The Use of Design Thinking in Transdisciplinary Research and Innovation Consortia: Challenges, Enablers, and Benefits

Antje Gonera,Reinhold Pabst

doi:10.24840/2183-0606_007.003_0006

Abstract

The innovation management literature describes a competitive advantage when applying Design Thinking (DT) in corporate environments. In this paper we study the perceived challenges, enablers, and benefits for implementing DT in publicly funded transdisciplinary industry-academia research and innovation consortia (RIC). We facilitate and investigate five large RIC from the food and high-tech industry in Norway and Germany using an explorative qualitative action research design. Our research shows that the challenges of using DT in RIC are to some extent comparable to those for the corporate context. Additionally, we identify distinct challenges for RIC. Benefits from using DT in RIC are stronger user and innovation focus, better transdisciplinary collaboration, and triangulation of qualitative with scientific data. We suggest that complex RIC benefit from an intermediary (DT) role translating business needs into research questions, and research results into understandable and business-relevant information and innovation.

Highlights

Increased competition and a faster innovation pace in a globalized environment motivate participation in research-based innovation collaborations between industry and academia to solve problems none of the stakeholders can solve alone (Sandberg, Pareto, & Arts, 2011)
We suggest that complex research and innovation consortia (RIC) benefit from an intermediary (DT) role translating business needs into research questions, and research results into understandable and business-relevant information and innovation
We find that the mismatch of timelines in RIC with their long duration is even larger compared to the corporate context and that the challenge towards implementation of Design Thinking (DT) is proportionally bigger

Summary

Introduction

Increased competition and a faster innovation pace in a globalized environment motivate participation in research-based innovation collaborations between industry and academia to solve problems none of the stakeholders can solve alone (Sandberg, Pareto, & Arts, 2011). The recently developed EU missionbased research and innovation strategy addresses global challenges fostering experimentation and citizen involvement (Mazzucato 2018). This is reflected in several core dimensions of change on how to organize innovation as described by Leitner, Warnke & Rhomberg (2016). Among them is a changing perception of creativity, changing motivation for innovation, and a need for systemic sustainability innovation, which will all strongly affect the way we execute research and innovation projects in the future These developments seem to legitimize the use of Design Thinking (DT) in the context of publicly funded collaborative research. DT is a management concept of innovation that gained massive attention in the corporate world in the recent years and is often referred to as providing a competitive advantage (Liedtka, Salzman, & Azer, 2017, Brown, 2009, Brown & Katz, 2011, Rauth, Carlgren & Elmquist, 2015, Carlgren, Elmquist & Rauth, 2014)

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