Second-hand product consumption is pivotal for the success of circular economies, yet engaging in the shopping transactions presents challenges. While still niche, these shopping channels validate consumers’ acceptance and purchasing of pre-owned products influenced by various factors identified through literature. This paper synthesizes the literature on barriers and motivations to second-hand product consumption, clarifying their influence and contextual nuances. Drawing from 20 semi-structured interviews enriches qualitative data through affinity diagramming. It extends findings by identifying two barriers (identity discrepancy and lack of exchange service) and six motivations (supporting charity, material value, showcasing expertise, resale value, easy ownership, and self-care). Additionally, it analyses four deviant cases, revealing the complexity of second-hand product consumption dynamics. Findings underscore these dynamics depend on context, shopping experience, and product type rather than category. Elucidating this contributes significantly to understanding consumer behaviour and provides valuable insights for designing strategies that promote circular consumption and sustainable lifestyles.

Product longevity is a key to improving the sustainability of production and consumption patterns. However, at many companies, extending product longevity requires overcoming several complex barriers. Identifying how to begin this process can be difficult; moreover, the available solutions may seem too complex or radical and, therefore, may be ignored as viable options. The purpose of this paper is to study the approaches and decision patterns that enable best-practice companies to produce high-longevity products. We aim to map approaches to implementing product longevity through a multiple-case study of 18 best-practice companies that systematically work to ensure product longevity. Through interviews with developers, CFOs and CEOs at companies that strive to design and produce long-lasting products, we identify three key types of approaches to implementing product longevity: performance-driven, behavioural change-driven and vision-driven approaches. This study reveals several types of approaches to implementing product longevity successfully. This contribution advances our understanding of how companies can engage with and foster product longevity at different stages of the development process.

Today research has come far in explaining distinct aspects of design expertise at different skill levels. However, with the increasing number of studies, we argue there is a need to assimilate present knowledge. In this paper we advance the field of design expertise by conducting a structured literature review. Through a systematic search of papers, from 1970 to today, we identify 110 papers concerning design expertise. We then analyze the accumulated research, and map how design expertise research has evolved, in terms of what we know and what remains unexplored. Through the review, we contribute with a distinction of skills acquisition at increasing levels of design expertise.

As a counter-reaction to the increasing speed at which products are consumed, companies have embraced the idea of designing products that last longer. To understand characteristics of long-lasting products, this paper examines the product categories and design properties of products that are inherited, and thus have a prolonged product lifetime. Based on previous research, we propose a theoretical framework with product categories and design properties for inherited products. We then deploy this framework on an empirical dataset of 175 inherited products that are identified through participants’ self-assessments. These are then analyzed in respect to 18 product categories and three overall groups of design properties: emotional properties (memories and brand), functional properties (functions), and aesthetic properties (colors and materials). Our study shows that the most inherited product categories are kitchenware (24%), furniture (21%), home decoration (14%) and jewelry (12%); it also shows that the reasons for keeping inherited products differ across product categories. However, inherited products commonly display honest and/or gracefully aging material, colors that reflect the material choice, single functions, and functional independency—that is, they do not rely on other products to function.