection of appropriate materials, are then discussed. Next, some of the links between environmental problems, such as global warming, ozone depletion, water and air pollution and the everyday products we consume are considered. In order to design products with minimal environmental impact, we need to have a basic understanding of these impacts and the interactions between them.
The four subsequent chapters provide more detailed strategies and case studies for particular product groups: packaging, textiles, furniture, and electrical and electronic products. Guidelines are provided for each of the critical stages of a product’s life, from the selection of raw materials through to strategies for recovery and recycling.
Finally,
Design + Environment
takes a look at some of the emerging trends in DfE that are offering us the opportunity to make a more significant reduction in environmental impacts. Both the development of more sustainable materials and technologies and the growing interest in leasing rather than selling products are examined.
Design + Environment
is organised as a workbook rather than an academic text. It should be read once, and then used as a key reference source. This clear and informative book will prove to be invaluable to practising designers, to course directors and their students in need of a core teaching and reference text and to all those interested in learning about the tools and trends influencing green product design.
The authors have all been involved in an innovative demonstration programme, ‘EcoReDesign™’, which was developed by the Centre for Design at RMIT University with funding from the Australian government. The Centre successfully collaborated with Australian companies to improve the environmental performance of their products by following DfE principles.
Drastic increases in the scale and complexity of engineered systems present many new challenges for the product development (PD) and engineering design communities. PD is characterized by the ...development of large, multidisciplinary, and networked systems that cannot be embraced by a single group or organization. Appropriate PD management principles can circumvent many of the difficulties that arise during the PD process. In this article, the author presents an integrative literature review that includes theories, models, and tools that can be used to manage complex PD. The review is structured around three PD analysis domains: product, people, and process. The review does not identify all the publications in any one PD domain, but instead addresses critical issues that exist within each domain and at the intersection of these domains. By reviewing these representative papers and creating a critical discussion around them, the intent is to provide an overview of the available theories, models, and tools for PD practitioners, while simultaneously identifying opportunities for future research.
Because no previous literature discusses the determinants of green product development performance, this study develops an original framework to fill the research gap. This study explores the ...influences of green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership on green product development performance and investigates the mediation role of green creativity. The results demonstrate that green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership positively influence green creativity and green product development performance. Besides, this study indicates that the positive relationships between green product development performance and their two antecedents—green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership—are partially mediated by green creativity. It means that green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership can not only directly affect green product development performance positively but also indirectly affect it positively via green creativity. Hence, companies have to increase their green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, and green creativity to enhance their green product development performance.
Remanufactured products do not always cannibalize new product sales. To minimize cannibalization and create additional profits, managers need to understand how consumers value remanufactured ...products. This is not a static decision and should be re-evaluated over the entire product life cycle. While managers have a responsibility to maximize profits for the firm, this is not necessarily equivalent to maximizing new product sales. A portfolio that includes remanufactured products can enable firms to reach additional market segments and help block competition from new low-end products or third-party remanufacturers.
Many electronic commerce platforms and retailers have increasingly adopted free product sampling to promote products and to attract product reviews. We conjecture that consumers who receive free ...samples may reciprocate by giving higher ratings as a return to retailers’ beneficial action, which causes rating biases. Specifically, we are interested in understanding how free sampling promotion of a product affects the product’s rating and the roles of important contingent factors, including product pricing (i.e., list price and price discount) and product popularity. Analyzing data collected from
Taobao.com
, we find that, on average, engaging in free product sampling increases product rating by 1.1%. Moreover, the bias would be larger with higher original price but smaller with larger price discount and higher product popularity. Our findings suggest that retailers could conduct free sampling promotions to improve their product ratings, but consumers should be cautious about the possible biases in ratings, and platform operators or rating system designers should offer solutions to correct the biases.
Free product sampling has increasingly become a popular promotional strategy and served as a new mechanism of product review generation in e-commerce. We empirically analyze how a product’s engagement in free product sampling affects the product’s review rating, and we also examine important contingent factors of product pricing and product popularity. Using a rich data set from Taobao.com and multiple identification strategies and estimation methods, we find that engaging in free product sampling increases product rating by 1.1%. We argue that it is consumers’ reciprocal behavior of giving higher ratings as a return to retailers’ beneficial actions that causes rating bias. We further find that the bias would be larger with higher original price but smaller with larger price discount and higher product popularity. Our empirical findings provide important contributions to the literature on product sampling and word-of-mouth and offer critical managerial implications to online retailers, rating system designers, and consumers.
The online appendix is available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2018.0801
.
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