Proceedings of the 19th DMI: Academic Design Management Conference: Design Management in an Era of Disruption

Editorial: Design Management in an Era of Disruption Jeanne LIEDTKA, Alison RIEPLE, Rachel COOPER and Erik BOHEMIA We are delighted to present the Proceedings of the 19th DMI International Design Management Research Conference held in London, United Kingdom. The theme of the conference was Design Management in an Era of Disruption. The management of design has arguably never played such an important role as it does today, as changes to the business and social environment call design to the forefront. The quantity of practitioner writing on the topic of has grown voluminously over the past five years, both in terms of popular management books explicitly focusing on the subject and in articles of note appearing in major publications such as The Economist, Harvard Business Review, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Yet the attention accorded to the topic within top-tier academic publications has been scant and the rigor of the research lacking. It was the explicit intention on the part of the conference organisers to improve the standard of research in the design management field. It is our belief that the quality of the submissions to this conference reflects this goal and signals a move towards a higher level of academic rigor. The conference received 507 submissions in total, 474 in the form of paper abstracts and 33 in the form of workshop submissions. After the first round of reviews 15 workshop submissions (50%) were accepted and authors of 286 abstracts were selected to submit the full paper (60%). After the double blind review process 152 papers were accepted (53% of the 286 received papers), 6 (2%) were placed on reserve list and 129 (45%) submissions were rejected. The abstracts were reviewed by the programme conference committee (50 members) and the full paper submissions (286) were reviewed by 151 members of the scientific review committee. The conference was organized around 6 meta themes, divided into 19 tracks: The first theme examined design in the creation of meaning, looking first at designers as cultural intermediaries, and their role in constructing cultures and engaging users in an increasingly interconnected world. Theme 1 also explored contemporary brand design and the strategies, practices and processes by which contemporary brand experiences are created and managed by companies in different product fields, from consumer goods to luxury artefacts. Finally, it looked at design management through the lens of artistic interventions, examining the role of creative and artistic interventions as a strategic tool in complex, chaotic and interactional global environments. The 2nd theme considered design management as an agent of transformation. It first examined user-centred design as a disruptive business enabler for accomplishing sustainable consumption, along with the benefits of adopting a UCD approach to reduce over-consumption of resources and to encourage more sustainable actions. Next it explored collaboration in product development and the challenges new types of collaboration in innovation bring to cross-functional and cross-disciplinary relationships involving designers. How to manage consumer involvement in product development, given developments in both hardware and software that have facilitated greater opportunities for consumers to increase their involvement in product design and manufacturing that has accelerate movement along the continuum between totally consumer-designed products and totally professionally designed products, was also examined. Finally, theme 2 included papers on the topic of enterprise eco system design, exploring how design offers potential help to companies interested in better managing relationships through improved information systems. Contextualised designing was the focus of the 3rd theme. First, the presence of co-created value in service design, as it has become crucial for business enterprises or communities, and the attendant deep understanding of the different roles and expectations of the various stakeholders that this involves. Design in the creative and cultural industries (CCIs) in an era of disruption was another focus in theme 3, examining the role of design in cultural products that generate experiences and meanings. Finally, social and sustainable design management issues and the differences and commonalities in the management of social and sustainable design approaches, along with the challenges that social and sustainable design practices pose at different levels of intervention - whether they be strategic, tacit or operational - were examined. Theme 4 looked to the future of design management. Included here were new modes of design management occasioned by the disintermediation of organisational hierarchies and the disruption to organisational value and supply chains resulting as design management has shifted from coordination to integration. Questions about the future of the DM discipline, and even whether 'management' was the appropriate word, and whether a need existed to adapt in the face of the changing nature of design and management theories were raised. Finally, the role of designers in the shift towards product service systems was examined as designers and companies are challenged to find new ways of serving their customers. Design thinking, and its leadership and impact, in all of its forms, were the focus of theme 5. The extent to which design can contribute to public policy and the renewal of public services, along with an examination of the ways in which public leaders can acquire the skills of design to reshape and refashion the public policies and services that they are responsible for, was a key focus of this theme. Issues of measurement, how to assess the outcomes produced by a design thinking approach, along with the methodological challenges of identifying and calibrating these, was also included. Finally, the role of design thinking in relation to disruptive business model innovation, occasioned by the emergence of e-business organizations as a new locus for innovation, was explored. The important topic of educating design managers for strategic roles in this new era was the focus of theme 6. It has been our pleasure as editors of this Proceedings and co-chairs of the conference, to assemble this varied and thoughtful collection of papers and workshops. We hope that you find them as interesting and insightful as we do!