From Plant-Pollinator to Product-Customer: Bioinspired Network Modularity Analysis in Design for Market Systems

Bioinspired design takes inspiration from nature to address challenges in human engineering, often delivering innovative and high-performing design solutions. Despite its significance, bioinspired design is less applied in systems engineering contexts compared to the design of tangible artifacts. A recent study of student-tool bipartite network models of makerspaces found that bioinspired network modularity (drawing inspiration from plant-pollinator networks) could facilitate the understanding of a makerspace’s health and functioning. This work further explores the utility of bipartite network models and the associated modularity analysis by extending it to a study of product-customer relations. Focusing on the household vacuum cleaner market, we identify brand preferences among customer groups categorized by geo-location, age, and purchased vacuum cleaner type. A comparison between the modularity of plant-pollinator and product-customer networks reveals that the former exhibit greater modularity, an insight that sets the stage for using bioinspired system design to inform the engineering design decisions for desired market performances. If successful, the approach could assist enterprises in understanding their target customers and formulating effective market strategies, such as targeted advertising to customer groups exhibiting limited interest in their products. This novel translation of bioinspired modularity analysis underscores the viability of biomimetic design in complex socio-technical systems.