On Breaking Functional Fixedness
- Author(s)
- Sara Caprioli, Christoph Fuchs, Bram van den Bergh
- Abstract
How do consumers react to products assembled from existing components? Nine studies in both the lab and the field demonstrate that consumers evaluate products as more creative and more appealing when they consist of components that originally served entirely different functions. When consumers realize that the intended functionality of a component is not fixed, but versatile, they experience an aha! moment, which in turn enhances perceived product creativity and product appeal. This research bridges engineering and consumer research providing theoretical contributions to the product design and creativity literature. The findings of this research have substantive implications for designing sustainable products, especially for product upcycling, the process of transforming old or used components into new products.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Marketing and International Business
- External organisation(s)
- Technische Universität München, Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Journal
- Journal of Consumer Research
- Volume
- 50
- Pages
- 48-69
- No. of pages
- 22
- ISSN
- 0093-5301
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad010
- Publication date
- 2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 502019 Marketing
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology, Economics and Econometrics, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), Marketing, Business and International Management
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/on-breaking-functional-fixedness(fd120d69-7e5f-42ef-9b4d-d9979a3316e0).html