Implications of new institutional economy theory for PSS design

At the institute of product development a machine elements (pmd) of Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Product Service Systems are researched as objects of design. In particular, the application of principles and methods of systematic engineering design to PSS design is examined. The aim is to contribute to effective PSS design by generating and evaluating design variants on different levels of concretization. This paper focuses on, the interactions between customer and provider in a Business-to-Consumer scenario. An earlier idea of segmenting PSS into episodes of customer/provider interaction is expanded and an approach for applying selected methods of new institutional economics to the evaluation of design variants is presented. Transaction cost and property rights distribution are proposed as evaluation criteria and suggestions for reducing the consequences of asymmetric information are given. As an example, various alternatives for a PSS “laundry / cleaning clothes” are considered and the results are presented.