Paper Number
ICIS2025-2505
Paper Type
Complete
Abstract
New products face a distinctiveness dilemma: they must diverge from prior offerings to attract attention yet remain familiar to be recognized as legitimate. Since designers often build on existing artifacts, we ask: how do their form and function reuse decisions shape subsequent product use? Using computational analysis and computer graphics methods, we analyze 35,727 user-contributed designs on a leading 3D-printing platform, quantifying (i) form-dissimilarity via scale- and rotation-invariant 3D-shape comparisons and (ii) functional-dissimilarity via LDA topic modelling of titles, descriptions, and tags. Focusing on 6,249 products, we distinguish four reuse strategies—replication, adaptation, exaptation, and transformation. We find that only exaptation—introducing new functions within a familiar form—increases product use. Moreover, form novelty combined with parent form dissimilarity positively affects product use, whereas functional novelty combined with parent functional dissimilarity negatively affects product use. This study uncovers the reuse strategies and provides actionable recommendations for both research and practice.
Recommended Citation
Alaei, Saideh; Kyriakou, Harris; and Tripathi, Shagun, "Optimal Reuse Strategies in New Product Development: A Computational Study of 3D-Printed Products" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 15.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/general_topic/general_topic/15
Optimal Reuse Strategies in New Product Development: A Computational Study of 3D-Printed Products
New products face a distinctiveness dilemma: they must diverge from prior offerings to attract attention yet remain familiar to be recognized as legitimate. Since designers often build on existing artifacts, we ask: how do their form and function reuse decisions shape subsequent product use? Using computational analysis and computer graphics methods, we analyze 35,727 user-contributed designs on a leading 3D-printing platform, quantifying (i) form-dissimilarity via scale- and rotation-invariant 3D-shape comparisons and (ii) functional-dissimilarity via LDA topic modelling of titles, descriptions, and tags. Focusing on 6,249 products, we distinguish four reuse strategies—replication, adaptation, exaptation, and transformation. We find that only exaptation—introducing new functions within a familiar form—increases product use. Moreover, form novelty combined with parent form dissimilarity positively affects product use, whereas functional novelty combined with parent functional dissimilarity negatively affects product use. This study uncovers the reuse strategies and provides actionable recommendations for both research and practice.
When commenting on articles, please be friendly, welcoming, respectful and abide by the AIS eLibrary Discussion Thread Code of Conduct posted here.
Comments
02-GeneralTopics