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This paper aims to explore advantages and disadvantages of both traditional market research (TMR) and deep customer insight (DCI) methods to lay the platform for revealing how a relationship between these two domains could be optimised during firm-based innovation.

The paper reports on an empirical research study conducted with 13 Australian-based firms engaged in a design-led approach to innovation. Firms were facilitated through a design-led approach where the process of gathering DCIs was isolated and investigated further in comparison to TMR methods.

Results show that DCI methods are able to provide fresh, non-obvious ways of understanding customer needs, problems and behaviours that can become the foundation of new business opportunities. Findings concluded that DCI methods provide the critical layer to understand why customers do or do not engage with businesses. Revealing why was not accessible in TMR methods.

The theoretical outcome of this study is a complementary methods matrix, providing guidance on appropriate implementation of research methods in accordance with a project’s timeline to optimise the complementation of TMR methods with design-led customer engagement methods.

DCI methods provide fresh, non-obvious ways of understanding customer needs, problems and behaviours that can become the foundation of new business opportunities. It is hoped that those in a position of data collection are encouraged to experiment and use DCI methods to connect with their customers on a meaningful level and translate these insights into value.

This paper provides original value to a new understanding of how design techniques can be applied to complement and strengthen existing market research strategies. This is crucial in an era where business competition hinges on a subtle and often intimate understanding of customer needs and behaviours.

This paper aims to explore the use of a design process of inquiry that incorporates both deep customer insight (DCI) and traditional market research (TMR) in an ill-defined, complex current market opportunity to generate new business opportunities for firm-based innovation.

The paper reports on an empirical research case study conducted within a multi-national insurance agency looking at the shift in mobility in Australia. Data were collected across seven distinct research phases, all of which used TMR and DCI techniques for joint comparison.

The findings revealed that TMR and DCI methodologies developed both contradictory and complementary research outcomes. These outcomes saw rise to newly generated novel business model concepts for market entry opportunity from the case study firm.

The theoretical outcome of this study is the design thinking DCI framework providing guidance on appropriate implementation of research methods to respond to complex market opportunity.

DCI methods used in conjunction with TMR can provide early stage market opportunity assessment for firms seeking to innovate from a customer perspective.

This is the first paper to apply a design approach, combining TMR and DCI methods to a complex market opportunity rather than a tangible problem. In addition, it also contributes to the emerging field of DCI methodologies by providing a practical examination of their use in the field.

In what is going to be an uncertain and rapidly evolving global economic landscape, it is clear that firms will have to become more adaptive and responsive to changes within their marketplace. To do this, businesses will not only need to engage in business model experimentation but also look to embrace business model innovation as a core competency and a means for sustained competitive advantage.

This paper outlines how a design process of experimenting and prototyping can apply to the design of business models through the case study of hypothetical luggage company Packright.

Five meta-models with differing foci are illustrated as an accessible and provoking framework that provides a new logic to classifying, experimenting and prototyping business model designs.

These five meta-models provide a tangible starting point from which a business can begin to explore different perspectives and gain insights into the internal and external capabilities of their company.

This paper builds upon the emerging research and exploration into the importance and relevance of dynamic, design-driven approaches to the creation of innovative business models.

This paper aims to outline the approaches used by the UK Design Council to embed design and innovation capability in small businesses.

Case studies of Design Council programmes are outlined and the design methods, tools and processes used to embed design‐led innovation are explored. These are grouped under five headings: vision and strategy; brand and identity; product and service; user experience and innovative culture.

The paper finds that programmes which use design thinking, design mentoring and co‐creation to help companies develop innovation capacity result in tangible business benefits.

This overview of design methods in practice creates a compelling case for the strategic deployment of design‐led innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of alliance experience in firm innovation; it argues that, while cumulative alliance experience has a marginally diminishing contribution to likelihood of firm innovation over time, frequent engagement in alliances and an expanding alliance portfolio inhabit an enhancing role. This reveals new dimensions to the role of alliance experience as an antecedent to firm learning in managing alliances and to the development of alliance capabilities.

The paper estimates a range of models identifying the relationship between alliance experience and firm innovation. The panel data sample captures the full range of firms active in the UK bio-pharmaceuticals sector during the early stages of its development observing them from 1991 to 2001. An exploratory case study analysis is employed to shed light on the nuanced factors linking frequent engagement in alliances to the development of practices for efficient alliance management.

The paper shows that cumulative alliance experience has a marginally diminishing contribution to likelihood of firm innovation over time, while frequent engagement in alliances and the ensuing expansion of alliance portfolios enhance firm innovation. The exploratory case analysis demonstrates a link between frequent engagement in alliances and the development of processes for alliance management that could collectively reflect alliance capabilities.

Contribution derives from a longitudinal analysis of an original panel data set that maps the UK bio-pharmaceuticals sector over the initial period of its development. The paper sheds light on factors that can compel firms to form alliance capabilities, and extends a currently thin body of work on the foundations and antecedents to alliance and alliance portfolio capabilities.

The public sector seems to have a culture and structure for control and improvement of ongoing activities but lacks the culture and structures for innovation. Thus, capacity development among public sector employees can be an important method for the development of better conditions for innovation. The purpose of this paper is to identify key factors affecting the achievement of good results when municipal and regional organisations carry out capacity development of employees with the aim of creating greater leeway for innovation in their organisation.

The study behind this paper has looked at four different concrete cases, which have applied essentially different methods for capacity building for innovation issues. A qualitative research method was used. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 39 respondents. The analysis of the information revealed in the interviews was carried out through a thematic analysis in three steps.

The study shows that action learning makes it easier for employees to turn knowledge generated through action into reality. The study also shows that it seems difficult to work from a digital communication platform if the platform is not combined with physical meetings. The study shows that committed and hands-on leadership is very important, that there is a need for strategic communication related to the capacity development effort including clarification and definition of what innovation means in the local context.

This paper shows a number of important aspects to consider when municipalities and regional organisations plan their capacity development initiatives in innovation. By taking these into account increases the ability of public organisations to develop and adapt their operations and deliver high quality and value-adding services to the citizens.

Today’s public administration is facing a wide range of challenges. This situation requires an ability to change and innovate. However, difficulties in the implementation of innovations have been seen as the cause of many administrations’ inability to achieve the intended benefits of innovations. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to empirically determine which – out of a wide range of enabling factors for innovations – may be the most important for the specific process step of moving from ideas to implementation of innovations in a public administration context, and, furthermore, to identify possible additional enablers for this specific process step.

This study is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with city officials in four cities on four continents.

The study identifies five key enablers for transforming ideas into implemented innovations in public administration: a committed and hands-on leadership, internal as well as external networking, innovation processes over time alternately organized as a separate project and, as part of the standard operating procedures, a system understanding, including an understanding of how the parts contribute to a shared vision and communication of achieved, tangible, short-term results. Three of these enablers are previously identified as overall enablers for innovation and two complement previously identified enablers.

The article identifies enabling factors for the specific step of going from idea generation to implementation of innovations in a public sector context. The article also reviews enabling factors from real experiences. Much of the former literature is conceptual. The article analyses an area in which there is a general lack of empirical research.

Management strategy within the Ford Motor Company has been going through a quiet revolution in the last decade. From being a utility car producer understanding competitive advantage exclusively in cost terms and equating management with control Ford have adopted a long‐term strategy of design‐led product innovation and promoting high trust labour relations. At the heart of this change strategy are the twin thrusts of ‘Participative Management’ aimed primarily at the executive level and ‘Employee Involvement’ for salaried and hourly employees. Both projects were borne of the watershed, if inherently flawed, ‘After Japan’ initiative of the early 1980s. ‘After Japan’ represented Ford's assimilation of the organisational — as well as economic — challenge thrown down by Japanese manufacturing. But what began as an ambitious attempt to impose Japanese factory institutions such as quality circles on a suspicious workforce rapidly degenerated into a conventional cost‐cutting exercise. From this experience, however, Ford's strategists moved towards a more processual, less mechanistic, understanding of organisational change. We shall examine the results of the ‘El’ process in a variety of settings and the impact of ‘PM’ on decision‐making processes within Ford UK.

The purpose of this study is to address the generalised lack of guidance on ethical treatment of corporate (e.g. non-research) data in higher education institutions, by focusing on the case of the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia). No actionable framework is currently available in the country to govern the ethical usage of corporate data. As such, this research takes a stakeholder-centred approach to data ethics; the lived experience of the stakeholders involved coupled with a theory-based ethical framework allowed the authors build to build a framework to guide ethical data practice.

Adopting a revised canonical action research approach focused on intervention on the context, the authors conducted a review of the literature on ethical usage of data in higher education institutions; administered one survey to university students (n = 168); and facilitated three workshops with professional staff (two) and students (one).

Collected data highlighted how, among other themes, the role and ethical importance of transparency was the dominant claim among all stakeholder groups. Findings helped the authors develop an Enhanced Enterprise Data Ethics Framework (EEDEF) emphasising transparency and stakeholder-centricity.

Legislation is the driver to regulate the use of corporate data in higher education; however, this can be problematic because legislation is retrospective, lacks normativity and offers scarce directions for cases that do not exactly follow within the legislative mandate. In light of these regulatory limitations, the authors’ EEDEF offers operators guidance on how to ethically manage corporate data in the higher education environment.

This study fills gaps in praxis and theory; that is the lack of literature and guiding ethical frameworks to inform data practice in higher education. This research fosters a more ethical data management by virtue of genuine and authentic engagement with stakeholders and emphasises the importance of strategic decision-making and maturity of data culture in the higher education sector.

The paper aims to explore the roles and impact of design in incubating and accelerating social enterprises. It aims to understand design’s influence on social enterprise ecosystems and in improving outcomes for social enterprises.

The study used an exploratory, qualitative approach, using case studies and interviews. The comparative case-study methodology was applied to evaluate the influence of design on the development of social enterprises in the UK and South Korea and identify critical issues in their utilisation of design. Empirical data included: in-depth case studies of design utilisation practices (UK = 6; South Korea = 15) and design applications (UK = 2; South Korea = 2) for the growth of social enterprise and its ecosystem; 27 social enterprise/design experts (UK = 17; South Korea = 10); and 22 social enterprises (UK = 12; South Korea = 10). Content and thematic analysis were used to synthesise the findings.

Findings demonstrate the differing influences of design on social enterprise, from improving products/services and business models to enhancing social enterprise ecosystem support and networks. Future directions are suggested for applying design for social enterprise growth, business stage development and systematising interactions between the social enterprise and design sectors.

The research is based on case studies from only two countries. Further, the adoption of working definitions of social enterprise in the countries may result in the research underestimating the heterogeneity of social enterprise.

The findings contribute to optimising efficient ecosystem development to improve social enterprise competitiveness and innovation.

This paper establishes a research foundation on design for social enterprise, offering theoretical and practical insights into its impact on growth.