Mustusest

Mustusest is a contemporary concept in technology studies and organizational design that refers to the situation in which actors face pressures that compel them to adopt, continue to use, or align with a particular tool, standard, or process because alternatives are impractical, costly, or unavailable. It highlights the role of constraints—economic, technical, legal, or social—in shaping choices beyond explicit preference.

The word is a portmanteau of "must" and "usage" and is used to signal that necessity, rather than preference, governs certain usages. It has appeared in scholarly articles, policy briefs, and professional discourse since the early 2020s and is sometimes contrasted with voluntary adoption or innovation-led change.

Characteristics of mustusest include: (1) necessity-driven adoption where options are constrained; (2) path dependence and lock-in as early choices constrain future options; (3) design feedback loops that embed mustusest into systems through defaults or standards; and (4) evaluative metrics such as a mustusest index that blends cost, availability, and performance under constraint. The concept is used to analyze technology ecosystems, supply chains, and regulatory environments in both private and public sectors.

Applications and implications include understanding why organizations cling to legacy platforms, why open standards struggle to replace incumbent solutions, and how policy can reduce undesirable mustusest by increasing interoperability and reducing switching costs. Critics argue that mustusest can conflate necessity with preference and may be difficult to operationalize.