On Styles in Product Design: An Analysis of US Design Patents

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chan, Tian Heong; Mihm, Jurgen; Sosa, Manuel E.
• 署名单位: Emory University; INSEAD Business School; INSEAD Business School
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2653
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 1230-1249
• 关键词: product form; Cluster analysis; experimental validation; design patents; industry turbulence; design innovation

摘要

Products combine function and form. This paper focuses on product form. We combine state-of-the-art clustering techniques with experimental validation to identify styles (groupings of new product designs of similar form) among the more than 350,000 U.S. design patents granted from 1977 through 2010. Thus we compile, for the first time, a rich data set of styles that can serve as an empirical platform for a rigorous study of the role played by product form in new product development. Building on this platform, we analyze the determinants of style turbulence-the year-to-year unpredictability of changes in a style's prevalence. We find that (i) style turbulence follows a U-shaped relationship with respect to function turbulence (the turbulence of product functions associated with a given style), and (ii) style turbulence increases over time. We discuss the implications of these findings for managing design in new product development.