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Top2. Conceptualizing The Role Of Consumer’S Creative Efforts In Product Adoption
Mainstream product development literature (e.g., on designing and managing innovative products and services) places the concept of “creativity” either within the fuzzy-front end of new product development (NPD) where strategy is laid out, concepts are generated and their feasibility is assessed; or within the attributes of the creative artifact itself. In recent years, however, this very limited vision has been questioned at various ends. In the area of design research, for instance, a product is seen as a material that is adopted only in so much as it is adapted to prevailing circumstances and “ecologies” (Ehn, 2008; Redström, 2008). These ecologies include a constellation of other materials and human beings each having a place that changes continuously in space and time. As an example, one can think of a book that is being read by a father, that is being used as a toy in a theatre play by a child, that is being used as a heavy item to hold in place loose papers on the desk, or that is being placed in the family’s library as a memorable antique from the 19th century. A book is not simply a book, in this case, but it can take different roles and shape a family’s life in different ways; it can be highly practical or become an archival artifact, thus being endowed with different meanings in certain situations. The book (product) can easily become these different things. To some, it is one of the greatest inventions that never seem to have completely faltered despite technological advances. It is a product design that, for instance, incorporates each of the three important features of “good design”, namely “usefulness, usability and desirability” (“triangle of doom” in Buchanan, 2004), while leaving it up to the user to define the weighing of each of these features. Almost any form of creative appropriation can readily happen through its simplicity, transparency, and versatility, amongst others. People can invest in their skills and create meaning with the help of a product, which is thus integrated into existing or new forms of practices (Shove et al., 2012; Suchman et al., 1999).