A design research study on enhancing creativity - The case of developing product-service bundles

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