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Design.Economies: Moving on from the Knowledge Economy

This article explores the central role of design activity and infrastructure in local economic and social development. It discusses the economics of design in the UK, the elements of successful innovation, the scope of design activity, and the benefits of design infrastructure. It also examines the failure of the knowledge economy and proposes a new model for research, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

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Design.Economies: Moving on from the Knowledge Economy

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  1. Design Economies: Moving on from the Knowledge EconomyThe central and essential role of design activity and infrastructure in local economic and social development Dr. Terence Love Curtin Research FellowDept of DesignCurtin University, Western Australiat.love@curtin.edu.au Visiting Research FellowInstitute of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise DevelopmentLancaster University, UKt.love@lancaster.ac.uk

  2. New Design Economies Design Economy Knowledge/Information Economy Industrial Economy Agricultural Economy

  3. Definitions To Design: To devise a plan to change an existing situation into a preferred one (Simon,1984) A Design: A specification or plan for changing an existing situation into a preferred one Design infrastructure: The expertise and resources necessary to convert information and new knowledge into designs for real world products, services, systems, organisations and policies. Simon, H. A. (1984). The Sciences of the Artificial (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press.

  4. Economics of Design in UK • British Businesses spend approximately ₤30 billion pa on design services - approx 3% corporate turnover (exceeding the 2.1% spent on R&D). • UK exports of Design services are approx ₤1 bn per annum • The design consultancy industry is around 4000 businesses and 80,000 staff. • 90% of rapidly growing businesses say design is integral to their operation – only 26% of static businesses say the same. • 74% of rapidly growing companies say that deisgn is important to their competitive edge over the last 10 years - compared to 44% overall • 64% of rapidly growing companies say design, innovation and creativity has contributed strongly to their competitiveness over the past 3 years – compared to 14% overall. • The shareprice of companies renowned for their effective use of design outran the FTSE100 index by 65% (1995-2002) and outperformed it by 23% in the bearmarket of 2000-2002. • These are significant UNDER-estimates of the significance of design activity in successsful business, entrepreneurship and innovation (see below)

  5. Elements of Successful Innovation Entrepreneurialactivity Research Designs for products and services Manufacture Design Infrastructure

  6. Scope of Design Activity There are over 650 different sub-fields of design activity. These divide into three groups: • Technical design fields (engineering construction, information systems, software, hardware etc) • ‘Art and Design’ design fields (graphics, fashion, photography etc) • ‘Other’ new design fields (e.g. social program design, organisation design; business process design; e-business system design; change management design;government policy design, curriculum design, etc) • The proportions appear to be approx: Technical-40%; Art & Design-10%; ‘Other’ design-40%.

  7. Design and Local/Regional Economic & Social Development • Business dependency on design skills is high • Local/regional GDP increased significantly with increased levels of design services support • Design Services are SMEs with high levels of high value/low cost regional & national exports

  8. Central Role of Design Activity • Design activity is central to gaining real world outcomes from the use of information and ‘knowledge’ • Improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of design activity results in direct improvements to business outcomes and to economic and social development

  9. Design constituencies The public & Media The politicians Branch organizations The government Owners & the The bureacracy Lenders & equity market the bond market General assembly Supply-side Board of Directors Demand-side Market The CEO Market Top Executives Competitors Middle management Competitors Suppliers Employees Customers and DESIGN TEAMS their customers Labour market Local union officers Facilitators and Educational institutions Technology & Know-how Agents

  10. Benefits of Design Infrastructure • Strong local and regional design infrastructure increases national economic and social benefits by improving efficiency and effectiveness of design processes • Allows increased complexity in the designs for products and services • Shortens time to market • Reduces effects of IPR protection • Reduces downstream costs shaped by early design decisions • Minimises risks of product and service failures.

  11. Failure of Knowledge Economy • Knowledge (like information) has support role (not central) in local economic and social development • Lower than expected performance of computer-based knowledge systems • Blocks identification of real activities using information and information-related skills to create local economic and social development • ‘Knowledge is an poor concept that is typically used in an epistemologically flawed manner that reflects in compromised real world outcomes

  12. Commercialized distribution of products & services Newknowledge (from research programs) Research and Entrepreneurship Innovation Model Entrepreneurialactivity Research ???? magic?

  13. Target areas • Improved management of expertise and resources in design to gain competitive advantage • Improvements to designing at individual and team levels to better support the vision, mission and strategic outcomes of planned organisational processes

  14. Design Projects – Local and Regional Development • Mapping design needs and design services of local and regional businesses (UK) • Mapping design needs and design services for local and regional businesses (Portugal) • Mapping design needs and design services for local and regional businesses (Australia) • Identifying optimal design infrastructure provision – 3 year fully funded project investigating UK, Finland, Korea, Norway and 5 States in Australia • Benchmarking Portugal’s design infrastructure (52 researcher project). • Identifying scope of design activity (completed)

  15. Other Design Projects • Designing organisations • Managing human issues to reduce rework in design activities • Functioning and management of multidisciplinary design teams • Designing partnerships between Community Organisations and Criminal Justice Agencies • Managing the designing of public space • Affective issues in virtual teams designing information systems • Managing government Youth Work services policy to 2015 • Australian national design infrastructure • Tacit skills in designing molecules with specific properties • Managing roles of designers in innovation programs • Developing a cross disciplinary degree in designing that includes design management

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