Towards User-Centric Design Guidelines for PaaS Systems: The Case of Home Appliances

Moving towards Circular Economy often implies designing Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS²). For established products on the consumer market, the most obvious IPS² model to go for is Product-as-a-Service (PaaS), i.e., providing the product to consumers in a sort of leasing model. However, this move is generally confronted with huge challenges of customer acceptance. This research aims at establishing a method for determining design guidelines for the user-centric design of products, services, and business models for Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) systems. It seeks to provide determinants of consumers’ decisions regarding the acceptance and use of PaaS. In particular, it studies leasing options of white goods (washing machines, fridges, and kitchens) through a user-centric methodology through a customer acceptance survey. The results allowed an understanding of consumer expectations and desires for leasing and which socio-demographic factors, as well as product and service attributes influence or even determine PaaS acceptance.