From Phonebloks to Google Project Ara. A Case Study of the Application of Sustainable Mass Customization

Hankammer S, Jiang R, Kleer R, Schymanietz M (2016)

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2016

Journal

Procedia CIRP Curran

Book Volume: 51

Pages Range: 72-78

DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2016.04.157

Abstract

Mass Customization (MC) has become a major trend in the consumer goods market in recent years. However, it is still unclear if MC goods have a positive impact on the environment due to the many influencing factors in comparison to mass produced goods. With Google's "Project Ara", a modular and customizable smartphone approach is very likely to reach market maturity and its economic, social and ecologic impacts are still unclear. Using a qualitative case study approach, we shed light on its potential economic success. Furthermore, we use the two theoretical concepts of Eco Innovation (EI) and Systemic Innovation (SI) to assess Google Ara's potential to lead to changes in terms of ecologic and social concerns. In our analysis, we show that Project Ara has the potential to outperform its competitors of modular smartphones. We work out that Google's modular approach could lead to a longer useful life of smartphones - or at least for some components. Finally, we affirm Project Ara's general potential for being an SI. Even though Project Ara will very likely not change the complete smartphone market and the behavior of the involved actors, there is a potential for influencing sociocultural behavior in the long tail of the smartphone market. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Authors with CRIS profile

Martin Schymanietz Chair of Information Systems I, Innovation and Value Creation

Involved external institutions

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Hankammer, S., Jiang, R., Kleer, R., & Schymanietz, M. (2016). From Phonebloks to Google Project Ara. A Case Study of the Application of Sustainable Mass Customization. In Proceedings of the 3rd ICRM 2016 International Conference on Ramp-Up Management (pp. 72-78).

MLA:

Hankammer, Stephan, et al. "From Phonebloks to Google Project Ara. A Case Study of the Application of Sustainable Mass Customization." Proceedings of the 3rd ICRM 2016 International Conference on Ramp-Up Management 2016. 72-78.

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