TY - JOUR
T1 - Design to market thinking
T2 - exploring the merits of strategic niche management in design thinking
AU - Schraven, D. F.J.
AU - Arghandeh Jouneghani, P.
AU - Jonkers, H. M.
AU - Hertogh, M. J.C.M.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Sustainability transitions require that sustainable innovations develop and scale-up. Two promising approaches contribute to this purpose. Design thinking (DT) focuses on the creative development of sustainable innovations to achieve desirable, feasible and viable products. Strategic niche management (SNM) addresses how sustainable innovations should be deployed to the market. At first sight, these concepts seem to pursue a complementary mission, yet, academic literature has not explicitly addressed their complementary nature. Therefore, this paper addresses this gap by reviewing, proposing and empirically exploring the merits of SNM and how these can be used in DT through a workshop to increase successful market implementation of sustainable innovations. The study finds that SNM potentially helps the DT design process to (1) change market preconditions for the design, (2) create a protected niche for development, (3) establish a (long term) commercial viability, and (4) create an innovation development plan through definition of a set of testable propositions. The paper concludes that the inclusion of SNM into DT substantially increases the preparedness of an innovation team for a successful market implementation of sustainable innovations and coins the term ‘Design to Market Thinking’ for the integrated use of SNM in DT.
AB - Sustainability transitions require that sustainable innovations develop and scale-up. Two promising approaches contribute to this purpose. Design thinking (DT) focuses on the creative development of sustainable innovations to achieve desirable, feasible and viable products. Strategic niche management (SNM) addresses how sustainable innovations should be deployed to the market. At first sight, these concepts seem to pursue a complementary mission, yet, academic literature has not explicitly addressed their complementary nature. Therefore, this paper addresses this gap by reviewing, proposing and empirically exploring the merits of SNM and how these can be used in DT through a workshop to increase successful market implementation of sustainable innovations. The study finds that SNM potentially helps the DT design process to (1) change market preconditions for the design, (2) create a protected niche for development, (3) establish a (long term) commercial viability, and (4) create an innovation development plan through definition of a set of testable propositions. The paper concludes that the inclusion of SNM into DT substantially increases the preparedness of an innovation team for a successful market implementation of sustainable innovations and coins the term ‘Design to Market Thinking’ for the integrated use of SNM in DT.
KW - Design thinking
KW - innovation
KW - market
KW - strategic niche management
KW - sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117290460&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09537325.2021.1986211
DO - 10.1080/09537325.2021.1986211
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85117290460
SN - 0953-7325
VL - 35
SP - 767
EP - 784
JO - Technology Analysis and Strategic Management
JF - Technology Analysis and Strategic Management
IS - 6
ER -