Design, innovation, and rural creative places: Are the arts the cherry on top, or the secret sauce?

Abstract

ObjectiveCreative class theory explains the positive relationship between the arts and commercial innovation as the mutual attraction of artists and other creative workers by an unobserved creative milieu. This study explores alternative theories for rural settings, by analyzing establishment-level survey data combined with data on the local arts scene. The study identifies the local contextual factors associated with a strong design orientation, and estimates the impact that a strong design orientation has on the local economy.MethodData on innovation and design come from a nationally representative sample of establishments in tradable industries. Latent class analysis allows identifying unobserved subpopulations comprised of establishments with different design and innovation orientations. Logistic regression allows estimating the association between an establishment’s design orientation and local contextual factors. A quantile instrumental variable regression allows assessing the robustness of the logistic regression results with respect to endogeneity. An estimate of design orientation at the local level derived from the survey is used to examine variation in economic performance during the period of recovery from the Great Recession (2010–2014).ResultsThree distinct innovation (substantive, nominal, and non-innovators) and design orientations (design-integrated, “design last finish,” and no systematic approach to design) are identified. Innovation- and design-intensive establishments were identified in both rural and urban areas. Rural design-integrated establishments tended to locate in counties with more highly educated workforces and containing at least one performing arts organization. A quantile instrumental variable regression confirmed that the logistic regression result is robust to endogeneity concerns. Finally, rural areas characterized by design-integrated establishments experienced faster growth in wages relative to rural areas characterized by establishments using no systematic approach to design.

Geographical differences in intellectual property strategies and outcomes: establishment-level analysis across the American settlement hierarchy

“…The second rung summarizes the assumed role of design in the linear model of innovationan application of aesthetics to make the functional attributes of a new product more appealing. Wojan and Nichols (2018) confirm that using design as a last finish (31% of establishments) is much more prevalent than integrating design throughout the development process (8% of establishments) in the United States. However, design integrated establishments are more likely to be more far ranging innovators (80%) than design last finish establishments (52% are more far-ranging innovators).…”

“…However, design integrated establishments are more likely to be more far ranging innovators (80%) than design last finish establishments (52% are more far-ranging innovators). Most importantly, design-integrated establishments reported much higher levels of performance than their design last finish peers with respect to expanding market share or entering export markets (Wojan & Nichols, 2018).…”

“…The limited quantitative research of the association between design and innovation to date is unequivocal: firms with the strongest commitment to design are also much more likely to be innovative (Galindo-Rueda & Millot, 2015;Wojan & Nichols, 2018). The level of commitment to design is critical in making sense of whether design is merely an outgrowth of invention, or if it is an independent source of novelty that directly contributes to innovation.…”

“…The 2014 Rural Establishment Innovation Survey (REIS), a nationally representative data set of establishments in tradable non-farm industries with five or more employees, with roughly 11,000 observations in both rural and urban areas, provides a unique resource for examining IP strategies because the data set contains reliable information on the innovation orientation of respondents (Wojan, 2016;Wojan & Nichols, 2018;Wojan & Parker, 2017;Wojan, Crown, & Rupasingha, 2018). Merely comparing sparse IP strategies with more comprehensive strategies might provide few insights if the capacities for and commitment to applying new knowledge are unknown.…”

Analysis on the Innovative Quality Structure and Innovative Education of art Design Talents

“…It is a science of creating material and spiritual products of human life according to the principle of combining art with science and technology. The education of art design serves for the cultivation of talents of art design, so the essence of art education is to train the mixed-mode, high-quality and innovative artistic design talents of the combination of art and science and technology [1][2][3][4]. The cultivation of art and design talents has obvious characteristics of the times, and the rapid development of the society has put forward new requirements for the cultivation of artistic design talents.…”