The contribution of technology to improving meanings: The quantitative analysis of meanings

This paper focuses on an innovation of product meanings. Although the literatures on the product meanings are rich, they didn't mention how a company makes new meanings because they focus on examination of the process. Therefore, this paper suggests the comprehensive framework between technologies and product meanings and quantitatively examines the response of consumer in kakaku.com, which is the Website for price comparing in Japan. We defined that meanings consist of aesthetic impression, semantic interpretation and symbolic association. The results of linear regressions show that consumer emphasis on semantic interpretation. Therefore, technologies on semantic interpretation should be developed in NPD. Our framework and results can stimulate further investigation on the innovation of meanings in the discipline of technology management.