THE CULTURE OF PRODUCT DESIGN

The Culture of Product Design



The Culture of Product Design

Introduction

In the wake of reflection on new prospects, we identified four major trends which illustrate the major concept of Eco design: design sense, arising from the emergence of new concerns, the economic design, or the tendency to do more with less; effective design, which advocates an optimal cycle management, and finally the system design, carrier solutions.

A review of literature on innovation has brought out the importance of various organizational factors, which create a learning environment, which promotes innovation. Transition to a new technology for any product development within the organization faces not only financial barriers but many cultural and political barriers too. Process technologies are intimately linked not only to the product technologies but also to organizational factors. An organizational environment and culture that encouraging learning and development of employees; open communication channels and learning from customers, suppliers and even competitors are in a better position to innovate(Dorst, 2001, 425-437).

Discussion

New Product Development

Prior research has identified the integration of marketing with research and development (R&D) as a key success factor for new product development (NPD). However, prior work has not distinguished the sales and marketing functions, even though they are distinct departments within an organization. Therefore, the authors extend prior research and examine the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and R&D on NPD performance across multiple stages of the NPD process. The authors use multiple-informant data from 424 sales, marketing, and R&D managers as well as project leaders of 106 NPD projects to test several hypotheses. The results show that the cooperation between sales and R&D and between sales and marketing has a significant, positive effect on overall NPD project performance beyond marketing-R&D cooperation (Thompson, 2009, 67-78).

It is therefore very useful to consider the similarities and differences between design and innovation. Innovation is often seen as a technical innovation, and the result is on the generation of technical knowledge that can be patented and exploited in the future. In contrast, the design leads to other forms of knowledge that have a potential impact on future economic performance of firms and therefore of society and the nation.

The design is based on a new economic approach to growth, not based on quantitative aspects but more on a value to the qualitative dimension. Indeed, it is no longer here the quality / price based value. It is now based on the performance promised by a product or service, its simplicity, beyond any frills on a service rendered in time rather than immediate consumption of a product over a shared experience, based on sharing and not buying exclusive personal, on building lasting relationships beyond simple market transactions (Faste, 2001, 78-89)

Cooperation of Sales, Marketing, and R&D in NPD

A considerable amount of conceptual and empirical research devoted to the cooperation between marketing and R&D because both departments are highly relevant for successful NPD. The marketing function is responsible for a wide range of activities that provide relevant information for the entire ...