Design and innovation in successful product competition

Abstract

This paper presents results from a project entitled 'MArket Demands that Reward Investment in Design' (MADRID). Among other aims, MADRID seeks to identify the contribution of design and innovation to product competitiveness in different markets.The paper provides a conceptual analysis of the role of design and innovation in product competition. The concepts are employed to conduct an analysis of a sample of new and redesigned products using data from a previous study on the 'Commercial Impacts of Design' (CID). CID was a study of over 220 design and product development projects in British SMEs which had received government financial support for design.The key conclusions from this reanalysis of the CID data are:• In commercially successful product development projects more attention had been paid than in the lossmaking projects to genuine product improvements rather than just styling or costs.• Commercially successful product development projects involved a multidimensional approach to design with a focus on product performance, features and build quality and, where relevant, technical or design innovation. Lossmaking projects tended to involve a narrow, often stylingoriented, approach to design with more attention paid to cost reduction than to performance, quality and innovation.

Harnessing the ‘Essential Tension’ of Design: The Complex Relationship between the Firm and Designer Consultants

“…Since the 1980s scholars have started investigating the relationship between design and companies performance (Kotler and Rath, 1984), as well as competitive advantage (Lorenz, 1986), both based on case studies. In the last decade, a significant number of studies carried out by the "Design Innovation Group" at the Open University (Walsh et al, 1992;Roy, 1994;Roy and Potter, 1997b;Roy and Potter, 1997a;Roy and Riedel, 1997;Roy, 2000;Whyte et al, 2007) and other scholars (Gemser and Leenders, 2001;Mozota, 2002;Perks et al, 2005) have investigated the relationship between design activities and firm performance in a more systematic fashion.…”

Integrating design management concept in entrepreneurial practices: evidence from the cross-border project

“…creative processes, is more likely to deploy case studies accompanied by semi-structured interviews (e.g. Roy, Reidel 1997;Bruce et al 1999). Already Svengren (1993: 444) recognised the importance of case study in dealing with design management as opposed to action research.…”

The role of design in competitive strategies of Turkish ceramic sanitary ware industry

“…Design contributes to both tangible and intangible assets in value creation (Cooper, 2000) Design decisions affect not only non-price-based factors such as authenticity, reliability, ease of use, quality, robustness, firm image, delivery time, after-sales services, but also cost-based factors such as production costs, product life-cycle costs. (Trueman and Jobber, 1995;Walsh et al, 1988;Roy and Riedel, 1997).…”