Sustaining social innovation enterprises through a design led innovation framework

Constant changes in the global economic environment require companies to revisit traditional assumptions about how businesses create and capture value (Teece, 2010). In recent years, management practice literature has focused largely on better understanding business models and business model innovation (Amit, Zott and Massa, 2010; Johnson, Christensen and Kagermann, 2008). Much has been written on the benefits of linking design and design thinking to organisational strategies and business transformation. However, very little has been researched and reported on regarding the impact of design led approaches to triple bottom-line opportunities such as, social innovation enterprise. In the context of this paper Design Led Innovation is defined as the tools and approaches which enable design thinking to be embedded as an element of cultural transformation within a business. Being Design Led requires a company to have a vision for top line growth founded on deep customer insights and expanded through customer and stakeholder engagements. The outcomes of this are then mapped to all aspects of the business, enabling the vision to be successfully implemented and achieved. It is the latter part of this definition where we believe Design Led Innovation has the greatest value in transforming social innovation enterprise into a sustainable business venture. However, we also acknowledge that enabling these firms to think strategically about their business model is difficult given the unique operational and funding challenges that often characterize many social enterprises. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to pose the question, do sustainable innovation enterprise innovate their business model? And if so, how? It is the authors’ opinion that such enterprises only innovate at the product or system level without a complete understanding of the business model structure, which underpins the long term viability. However, in this paper we challenge this notion and explore if such firms can overcome their size and operational constraints to become sustainable enterprises using a design led approach. This is achieved through contextualizing business model innovation, briefly defining social innovation enterprise and profiling a new and emerging industry in Australia – Clean Technology. Future research challenges and opportunities are also presented.

An exploration into retrofitting cities with natural design elements - learning from the city of Berlin, Germany

Natural design features in the built environment or biophilic elements are emerging as a potential response to the challenges of climate change, urbanisation and population pressures which have invited issues such as rising urban heat island effect, rising pollution, increased congestion, among others. This concept of living cities was made popular by Professor Tim Beatley in his book titled ‘Biophilic Urbanism’. Evidence of biophilic urbanism can be seen in some cities from around the globe since decoupling environmental pressures from future development is a priority on many agendas. Berlin is an example of a modern economy that has adopted an ecological sustainable development approach to reduce environmental degradation while driving innovation and employment.

Design-led innovation : Overcoming challenges to designing competitiveness to succeed in high cost environments

This chapter focuses on demonstrating the role of Design-Led Innovation (DLI) as an enabler for the success of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within high growth environments. This chapter is targeted toward businesses that may have been exposed to the concept of design previously at a product level and now seek to better understand its value through implementation at a strategic level offering. The decision to engage in the DLI process is made by firms who want to remain competitive as they struggle to compete in high cost environments, such as the state of the Australian economy at present. The results presented in this chapter outline the challenges in the adoption of the DLI process and the implications it can have. An understanding of the value of DLI in practice—as an enabler of business transformation in Australia—is of benefit to government and the broader design community.

A digital airport experience : design-led innovation in support of airport strategy

The digital era is proving to be one of disruption, where new technologies matched with innovative business models can be harnessed to attack even the most established of companies. For businesses with the relative certainty of captive customer bases, such as airports, the ability to digitally diversify offers the opportunity to venture into new modes of operation. For an airport, this opportunity can also be leveraged to sustain superior customer support regardless of a customer’s location in the world. This research paper presents a case study of the development of an Australian Airport Corporation’s mobile application as part of a greater digital strategy initiative using a design-led approach to innovate. An action research method provides the platform for an intensive embedded practice and study of design-led innovation within the major Australian Airport Corporation. The findings reveal design-led innovation to be a crucial in-house idea generation and concept development capability enabling the bridging of distinct corporate domains associated with commercialisation, operations and customer experience. A Digital Innovation Checklist is presented as an output of this research which structures an organizational approach toward digital channel innovation. The practitioner’s checklist is designed to aid in the future development of digital channels within the broader spectrum of strategy by addressing business assumptions.

Design research for the real world : a design-led innovation model for action research

The aim of this paper is to aid researchers in undertaking action research within industry with a particular focus on the study of design-led innovation. This paper presents the research design of a case study shaped to solve real world problems concerning a major Australian Airport Corporation by bridging the chasm between academia and industry. The researcher’s role is one of design-innovation catalyst, facilitating the integration of design as a new strategic capability and innovation approach within an organisation’s fabric. A discussion of the researcher experience within industry will provide evidence on the challenges facing such a research role, with strategies for overcoming these barriers presented. Based on the authors’ experience as a researcher within industry and reflection within practice, a project progression model for action research is presented to enable the improved management of industry based research.

A non-profit design-led innovation journey

Non-profit organisations in the aged care sector are currently under pressure from more than just a sheer increase of customers. A need to respond to changing legislative requirements, increased expectations from customers and increasing likelihood of shortage in appropriate experienced staff are also contributing to instability within the sector. This paper will present a longitudinal action research study of a non-profit organisation revisiting its core purpose of providing relevant services and attempting to build a customer-centric method for addressing the current and upcoming change drivers in an Australian aged care context. The study found Design- Led Innovation to be an effective methodology for capturing deep customer insights and conceptualising new business models which address the prevalent change drivers. This paper details a design-led approach to innovation, tailored to a non-profit organisation seeking to better understand its stakeholders and redefine its value offering.

Shifting from production to purpose : facilitating design-led change in a small family-owned enterprise

This research was embedded as a Design-led Innovation catalyst within a family-owned small business, to explore the application of a design program to achieve organizational change. Based on the findings two new models for increasing design integration within an organisation were proposed, establishing a range of pre-requisites needed for a firm to progress. Struggling firms may leverage their use of design and strategy by embedding a catalyst in a new cross-disciplinary role providing the necessary internal assistance. The study demonstrated that even non-design or strategy-inclined family-owned SMEs could benefit from embarking on a design-led journey to boost their competitive preparedness.

The emergent imperatives from a design-led innovation engagement within the mining industry

This research seeks a better and more detailed understanding of the processes of implementing design-led innovation in the mining equipment technology services (METS) sector, in a context where the traditional approach to manufacturing is being challenged. This longitudinal research specifically investigated the barriers to design-led innovation and opportunities that developed throughout this research, to understand how the organisation and culture of a METS company evolved, in order to progress towards design-led change. The significance of these findings is shown in the combined implementation of design imperatives leading towards design-led change at all business levels of an organisational structure.

Are you on board? The role of design-led innovation in strengthening key partnerships within an Australian airport

A popular lexicon for announcing partnerships within aviation is being ‘on-board’. Like boarding a plane, business partnerships requires trust in the expertise and the philosophy of another organisation. This paper reports upon the process and findings from the completion of a customer engagement project within a leading Australian Airport, as part of the wider uptake of design-led innovation. The project was completed bilaterally with Airport Corporation and prominent retail business partner undertaking a design-led approach to collaboratively explore an observed market trend affecting the performance of both businesses. A design-led catalyst facilitated the completion of this project, working within the Airport Corporation to disseminate the skills and philosophy of design over an 18 month period using an action research method. Findings reveal that the working environment necessary for design to be utilised requires; trust in the design-led approach as a new and exploratory way of completing work; leadership within the execution and delivery of project deliverables, and; a shared intrinsic motivation to develop new skills through a design-led approach which challenges a business-as-usual mentality (BAU). Design-led innovation can be deployed specifically to strengthen business partnerships through collaborative and explorative customer engagement.

Applying design-led innovation in a not-for-profit aged care provider to create shared value

This study examines the role of Design-Led Innovation in creating shared value; sustainable competitive advantage for an organisation and social value for the communities in which it operates. A case study analysed an undertaking by a not-for-profit aged care organisation to create a sustainable competitive advantage in the market by reinventing the experience of ageing and defining an innovative future business model. This paper reflects on the role of Design-Led Innovation in facilitating this change agenda and explores the particular relevance of the associated techniques in a not-for-profit, human services context. It was found that the Design-Led Innovation approach was effective in achieving the goal of defining a way for the organisation to create shared value.

Strategic renewal through design led innovation : findings from embedded practice

Strategic Renewal has been the subject of research in large organisations but has received relatively little attention in small and medium enterprises. Using case study examples of small and medium manufacturing firms, this paper presents the findings from a longitudinal action research project where participating companies explored design led innovation processes to find new ways to renew their businesses. Specifically our findings indicate that when designers act as innovation catalysts in embedded longitudinal action research, SMEs engage in strategic renewal, gain a deeper appreciation of their customers, become more aware of the value proposition of the company and engage in new practices to improve their competitive advantage.

Evolution of the docklands food hub : a design-led innovation approach to food sovereignty through local food systems

Access to nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate food is a basic human right (Mechlem, 2004). Food sovereignty defines this right through the empowerment of the people to redefine food and agricultural systems, and through ecologically sustainable production methods. At the heart of the food sovereignty movement are the interests of producers, distributors and consumers, rather than the interests of markets and corporations, which dominate the current globalized food system (Hinrichs, 2003). Food sovereignty challenges designers to enable people to innovate the food system. We are yet to develop economically viable solutions for scaling projects and providing citizens, governments and business with tools to develop and promote projects to innovate food systems and promote food sovereignty (Meroni, 2011; Murray, Caulier-Grice and Mulgan, 2010). This article examines how a design-led approach to innovation can assist in the development of new business models and ventures for local food systems: this is presented through an emerging field of research ‘Design-Led Food Communities’. Design-Led Food Communities enables citizens, governments and business to innovate local food projects through the application of design. This article reports on the case study of the Docklands Food Hub Project in Melbourne, Australia. Preliminary findings demonstrate valued outcomes, but also a deficiency in the design process to generate food solutions collaboratively between government, business and citizens.

Design-driven digital futures: The role of design-led innovation in the creation of online connected communities for new mobility solutions

Online communities have fundamentally changed how humans connected and are now so common they are fundamental to the human experience. As the Internet developed for Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, the functionality of these communities has far exceeded initial expectations. These communities have shifted from simply places to share information to ways to access products and services that bridge the online and offline worlds. This shift has led to the disruption of many industries with the transportation industry being one such sector. Both private transport providers and public transport systems face competition from online communities who are able to link services providers and customers more effectively and innovatively. These types of communities fall under what has been popularised as collaborative consumption or the sharing economy. The aim of this study is to explore the role of Design-led Innovation in the creation of digital futures, specifically online connected communities for successful new mobility solutions. To explore this proposition multiple data collection methods are proposed;Content Analysis, ii) A Comparative Qualitative Study consisting of Qualitative Interviews and Focus Groups / Design Workshops and iii) An Action Research Cycle of Embedded Practice. The multidisciplinary nature of this study grounds this research in a novel position contributing to new knowledge in both the field of design, and also a deeper understanding of the larger fast-growing online community phenomena.