42 research outputs found
Exploring Eco-Design Strategies in Italian Design-Driven Firms
Get PDFGiven the growing emergence of environmental challenges, firms must reduce
environmental impacts and achieve business performance. Hence, we investigate how environmental sustainability approaches relate to design-driven innovation (DDI) connected to new product development, zooming in on active design-oriented firms in the industrial sector in Italy. This paper, in particular, addresses to what extent eco-approaches to design are adopted and connected to new product development in these innovation-driven firms, and how such approaches relate to innovation, customer value creation, and business performance. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of the Italian manufacturing companies associated with the
Industrial Design Association (ADI, Associazione del Design Industriale), from the entrepreneurial perspective. The study reveals three different clusters of companies with varying levels of adoption of eco-design approaches and a combination of such
approaches. One cluster reveals the highest level of adoption of all the types of approaches, the second is a high level of adoption of three types of approaches (durability, reduction,
recycling), and a low level of adoption of the other three types (reparability, disassembling,
regeneration) and a third cluster performs a medium level of adoption of all types of
approaches. Further, we discovered that from the entrepreneur's perspective, firms
adopting design for durability and design for recycling approaches positively and
significantly impact innovation, customer value and business performance. The study
represents an additional revelatory contribution to the understanding of the relationship
between innovation and environmental sustainability and the generic kinds of According
to entrepreneurs, eco-design strategies are adopted by highly design-oriented firms in new
product development
Traditional and environmentally friendly attributes in products of highly design-oriented firms: an exploratory study in the perception of Italian entrepreneurs
Get PDFPurpose – The aim of this study was to empirically examine how much traditional attributes and green attributes characterize products within design-oriented firms. Further, we explored how these attributes relate to the perceived level of innovation of the firms.
Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory research was carried out in 86 Italian manufacturing companies that are members of the Industrial Design Association. Using the questionnaire method, the entrepreneurs’ perceptions have been analyzed. Data have been treated with hierarchical cluster analysis.
Findings – The analysis shows that environmental sustainability is the least important attribute of a design product and four clusters of highly design-oriented firms differ by design-product attributes. Further, the least green firms are also the least innovative in terms of incremental and general innovation.
Research limitations/implications – The small size of the sample and the provenance of firms from a single country imply limited generalizability, and further research on the topic is recommended.
Practical implications – Design-driven innovation based on traditional design attributes provides many competitive advantages to firms. However, given the growing concern about environmental challenges, investing in green attributes in design products allows for remaining competitive and more effective in innovation.
Originality/value – This study, for the first time, reveals the heterogeneity among design-oriented firms, particularly regarding the presence and assortment of traditional design attributes, as well as the incorporation of environmentally friendly attributes in their products. Moreover, the study uncovers the relationship between varying levels of green attributes in the offerings and the perception of the firm’s innovativeness
«En fugl i hånden … kan begynne noe»
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Artikkelen retter søkelyset mot utvikling av utdanning i entreprenørskap
ved en norsk handelshøyskole. Artikkelen har en eksplorativ form
og drøfter noen grep som ble tatt for å utvikle entreprenørskapsprogrammer
på Handelshøyskolen BI. Tema for drøftingen er pedagogisk entreprenørskap
i et gradsgivende studieprogram. Vi har studert utviklingen over
tid i én kontekst sett fra spesielt faglæreres engasjement og handlinger.
Vi redegjør også for samspillet med eksterne samarbeidspartnere
på ulike tidspunkter. Vi forstår utviklingen som et resultat av
«effektuering», en «man tager hva man haver»-tilnærming, fordi det
var slik den foregikk i praksis. Entreprenørskapsutdanning foregår
ikke bare i klasserom, men like gjerne i inkubatorer og tettere
integrert i økonomiske økosystemer enn det som er vanlig ved akademiske
gradsgivende programmer. Dermed er det større behov for samarbeid
enn når en akademisk institusjon har tilnærmet monopol på å bestemme utdanningens
innhold og form. I artikkelen identifiserer vi tre suksesskriterier
for pedagogisk entreprenørskap i et gradsgivende studieprogram:
institusjonelle koblinger til eksterne parter, praksis i klasserommet
og balanse mellom statiske kvalitetskrav og aktive studenter
Strategic Acting as Stagesetting: The Case of Industrial Design
No full textRecent research in strategy, organization theory and industrial marketing is emphasizing the new complexities of gaining a dynamic resource-advantage that can reinvent and differentiate the industrial firm's offerings. This paper examines the dynamic capabilities contributed through industrial design and product innovation. An expanded understanding is needed to capture the specifics of industrial design expertise and its role in developing products as well as business organizations. Industrial design is an intensive transforming and mediating "technology" and the expertise is highly tacit, mobile, and relates to emergent realities of notyet-embodied knowledge. It tends to be embedded in dyads as well as multiple networks that construct new path-dependencies and can enact market, consumer and technological shifts in the business environment. The paper therefore extends the exploration of firm-specific dynamic capabilities to a relational-expressive level by focusing on the collaboration with (partly) independent design partners. Based on in-depth case studies of five Scandinavian firms and their allied industrial designers, a set of potential strategic gains is identified and these relates to four design-strategic processes, which are discussed. Finally, a new framework is presented that may capture how these dynamics between design and innovation actually is constituted and staged through a creative "relational constructing" within new design/business hybrids
Strategic Acting as Stagesetting: The Case of Industrial Design
Get PDFRecent research in strategy, organization theory and industrial marketing is emphasizing the new complexities of gaining a dynamic resource-advantage that can reinvent and differentiate the industrial firm's offerings. This paper examines the dynamic capabilities contributed through industrial design and product innovation. An expanded understanding is needed to capture the specifics of industrial design expertise and its role in developing products as well as business organizations. Industrial design is an intensive transforming and mediating "technology" and the expertise is highly tacit, mobile, and relates to emergent realities of notyet-embodied knowledge. It tends to be embedded in dyads as well as multiple networks that construct new path-dependencies and can enact market, consumer and technological shifts in the business environment. The paper therefore extends the exploration of firm-specific dynamic capabilities to a relational-expressive level by focusing on the collaboration with (partly) independent design partners. Based on in-depth case studies of five Scandinavian firms and their allied industrial designers, a set of potential strategic gains is identified and these relates to four design-strategic processes, which are discussed. Finally, a new framework is presented that may capture how these dynamics between design and innovation actually is constituted and staged through a creative "relational constructing" within new design/business hybrids
Leading transformation in an uncertain world: A case for strategic speculative design
Get PDFStrategic speculative design is an uncertainty-oriented approach to perceptually bridge today with envisioned futures through knowledge-seeking design practices such as User experience design. As such, it may complement practices for facilitating transformative change found in management theory and innovation. Despite gaining importance in design schools, strategic speculative design however remains largely unfamiliar in leadership and management research and practice. We argue that this perspective may enable more active participation and dialogue with a variety of stakeholders about forthcoming or possible transformations, which may open for new or improved construction of opportunity in the present. Our paper is conceptual and offers a new model for strategic speculative design as an organisational change method relevant for transformation leadership and discusses possible managerial implications.publishedVersio
