Journal of Design, Business & Society - Volume 7, Issue 2, 2020

This article explores open-source visualization tools to enhance the understanding of small- and medium-enterprise (SME) ecosystem structures. Ecosystem approaches are becoming important in business strategy and innovation where organizations are heavily relying on inter-firm resources to innovate. Consequently, the traditional firm-focused business models face challenges, making it difficult for interconnected and diverse actors to co-create across firm boundaries. This challenge is even worse for manufacturing SMEs, who often lack the tools to make sense of their innovation ecosystem structures. We carried out a rich ethnographic investigation in three cases in the United Kingdom: the ceramic artist ecosystem, the 3D printing bureau ecosystem and the FabLab ecosystem. From the initial thematic analysis results, all actors highlighted the difficulty in understanding ecosystem networks. The following ecosystem attributes were identified as essential in understanding SME ecosystem structures: clusters and bridges, tie size, structural holes, role structure and interactivity. In this article, fourteen open-source visualization tools are tested to compare how well different tools reveal the six ecosystem attributes. Our findings demonstrate that open-source visualization tools have different affordances, most of which are useful in revealing ecosystem attributes. Results show that most visualization tools help aid the understanding of SME ecosystem structures. This study contributes new knowledge on the scarce subject of designing and managing ecosystems, presenting a unique approach to explore and understand ecosystem configurations. The study identifies limitations in open-source visualization tools and offers the design management community a set of recommendations for further development of visualization tools to support decision-making.

In the decade 2010–19, design featured in 21 of the 28 European Union member states’ innovation policies according to the Bureau of European Design Associations. As we embark on a new decade, it appears that design’s influence within innovation policy and programmes may be waning. What does the design support landscape look like for the United Kingdom in a post-Brexit and post-COVID world? What lessons can be drawn from an evaluation of design vouchers in Scotland for the United Kingdom as a whole and possibly the rest of Europe? This article draws on the experience of User Factor – an EU-funded project on the future of design support in Europe through five knowledge exchange workshops with eight business support organizations as well as a design-led evaluation of the impact of ‘By Design’ vouchers in Scotland among participating companies. In the United Kingdom, the design support landscape is fragmented – design is part of the remit of all the devolved nations’ business support programmes; however, this landscape is complex for small companies to navigate. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, design support programmes are currently EU-funded, so it is unclear what programmes will look like after Brexit. ‘By Design’ is a light-touch grant for Scottish companies to access up to £5000 to work with design agencies. Over five years, 618 companies received the grant. The evaluation revealed that design is a relatively low-cost way for companies to innovate as 64 per cent of companies reported bringing a new product or service to market and 27 per cent entered new markets. Furthermore, after the grant, 83 per cent of companies continued to work with a design agency going on to invest £26,000 on average. This demonstrates that a small government grant of up to £5000 can stimulate a fivefold increase in investment. In 2020, design was back on the EU policy agenda as a driver of circular economy and the ‘New European Bauhaus’. Based on the evaluation of the Scottish design vouchers and knowledge exchange between the User Factor partners, we draw out a series of insights and implications for design support in the United Kingdom and across Europe.

With rapid advancements in technology radically impacting and changing current ways of working globally, many industries and sectors, including the Defence force, are implementing new approaches to respond to and address these challenges. Design thinking is one approach to assist in this response, as it provides a novel process for solving complex problems. This article presents a specific design approach for addressing contextual Defence problems in the form of a design thinking framework based on a review of the existing literature concerning design and Defence. The article contends with the role of design as a value-added methodology in Defence strategy and development, and it reports on a unique set of design thinking capabilities for a Defence-specific context that are not only essential for the implementation of a design-led approach to innovation but are of great assistance in overcoming its associated challenges. The Defence by Design framework works with an identified military objective that, when applied, overcomes the natural bias that Defence personnel may exhibit during routine gaps and opportunities analysis. By detailing the different stages of the framework, and demonstrating their iterative nature, through the documentation of a working example – ‘Man Overboard’ – this article presents a new approach yet to be realized in Defence globally.

This article presents empirical findings and recommendations from a survey of 100 industrial design engineering students from the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. The article adopts a self-deterministic motivation lens to present findings from a qualitative survey (N=100 respondents) and two member check workshops with design students and educators regarding motivations to study during COVID-19 restrictions. We identify that COVID-19 lockdown measures compromise three psychological prerequisites for motivation: ‘relatedness’, ‘autonomy’ and ‘competency’. We find that resilient students who have a sense of ‘purpose’ remain highly motivated. The article reveals creative approaches students are applying to build and sustain motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article contributes recommendations for educators and administrators to promote student motivation in pandemic and post-pandemic higher education. This article contributes novel insights regarding how students in particular are remaining motivated to study during COVID-19.