Is it possible to develop truly universal products

A common challenge to this view is the concept of cultural relativism. What the West may consider universal norms in human rights are not applicable in other cultures.

Human rights are argued to have developed from Western culture and thus they are inappropriate in application to other cultures Langlois, , Western origins of human rights and the incompatibility of its imposition are argued to prove human rights should not and cannot be universally applicable. There are arguments that economic development must precede human rights, believing that human rights are too expensive and too risky for poor countries Freeman, , This is a clear argument suggesting human rights should not be made universal, as many states are not ready.

Samir Amin identifies the human rights agenda as shallow rhetoric disguising the promotion of US interests , The human rights discussion surrounding the invasion of Iraq has justified the fear that human rights are a tool of neo-imperialism, particularly as the US has not promoted human rights in Kuwait despite years of presence there Amin, , Ayittey believes charges of imperialism have prevented the West from criticising authoritarian states , The political use of these arguments has deterred international and domestic criticism of atrocious abuses of human rights.

Amartya Sen argues promises and claims by authoritative leaders are given too much respect , Leaders may manipulate discussion of human rights, adopting self-serving positions to prevent changes to the status quo.

This shows us that cultural relativist arguments are often a shallow tool used to impede the application of human rights. Unrepresentative manipulation of human rights arguments can be clearly seen in anti-imperialist rhetoric. It is clear shallow arguments appealing to culture and sovereignty, as well as Western clumsiness and hypocrisy, have shielded human rights abuses from scrutiny.

Radical universalism is also a weak notion, dismissing culture entirely Donnelly, , Cultural differences and the right to self-determination must be taken into account for human rights to be applicable Mutua, , 34 , otherwise they will be irrelevant or rejected as imperialism Ibid.

For human rights to be universal, it is crucial for them to be compatible with cultural differences. Freeman argues there is no necessary incompatibility between communal values and individual rights , The human rights movement has been able to re-focus attention onto social and economic rights, giving it more legitimacy in the Third-World Ibid. It is crucial for human rights to gain legitimacy by incorporating cross-cultural perspectives. Dershowitz argues that existing theories of human rights do not aptly explain the wide-ranging promotion of rights seen today In: Ramcharan, , The basis of rights need not have cultural or philosophical origins, but instead be a response to common injustices humanity has seen Ramcharan, , All cultures have common histories of injustices, demands for human rights from oppressed populations often drive reform Mahmud, , When the basis of rights is presented in these terms, it is fundamentally clear that they should be universally applied.

This forms a strong case for the universality of human rights, certain key factors could ensure this conception can be applied universally.

An existing basis in international law provides legitimacy to the human rights movement and a tool to hold governments to account. The UDHR was formed with major influence from Non-Western states Glendon, , 38 , giving it legitimacy as a universally-applicable document. The creation of the International Criminal Court is a major development in human rights law, being able to independently investigate and charge individuals for serious human rights violations Cassese, , International agreements are a universal source of human rights standards, empowering civil society.

The international community, and specifically the West, can play a far more positive role in ensuring human rights are respected. The West has played a more positive role in holding governments to account Bujra, , Bujra shows that authoritarian governments appear more constrained following enhanced foreign oversight , The international community can play a strong role in holding governments to account, providing legitimacy to domestic campaigns for human rights.

Civil society has played a crucial role in pushing for human rights worldwide. Then, a brainstorming activity was performed similar to the previous year. In the third year of the study, the authors approached 75 students, i. The products and services studied were confetti, calendar, rope, scissors, dust bin, railway compartment, passenger vehicles, raincoat, salon, fire brigade, cinema theater, app-driven taxi operator, passport application service, automobile service center, and annual maintenance contract for a device.

The students were informed about the products and services that were already studied and encouraged to identify the attributes of newer ones. Broadly, the study can be divided into two steps, viz.

Step 1. Identification of consumer needs and aspirations from a variety of products and services that they use, using Natural Language Processing to determine the true meaning of what the consumers have said. These expressions are the attributes that they desire in a product or a service. Step 2. To identify consumer needs and aspirations, over a 6-year period, 43 groups five participants per group were assigned a product or a service.

Overall sample size comprises of respondents. There were 45 common attributes that appeared as the major findings of the study and are discussed in the section of findings. The attributes identified by each group were combined into an exhaustive master-list. Abridged findings from only six such groups out of the 43 groups of students engaged are listed below, in the interest of the length of the paper.

The attributes identified for an umbrella were capacity, durability, multiple utility, reliability, safety, portability, uniqueness, flexibility, customization, optimization, ergonomics, comfort, ease of use, availability, affordability, esthetics, ease of manufacturing, fun to use, ease of assembly for the user, and operating costs. The results are depicted in Fig. The attributes identified for a stapler were convergence to other modes, ergonomics, ease of use, availability, affordability, esthetics, uniqueness, cycle time, fun to use, after sales service, operating costs, capacity, modularity, durability, multiple utility, reliability, safety, maintenance, ease of manufacturing, mode of payment, customization, traceability.

The attributes associated with a hospital were modularity, non-verbal communication, availability, affordability, portability, inter-systemic component interaction, ability to be of stand-alone use, mode of payment, traceability, capacity, ease of use, multiple utility, reliability, safety, maintenance, flexibility, cycle time, dynamic display of usage, operating costs.

When findings from all the 43 groups were combined, there emerged a comprehensive list of 45 attributes that products and services have. If a product is adaptable across different media, then it is said to be convergent to multiple modes , e. This allows the end-user to create multiple options using the same basic building blocks, e. In a service offering, there could be different features which could be added or deleted to enhance the user-experience.

Addition or deletion of any feature s , in this case, does not affect the performance of the core offering. When a product is so designed that the learning phase for using the same is very negligible, e.

One does not have to read an instruction manual to understand how to use it. When a product communicates without any written or spoken text for completion of the usage cycle, e.

The length of this strip reduces as the charge diminishes. When a product is used, it is always used in a larger ecosystem, when the product interacts with its surroundings, there should be seamlessness no damage , e. If there were two companies offering pest control products of equal efficacy, but one of them left stains on the wall, a consumer would choose the one that did not, i. When the usage of a product is not dependent on an external accessory, that product is said to have the ability to be of stand-alone use, e.

The new calculators had the ability to be of stand-alone use. When a product is mistake-proofed, i. When a product is available together with the necessary accessories, e. A built-in charger would avoid those inconvenient experiences.

All the attributes listed out by all the participants have been combined into a comprehensive list as Table 2. Thus, it covers an exhaustive list of all attributes that a product or a service should have.

Such a list can be used while creating a new product or upgrading an existing one. Each of the attributes could be analyzed in detail and then a decision about how to embed the same in the product or service can be taken. After due deliberations, the decision could go for or against embedding the attribute. A couple of examples have been listed below to illustrate the practical implications of the proposed framework.

This attribute gives a value to the product even after it has become redundant or obsolete for the user, e. Tanishq has used resale of its jewelery and coins to its advantage. Tanishq offers a buy-back policy which is trusted by consumers.

After branding the gold jewelery with its logo on every piece, it has started using it as a mark of trust, thereby enhancing its resale value. This attribute adds the feature of the object being located easily, thereby leading to accessibility and safety.

FedEx has employed a complex IT platform to enable this. This has provided consumers tremendous peace of mind and enabled FedEx to capture a substantial market share in the last decade or so. The framework provides a fast-track method to list out and examine what attributes a product should have.

A comprehensive model could be created taking into account the weightage of consumer preferences across attributes for different products. For this model, user inputs about their preferences of the attributes involved could be taken and due weightages created for the same.

The framework in Table 2 provides various attributes which can be treated like a checklist for the creation of any product or service. Thus, the process can be used for upgrading an existing product or a service as well as creating a new product or a service.

It would also shorten the product development lifecycle. Since the proposed framework is a comprehensive framework, it can be used by new product or service developers irrespective of what stage their offerings are in the product lifecycle, whether in inception or maturity stage and can be adopted by all organizations, big and small, for profit and not for profit or for both, products and services.

Moreover, the framework can be applied to process as well as organizational innovation, since the building blocks of the framework stand for attributes that are universal in nature, e. The proposed framework can be used for system design too, such as habitat design for migrant workers, wherein each of the identified attributes from the proposed framework need to be considered to create a holistic habitat.

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The Academy of Management Perspectives, 22 1 , 58— Download references. I, Dr. Dhargalkar acknowledge the contributions of my co-authors for helping me in the conducting of the research study, as stated above.

I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the following colleagues who helped me in this study. Chitralekha Kumar helped in compilation and formatting of the text for the submissions.

She also helped me with finding the right kind of content for the literature survey. KD conceptualized the research and conducted every focus group and has written the final version.

KS and YA, the co-authors, helped conduct some of the focus groups and drafted the first version of the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to Kaustubh Dhargalkar. Reprints and Permissions. Dhargalkar, K. A universal new product development and upgradation framework.

J Innov Entrep 5, 27 Download citation. Received : 27 June Accepted : 02 August Published : 26 August Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Skip to main content. Search all SpringerOpen articles Search. Download PDF. Literature review The new product development literature reflects the importance of introducing new products in the market for the success of any sustainable business.

The advantages of this stage gate process are: i. It speeds up the mind-to-market cycle ii. It reduces rework and other forms of waste iii. Besides these advantages, there are certain shortcomings embedded in this process such as: a Customer feedback is sought at the validation stage, which is too late, thus making the cost of change enormous b The project team is forced to take decisions early due to the in-built stages and gates, reducing the flexibility and further escalating the cost of change c Product development, in this process, goes through a sequential process, while in reality, it is otherwise iv.

The rejected ideas may not get documented and may be lost forever, since the emphasis is on quickly moving forward through elimination, rather than building of concepts through user feedback The New Product Development Model proposed by Achrol and Kotler postulates the use of a funnel through which new ideas and concepts are passed.

Methods Rationale This is an exploratory study aimed at developing a grounded understanding of attributes of products and services that are desired by the consumers. They are frequent users of the chosen products and services 2. They keep trying out new products often due to which they would be a good sample to compare attributes of products or services across different categories Detailed methodology The study covered participants over a 3-year period.

Year 1 A total of 70 respondents were involved in the first year. In the brainstorming activity, the groups were instructed as follows: Table 1 List of products and services analyzed Full size table. Attributes of an umbrella. Full size image. Attributes of a laptop computer. Attributes of a mobile phone. Attributes of a stapler. Attributes of an educational institute. Attributes of a hospital. Results and discussion All the attributes listed out by all the participants have been combined into a comprehensive list as Table 2.

Graphical depiction of the new product development framework. References Achrol, R. Article Google Scholar Alpert, M. Google Scholar Beckley, J.