Designing Environmentally Sustainable Product–Service Systems for Smart Mobile Devices: A Conceptual Framework and Archetypes

Hang Su (), Alessandra C. Canfield Petrecca () and Carlo Vezzoli
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Hang Su: LeNSlab Polimi, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20158 Milan, Italy
Alessandra C. Canfield Petrecca: LeNSlab Polimi, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20158 Milan, Italy
Carlo Vezzoli: LeNSlab Polimi, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, 20158 Milan, Italy

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-34

Abstract: Smart Mobile Devices (SMD)—including hardware devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and wearables; the software systems that animate them; and the data-communication infrastructure that connects them—pose increasing sustainability challenges due to their short lifespans, high resource demands, and growing e-waste. While Sustainable Product–Service Systems (S.PSS) have been applied in various sectors to support environmental goals, limited research has addressed their application in the context of SMD. This study aims to explore how S.PSS can be tailored to support sustainability in the SMD sector. For that, it combines a literature review with a multiple-case analysis of seventeen commercial offerings to develop a conceptual framework refined through six expert interviews. Cases were coded using the classical PSS typology and other sector-specific criteria and subsequently clustered in a polarity diagram to identify designable patterns, underpinning the conceptual framework. The study contributes an S.PSS-SMD framework comprising a sector-tailored classification and sixteen archetypal models, operationalized in an archetypal map with potential opportunities. Theoretically, the study offers a sector-grounded operationalization that extends S.PSS design theory to digital product–service ecosystems. It provides a strategic decision aid for designing business models, service bundles, stakeholder roles, and lifecycle responsibilities to pursue win–win environmental and economic sustainability.

Keywords: Product-Service Systems; Smart Mobile Devices; design for sustainability; archetypal map (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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