Building the innovation factory

the people dimension

Antti Ainamo

pp. 259-264

in: Knowledge, Technology & Policy 22 (4), 2009.

Abstract

Product and service designers working in the industry are an emerging profession with a professional agenda of spreading research knowledge about the benefits of investments in design among their potential clients and the economy and society at large (Valtonen 2007). In line with this agenda, these designers often try to influence strategic managers—a key client group for professional industrial design services—to make them believe that investments in design are a key part of any strategic project to build and develop a veritable “innovation factory” (Hargadon and Sutton 2000; confer Nelson 1993).