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