Policies for design and policies for innovation: Contrasting perspectives and remaining challenges

Design ecosystems and innovation policy in Europe

“…Innovation ecosystems have now become the framework of analysis for policy-makers and academics to assess the innovation performance of a country or region to inform evidence-based policy. Since the late 2000s, a growing community of academics have asserted that policy intervention for design can also be justified by systems failure theory (Love, 2007;Moultrie and Livesey, 2009;Raulik-Murphy and Cawood, 2009;Sun, 2010;Swann, 2010;Hobday et al, 2012;Whicher and Cawood, 2012;Chisolm et al, 2013). However, within these models, design appears to operate outside the main innovation ecosystem.…”

“…The terminology has evolved from "Design Infrastructures" (Love, 2007) to "National Design Systems" (Moultrie and Livesey, 2009;Raulik-Murphy and Cawood, 2009;Sun, 2010;Swann, 2010;Hobday et al, 2012;Whicher and Cawood, 2012) to "Design Ecosystems" (Ministry of Employment and the Economy, 2013; Chisolm et al, 2013;Whicher, 2016). Finland was the first country to adopt the concept of a National Innovation System to inform innovation policy in 1992 (Sharif, 2006) and it was also the first country to adopt the concept of a Design Ecosystem to inform design policy in 2013 (Ministry of Employment and Economy, 2013).…”

Technology-Based Design and Sustainable Economic Growth

“…There is a body of knowledge that is commonly referred to as "Design Research" or "Design Theory" (a branch of which can be labeled "engineering design research") where some care in definitions has evolved (Simon, 1969;Dym, 1994;Walsh, 1996;Baldwin and Clark, 2006;Purao et al, 2008;Hatchuel and Weil, 2009;Hobday et al, 2012) and where extensive research has been done. This section attempts to review this literature in order to identify the strategic focus for design-based strategy for actions and policies relative to moving to the knowledge or innovation economy.…”

“…Continuing research on knowledge structures may be expected to eventually further unpack the concept of expertise but cognitive psychologists have confirmed that experience leads to greater use of abstractions and an ability to avoid unnecessary details in problem solving of various kinds (Reyna, 1996). Hobday et al (2012) recently argued that a gap of understanding remains between design thinking and innovation policies, while promoting design for more effective innovation and national economic growth has become a key policy aim of many nations and governments, including the United Kingdom, Singapore and China. It is still unclear how design research can provide guidance to economic growth and policy making.…”

“…In particular, the growing body of research on design has added greatly to our knowledge of the innovation process (Baldwin and Clark, 2000;Dym et al, 2005;Weisberg, 2006). However, despite their relevance and importance, the findings and theories from design research have been overlooked in innovation policy and economic development studies (Hobday et al, 2012). This paper supplements the preceding economic development studies on innovation alone by addressing design as the specific activity which results in innovation.…”