National Support for Design: Developing propositional models.

Choi, Youngok and Cooper, Rachel and Lim, Sungwoo and Evans, Martyn (2010) National Support for Design: Developing propositional models. Design Management Review, 21 (4). pp. 60-69. ISSN 1557-0614

Abstract

Design is acknowledged as a key tool for enhancing competitiveness and economic success in the face of rapidly changing markets and increased global competitiveness. Businesses increasingly recognize its importance and utilize it to achieve business objectives and thus increase competiveness. Seeing this, many governments have introduced national design policies to help businesses, particularly SMEs, use design to develop and implement new products and services. This paper will discuss such policies and how best to grow and use them. The UK’s Design Council (DC) and South Korea’s Korean Institute for Design Promotion (KIDP) are government-funded national design centers (NDCs). To understand national design policies in these two countries, and to consider alternative structural models for developing and implementing such policies, we began by studying these two NDCs. The UK and South Korea demonstrate differences in the level of maturity in their design support, yet similarities in design and innovation index ranking. Both countries are regarded as having a clear and effective design policy and have applied government design policy and promotion programs that have intensified the role of design in the competitive international market. With the largest design industry in Europe, the UK has a strong government-supported design export program.2 The South Korean government has invested in design promotion, increased the quality and quantity of design education, and extended the use of design in industry, gaining recognition for its ambitious design-policy framework. The research discussed here combined qualitative (literature review and interviews) and quantitative (survey) data to understand approaches to design policy in each country. Twenty-nine in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in a range of organizations involved with national business support programs for design.