Journal publication · 2026
Wang, G., Beck, S., & Nandhakumar, J. (2026). Designing for emergent use recombinations: A conceptual framework for value capture from connectable products. European Journal of Information Systems, 35(5), 895–918. https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2620415
Explore the original contribution
Interactive paper explorationStarting view
User recombinations may instead create value outside the firm’s original capture architecture.
Original insight
Explore its touchpoint, bridge, and source positions and their distinct mechanism configurations.
Consequence
Match user, product, and firm mechanisms while tracking the uses that emerge after launch.
Platform-centric accounts emphasise network effects that return value to the originating firm. Yet users’ unanticipated recombinations can generate value that stays local or is appropriated by third parties.
Building on the existing value-path idea, the paper introduces value-path position and a framework linking three positions—touchpoint, bridge, and source—to nine interdependent mechanisms across users, products, and firms.
User value realization: experience. Product value reinforcement: habituation. Firm value capture: retention.
User value realization: extension. Product value reinforcement: architecturalization. Firm value capture: transaction.
User value realization: efficacy. Product value reinforcement: sedimentation. Firm value capture: optimization.
Relative positions can coexist or change. They are conceptual archetypes, not fixed product categories or guaranteed outcomes.
Concept explorer
Select a concept to see its role in this paper’s contribution.
A product’s relative position within the flow of value across connected digital resources; positions can change or coexist.
Users interact directly with the product. Experience, retention, and habituation are the associated mechanisms.
The product interlinks digital resources. Extension, transaction, and architecturalization are the associated mechanisms.
The product supplies data, knowledge, or services. Efficacy, optimization, and sedimentation are the associated mechanisms.
The position-based lens explains why value from use recombinations need not flow back to the originating firm. It makes user–product–firm constellations central to analysis.
Introduction, p. 896; theoretical contribution, p. 912.
The framework connects user value realization, product value reinforcement, and firm value capture within each position. Its contribution is their configuration and interdependence, not the invention of every underlying mechanism.
Figure 5 and conceptual specifications, pp. 904–905; theoretical integration, pp. 908–909.
Clarify whether the product should primarily be a touchpoint, bridge, or source and align design choices accordingly. Strong positions outside the bridge role can also create strategic opportunities.
Theoretical contribution and practical implications, pp. 912–913.
Attend simultaneously to user realization, product reinforcement, and firm capture. Monitor emergent use recombinations and iteratively update the product’s positioning and design.
Five-step iterative approach, Table 5, p. 913.
Why this matters
As connected products are repurposed after launch, firms need to recognise where value arises and how it becomes capturable, rather than assume greater connectivity or a platform strategy will suffice.
Discuss this researchBroad-theorizing literature review of 292 papers. Positions are theoretical archetypes, not fixed product categories. Mechanisms are causal potentials, not guaranteed outcomes; transitions and boundary conditions need further empirical investigation.
Review selection, 292-paper dataset, and interpretive synthesis.
Position typology, nine mechanisms and interrelationships.
Platformization critique, iterative guidance, and causal-potential caveats.
This exploration is based on the author-supplied full text. It distinguishes the paper’s own contribution from established concepts it draws on. For formal citation, consult the publication.