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The integration of industrial design capability within UK SMEs: the challenges, opportunities and benefits

journal contribution
posted on 2014-06-13, 11:09 authored by Paul Wormald, Mark EvansMark Evans
The paper presents a case to support the business of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the building of partnerships between universities and companies which foster and support the introduction of industrial design processes in the SMEs. The basis of the partnership is the use of the UK government's 'Knowledge Transfer Partnership' (KTP) schemes to initiate and develop in-house industrial design capability in the SMEs. The paper presents two case studies that raise design management issues and underline the value of industrial design expertise for SMEs. It discusses the positive and negative issues centred on the introduction of graduate-level in-house industrial design expertise for product innovation in manufacturing-sector SMEs. The paper demonstrates that through the discipline of industrial design and the mechanism of a well-managed KTP programme, SMEs can improve their commercial performance and operate successfully in global markets. Copyright © 2009, Inderscience Publishers.

History

School

  • Design

Citation

WORMALD, P. and EVANS, M.A., 2009. The integration of industrial design capability within UK SMEs: the challenges, opportunities and benefits. International Journal of Product Development, 9 (4), pp. 343 - 356

Publisher

© Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publication date

2009

Notes

This article is closed access.

ISSN

1477-9056

eISSN

1741-8178

Language

  • en