Topological Characterization of an Evolving Product Structure Network: A Case Study of Generational Smartphone Products

Abstract

Products evolve over time to satisfy new customer needs, technologies, and markets. The evolution process of products necessarily involves changes in a product structure that might be characterized by inherent evolving properties. Although product evolution has been discussed from various perspectives, the underlying properties of an evolving product structure have not been sufficiently explored from an analytical view. Various empirical and theoretical studies in network science show that real networks representing different types of complex systems are not randomly structured but are characterized by certain properties regardless of their origins. Focusing on the topological universality of real networks, this study aims to reveal the inherent evolving properties of a product structure based on a network science approach through a case study of generational smartphone models. First, the product structure of each generational product is represented as a product structure network. Then, topological characteristics and patterns in each network are analyzed by network measures and motifs. The results show that the product structure networks may follow the universal properties observed in other real networks; the product structure grows as a scale-free network with common building blocks. The findings from this study suggest that the identified properties can be used as a basis to understand and formulate product evolution to obtain design benefits from topological robustness and modularity.