Title: User acceptance in a changing context: why some product-service systems do not suffer acceptance problems

Authors: Hendrikus Schotman; Geke Dina Simone Ludden

Addresses: Faculty of Engineering Technology, Chair of Product Design, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands ' Faculty of Engineering Technology, Chair of Product Design, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract: The Western world is increasingly moving towards a service-oriented economy. The concept of product-service systems (PSSs) can help to deal with this transition. However, users and businesses are generally required to change their normal way of behaving to adhere to a PSS and this often acts as a barrier for successful implementation. This lack of required behavioural change often results in poor user acceptance and many PSS initiatives fail after successful pilot projects. Various measures are put forward to improve acceptance, but not all measures focus on changing user habits. This paper argues that PSSs can be more powerful in gaining user acceptance when they are designed to address lost habits, owing to unwillingly changed behaviour.

Keywords: user acceptance; changing contexts; product-service systems; PSSs; acceptance problems; behavioural change; user habits; personal influences; design research; intrinsic motivation; extrinsic motivation.

DOI: 10.1504/JDR.2014.064231

Journal of Design Research, 2014 Vol.12 No.3, pp.188 - 203

Received: 25 Jan 2013
Accepted: 13 Nov 2013
Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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