A Design Research Study on Enhancing Creativity - the Case of Developing Product-Service Bundles

Müller-Wienbergen F, Seidel S, Müller O, Knackstedt R, Becker J

Abstract
As the sole production of goods is more and more becoming a commodity, many manufactures startbundling their physical products with related value-added services in order to differentiate their valuepropositions. The process of developing such customer-oriented combinations of products and servicesis an innovation process that requires the input of creative individuals. In this design-oriented paper wedescribe the conceptual design and prototypical implementation of an IT system that supports creativeindividuals performing such creative development efforts. The conceptual design builds on theprovision of explicit knowledge by means of multi-perspective, hierarchical navigation structures. Weargue that this concept (a) fosters information access that accords with the creative nature of a productdevelopment process and (b) furthering creative thinking through the provision of three distinct typesof stimuli that actuates new entry points in a person's cognitive network. The conceptual design of thesystem has its underpinnings in associative theories on creativity.

Keywords
Creativity Support; Product-Service Bundles; Information Retrieval; Navigation; Hierarchies