White Spaces Innovation in Sweden - Innovation policy for ... - Vinnova

WHITE SPACES INNOVATION IN SWEDEN„mystery‟ involves exploring socio-cultural meaning much as regime change accompaniestechnological innovation. This involves wholly separate definition of design comparedwith user driven innovation whereby: user driven design implies that productdevelopment should start from a deep analysis of user needs (i.e. analytical–reliable inMartin‟s 2009, or „analyticals‟ in Lester & Piore‟s, 2004 terminology). Such analystsobserve customers as they use existing products and track their behaviour in consumptionprocessesHowever, design driven firms like Lombardy domestic goods and appliances firmssuch as Alessi, Artemide and Kartell (also non-Italian design-intensive firms like Apple& B&O) practise something else. They propose innovations that radically re-definewhat a product means to the consumer. An example is the Alessi kitchenware productline which was transformed from simple tools to „transition objects‟ that embodiedtransgressive forms like toys thought likely to appeal to child-like affections dormant inadults. This is not „technology push‟ but „design push‟ and conceivably „regime push‟.The research meta-model is the result of a networked research process where knowledgeof design languages and meanings is shared among firms and external interpreters.Accordingly, in this model new designs explore new routes, satisfy latent needsand aspirations, move the frontiers of design languages, set new standards of interpretation,and eventually strengthen the brand value. Moreover, knowledge is distributedamong users, firms, designers, products, media, cultural centres, schools and artists as anetwork of actors, which creates a continuous design discourse among a circle on socioculturalregime change and its implications for consumption.At regional innovation system level Lombardy is, unlike certain stereotypes, consideredno higher in its social consciousness and valuation of design than regions elsewhere.Lombardy is a key centre of furniture manufacturing, possessing some 25% ofall Italian furniture companies while Italy is Europe‟s largest furniture exporter, with45% of its output exported. Regional furniture growth rates exceeded both the Italianand European Union levels from 1994-2003. However, Lombardy‟s schools, studios,manufacturers and research centres were little better than in other design clusters. Nevertheless,the region was distinctive for the number and strength of links between diverseactors in the regional innovation system. This is underlined by a comparison withan underperforming design territory like New York‟s Finger Lakes region where it isshown how platform potential fails to evolve, largely for socio-anthropological reasons,industrial tribalism and lack of communication. Its main city Rochester is home to Xeroxand the Gannett media firm. Bausch & Lomb, a leading lens maker, is present as isEastman Kodak. Corning fibre glass is nearby, alongside numerous specialist opticalnetworks companies. The state of New York established the Centre for Electronic ImagingSystems as a collaboration between Xerox, Kodak and Rochester University‟s opticalengineering school. Rochester Institute of Technology is a leading print media collegewhile Alfred University excels in ceramics and glass sculpture. Eastman House is a90