Maximising the Competitive Value of Product Design Innovation: Re-framing and Re-aligning the Business-Design Relationship
- Submitting institution
-
Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32Z_OP_D7002
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
-
- Title of journal
- Creative Economy (Economia Creativa)
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 28
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 2395-8200
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- November
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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https://www3.centro.edu.mx/ojs_01/economiacreativa/article/view/21
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This co-authored article addresses a known, but under-researched, issue: the failure of businesses to understand the potential of product design as a strategic tool. It discusses the contribution of product designers to the development processes used by contemporary organisations; and it presents: a) product designers as well-placed providers of strategic development intelligence; b) their proven contributions to their client’s business developments; and, c) how barriers can be dismantled inorder to realise the role of product design in strategic development. The research combined a literature review on business-design relationships with evidence from two interview studies designed and managed by Green. One study included a review of trends in the UK product-design sector and involved extended discussions with twenty leaders in large product-design agencies. A second study, with the London Development Agency, involved ten experts inorder to measure the effectiveness of design-business intelligence-sharing events. A novel dataset was derived from the interviews which were configured specifically to address issues of misalignment between design and business practitioners. Early versions of the article were presented at the IASDR and IPDM conferences and the published version incorporates feedback received from these events. The resulting article is a first detailed examination of the reasons behind the non-optimal use of design as a strategic tool and offers novel remedies for developing greater mutual understanding between business leaders and designers of their respective processes and aims. The article proposes that the problem—and potential remedies—can be found in undergraduate and postgraduate training, and it presents some solutions that offer short-term gains for learners in both design and business disciplines. The conclusions set-out how it might be possible to re-design and combine various elements of both business- and design-school programmes to ensure enhanced understanding of both the promise of design and the strategic needs of businesses.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -