The ecological and societal problems caused by product obsolescence and consumerism in modern economies constitute a ‘wicked human‐made problem’ of significant magnitude. Current (old) ways of thinking cannot address these problems. Accordingly, in this paper, we critically explore the novel idea of integrated personhood and worldviews to theorise research on self‐repairers and their repair behaviours to extend product lifetimes. We conducted a structured and systematic review of published work (n=183) to identify the conceptual content of the field to inform our theorisation. Our findings highlight three key issues. Firstly, constricted theorisation undermines understanding of self‐repairers and their product lifetime extension (and spillover) behaviours. Secondly, the underlying conceptual complexity is typically underestimated. Thirdly, the dominance of voluntarist and deterministic studies impedes new directions in research. From our review, an integrated worldview‐personhood framework emerges that can deepen understanding of avant‐garde self‐repairers’ engagement with product lifetimes.
Dermody, Janine Nagase, Yoko Berger, Wolfram
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year of publication: 2020Date of RADAR deposit: 2020-03-27