Matching the innovation of products with organizational change: Introducing design knowledge into Chinese furniture manufacturing companies

Abstract

In the fast economic development of Countries such as China, the process of upgrading along the value chain - shifting from OEM to OBM - is a strong trend, motivated by the growth of the domestic markets and by the search of more mature ways of generating value. This process requires a significant cultural growth to the manufacturing companies, which have to introduce product development capabilities and a wide range of new competencies bound to the management of the intangible levels of their value proposition. Bringing new brands to the market requires not only product design, but also a systemic design and management of all the elements of expression of the same brands.The introduction of design knowledge and practices into manufacturing companies with little or no prior design experience is a timely design research question, primarily developed with reference to companies operating in the old economies: This paper discusses a case of introduction of design knowledge in a leading Chinese furniture company, conducted through a complex participatory process involving design researchers, professional external designers, the company's management, as well as employees coming from different divisions/areas.The methodological structure of the paper is based on a literature review, the subsequent introduction of an experimental case, its analysis and discussion to draw conclusions both from literature and the case.The case will show that the introduction of design knowledge into a company implies its organizational and cultural change. The development of a long-term systemic project generated a transfer of competences that despite some resistances, led to a relevant transformation of the company, which is now adopting new processes and tools (superficial level) and mutating its culture (deep level). The case will also show how this transformation can create gaps among the different divisions of the company, leading to the opportunity of managing the innovation of the value proposition together with the organizational change.