Purpose. This paper investigates the role of design as a knowledge translation mechanism in R&D-oriented open innovation. In particular, the paper intends to look at how design can be used as a means of knowledge transfer among various stakeholders who speak different languages and have divergent needs and interests in a process where knowledge openly flew across the boundaries of a high number of organizations.Methods. The paper combines the insights from theory with the empirical evidence gathered by adopting an extreme case study approach: the detailed analysis of a case study related to an R&D project funded by the European Commission and aimed to investigate and produce innovative serious games in the area of healthcare. The project gathered a large number of stakeholders and deliberately adopted design processes in order to support an open innovation approach.Findings. The paper provides insights into the use of design outputs such as artifacts, sketches, visual representations or prototypes in order to translate ideas, theoretical and technical requirements, documents and outputs into formats that can be more easily understood and appreciated by various stakeholders. This supports and favors coordination in open innovation projects where many different stakeholders are engaged. Research limitations.Although the adoption of an extreme case study approach offers important implications to understand the role of design in R&D-oriented open innovation, the use of single case study represents the basis both to explore hypothesis and to provide first evidences, that need to be further tested with other qualitative and quantitative analysis.Practical implications. The paper offers practical implications about how design can help individuals and organizations involved in R&D activities to better communicate and share knowledge among various stakeholders by aligning their different needs, interests and languages along the various phases of their project development.Originality/value. The originality of the paper lays at the intersection of three different fields: open innovation, knowledge management and design for innovation, thus 2 integrating mature, but so far isolated research streams. It provides insights for theory building by explaining the use of design as knowledge translational mechanism and informs the practice by highlighting the power of design as a means to support knowledge flows into open innovation-based R&D projects.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare two boundary organizations situated in Malmö (Sweden) and oriented toward opening production. Particularly, it looks at how the two organizations tried to establish and communicate their boundaries during their official opening events, which were structured according to the format of hackathon. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopted an ethnographic approach and followed the two events, observing and interacting with organizers and participants. The findings reported here draw upon data collected through direct observation, the authors’ experience as participants, unstructured conversations, e-mail exchanges. Findings – This paper analyzes the two events in order to show how different cultures of opening production lead to different ways of performing hackathons and, consequently, how these events affect the process of establishing and communicating the organizational boundaries. Originality/value – The paper looks at the potential of events structured according to the format of hackathon as a way for boundary organizations to position themselves.

In today’s world of global wicked problems, constraints and imperatives imposed by an external and uncertain environment render strategic action a quite complex endeavour. Since the 1990s, within community initiatives and philanthropic projects, the construct of Theory of Change has been used to address such complexity. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The area of focus for this paper is to explore whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern.

In the past decades, industrial design practice and research have focused extensively on how to optimize production and consumption, as a way to prevent negative environmental impacts, such as resource depletion, pollution, and excessive waste. Recently, the “circular economy” concept is increasingly used to achieve environmental benefits and economic growth simultaneously. Industrial design can contribute to a circular economy by fostering systems changes to achieve durability, optimal reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling of products and materials. Indeed, researchers have examined both the theoretical and practical aspects of how design knowledge can support the transition to a circular economy. However, this body of knowledge has not been systematically analyzed yet. To address this critical gap, this paper poses the following question: How has industrial design research so far contributed to advancing the circular economy knowledge? Accordingly, we survey relevant design literature focusing on the circular economy, through a review of contributions published in 42 scientific journals. Based on our results, we discuss how industrial design practices can potentially contribute to a circular economy across four thematic areas: (1) design for circular production processes, (2) design for circular consumption, (3) design to support policy towards the circular economy, and (4) design education for the circular economy.

ResumenEl aumento de la demanda de movilidad en las ciudades ha conllevado una dinámica poco sostenible tanto a nivel social como ambiental. Para promover actuaciones hacía una movilidad sostenible es necesario el uso de fuentes de información dinámicas, con un alto detalle espacial y temporal (y de bajo coste) que permitan realizar diagnósticos eficientes de la situación de movilidad en nuestras ciudades. Las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación y el Big Data aparecen como nuevas fuentes interactivas que responden a estas necesidades. En este artículo se realiza una revisión del estado del arte en el uso de estas nuevas fuentes de datos para el análisis de la movilidad urbana, contrastando su utilidad respecto a las fuentes tradicionales, clasificán-dolas, presentando las temáticas de investigación que ofrecen, y abordando los desafíos de cara al futuro.Palabras clave: movilidad, Smart Cities, TIC, redes sociales, Big Data. Abstract New sources and challenges for urban mobility studiesIncrement of mobility demand in cities has carried socially and environmentally an unsustainable dynamic. For a sustainable planning, dynamic, high spatial and temporal resolution, and low cost sources are needed. Information and Communication Technologies appear as new interactive sources able to meet these needs. In this article, a state of the art in these new data sources use for urban mobility analysis is implemented. These new technologies are contrasted with traditional sources, are classified, new investigation topics are presented, and future challenges are addressed.