Purpose This study aims to investigate the combined effects of product design and environment congruence on consumers’ aesthetic, affective and behavioral responses. Design/methodology/approach Two lab experiments with a 2 (high-level design cues vs low-level design cues) × 2 (congruent environment vs non-congruent environment) between-subjects design were conducted to test the hypotheses. The experimental stimuli (product: digital camera; environment: product display in a retail environment) were presented in a 3D simulation environment using a large TV (Experiment 1) and a stereoscopic virtual reality headset. Findings The results support the notion that product design cues elicit more positive aesthetic and affective responses. Environment congruence, on the other hand, plays a moderating role; product design cues elicit more favorable consumer responses in a congruent environment. In contrast, no such effect was found in a non-congruent environment. Practical implications Creating a congruent environment is only effective for well-designed products. In contrast, for products with low-level design elements, the congruence of promotional environment is not instrumental and may not elicit more favorable responses. Hence, such products can simply be presented in a generic display, especially considering the significant costs associated with designing, building and setting up a congruent display. Originality/value Despite the empirical findings supporting the significant role of product design and environment congruence on consumers’ perceptual and behavioral responses, there is a paucity of research on the combined effect of these two factors. The present investigation is an attempt to fill this gap and challenges the generalizations made in previous research suggesting that a product’s environment must be aligned with the design elements embedded in the product.

In the first quarter of the new millennium, the immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are only a few steps away from becoming the mainstream tools within the design industry. This study investigated the internal and external barriers of technology adoption within design-oriented businesses. A mixed method was used to collect and analyze the data from the employees of a large design firm. This research confirmed that external barriers such as funding, technical support, training, and business strategy that exist at the organizational level are interrelated with the internal barriers such as designers’ and managers’ perception and attitude toward the new technologies. The managerial applications were discussed later and the directions for future research were provided.

Collective activities such as crowdfunding, competitions, jams and hackathons are gaining more attention in innovation management. However, within the design domain such activities are often considered as a way for mass generation of ideas, rather than processes for developing proper design solutions. Information acquisition, gaining sufficient knowledge and generating feasible ideas are among the main challenges of collective design. In this study we applied three strategies of rapid design, informed participation, and knowledge sharing to overcome these challenges. During a one-week design hackathon, we conducted a collective design project in which three teams of participants conducted autoethnography research, shared their findings by an idea crowdsourcing platform, and tested their 3D printed prototypes with potential users. Although the tests showed efficiency of rapid design and informed participation strategy, we did not find knowledge sharing effective, mainly due to the absence of collaboration among teams.

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