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Planned Obsolescence

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Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management

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Synonyms

Built-in obsolescence; Intended obsolescence; Product obsolescence; Programmed obsolescence

Definition

Planned obsolescence (PO) is the deliberate shortening of the usable lifespan of a product to accelerate the pace of consumption. It can be defined from either the company’s or consumer’s perspective. From the former perspective, PO can be considered as part of the product replacement strategy whereas it is part of marketing strategy from the latter perspective.

As an economic strategy, PO originated in 1932 during the Great Depression in the USA. Bernard London suggested it as a means to end the recession by stimulating turnover, reviving the consumption cycle and boosting the economy. Through various PO mechanisms, companies would motivate consumers to repeat purchases more quickly.

These mechanisms are scattered across many product-related factors based on purposefully reducing a product’s lifespan. There are three types of obsolescence: obsolescence of desirability,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business, Department of Business Administration, Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey

    Gizem Aras Beger

Authors
  1. Gizem Aras Beger
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gizem Aras Beger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law London Metropolitan University, London Metropolitan University, London, UK

    Samuel O. Idowu

  2. BFH - Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    René Schmidpeter

  3. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Nicholas Capaldi

  4. International Training Centre of the IL, International Labor Organization, Turin, Italy

    Liangrong Zu

  5. Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Mara Del Baldo

  6. Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

    Rute Abreu

Section Editor information

  1. Ethics, Gender and Sustainability Research Group, Economics and Business Department, University of Almería, Almería, Spain

    Pedro Antonio Martín-Cervantes

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Aras Beger, G. (2023). Planned Obsolescence. In: Idowu, S.O., Schmidpeter, R., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Del Baldo, M., Abreu, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25984-5_986

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