Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Business Administration

Advisor

Daphne D. Halkias

Abstract

Manufacturing small and medium enterprise (SME) leaders have sparse information on using design thinking to support their firm’s business sustainability and competitive advantage. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to describe design thinking experts’ views on how manufacturing SME leaders may successfully drive design thinking within their firm as an innovation strategy to support business sustainability and competitive advantage. A multiple case study design was used to collect data from a purposeful sample of seven design thinking experts. Semistructured interviews, archival data, and reflective field notes drove credibility of the findings through data triangulation. This study was framed by two concepts developed by Bjoerklund et al. within their integrating design across the organization model: (a) the concept of coevolving design capabilities and (b) the concept of the design-driven organization. Twenty-eight themes emerged from the data analysis, with six coding categories grounded in the conceptual framework: (a) leadership competencies for implementing a design strategy in SMEs, (b) leading a cross-functional team to adopt design thinking, (c) sustaining design thinking within a cross-functional team, (d) developing a design thinking business model for sustainability, (e) gaining competitive advantage with a design thinking business model, and (f) embedding design thinking in a manufacturing SME to drive competitive advantage. This study’s results may drive positive social change by providing manufacturing SME leaders with a better understanding of how to successfully use design thinking to achieve business sustainability and competitive advantage, creating better business longevity.

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