She Ji-The Journal of Design Economics and Innovation最新文献

This article examines sustainability accounting (SA) in a French international construction company, viewing it through the frame of being a wicked problem. Sustainability accounting literature often assumes that reporting is a matter of institutional will. It presumes that the necessary key performance indicators (KPIs) already exist, and environmental impact can be measured with confidence. Accuracy, balance, clarity, comparability, reliability, stakeholder inclusiveness, and timeliness are all assumed to be realizable. However, the ethnographic research presented here reveals a very different picture. None of the key criteria were met. The necessary measurement tools were fallible, key definitions were controversial, and making a convincing instrumental or technical choice between relative and absolute accountability was impossible. The failures of sustainability accounting are not attributed to corporate unwillingness or greenwashing. Instead, they are a result of an inability to recognize measurement as a wicked problem. While the wicked problem as a concept is well explained in the literature, ethnographic applications are rare. Therefore, this study makes an additional contribution by demonstrating how the wicked problem concept can be used to frame real-life issues. In conclusion, we ask the question: Has the sustainability accounting literature misrepresented the challenges, ignored the pragmatics of having to deal with wicked problems, and thus failed to be sufficiently accountable itself?

The article elucidates a type of problem Rittel and Webber did not acknowledge. The underlying assumption about tame and wicked problems is that they are mutually exclusive (any problem can be either wicked or tame but cannot be both or partially wicked and partially tame). Another assumption is that this distinction is comprehensively exhaustive (there can be no other types of problems). My analysis reveals that precisely the opposite stands. By situating a different problem within their distinction, I demonstrate that some problems have properties of both tame and wicked problems and that some problems are neither wicked nor tame but aporetic. Aporia is a perplexing state of mind and an intractable problem consisting of equally plausible but mutually exclusive propositions. It depicts a situation when we discover equally good reasons to think two or more contradictory things. That overcommits us to conflicting theses and prevents us from accepting them jointly. Aporia is either a triggering or a stopping device in an inquiry, or both. The significance of including aporetic problems in the nomenclature of design problems has far-reaching consequences for understanding the nature of design problems and knowledge and design practice.

Part 2 of this article introduces the Experience Design Introspection (XDI) workshop. This educational initiative aims to nurture designers’ emotional connoisseurship through a sensibility-oriented approach. We begin by discussing the philosophical underpinnings of XDI, which include non-dualism, pluralism, and long-termism. We then outline three operational principles that guided the development of the XDI and the techniques used to achieve them. To illustrate the practical application of the XDI workshop, we provide a comprehensive walkthrough of a two-and-a-half-hour trial version, which also served as a platform for reflection and iterative improvement. In the final sections, we present participants’ feedback and envision the evolution of the XDI from a time-bound workshop to a community-based learning model. This model aims to foster long-term engagement, personalized cultivation, authentic social learning, and a culture of introspection and sharing that extends beyond the lecture room and studio.

The existing conceptual model for medical technology innovation management is a poor fit for low- and middle-income countries as it overlooks their unique challenges and constraints. The purpose of this article is to investigate key governing factors and underlying challenges and barriers of medical technology innovation in low- and middle-income countries and how they impact firm-level activities of innovation management. A two-fold qualitative research methodology was adopted for data collection, comprised of a literature review and multiple case study analyses via semi-structured interviews. A thematic coding approach and multiple theoretical perspectives were used for data analysis and drawing conclusions. The study identified 23 challenges and barriers to medical technology innovation, then categorized these under six factors: healthcare context and system, organizational capabilities, innovation ecosystem, demographic burdens and characteristics, market forces, and science and technology. It was found that compared to high-income countries, in low- and middle-income countries, issues associated with country-specific healthcare context and system, innovation ecosystem, and demographic burdens and characteristics influence innovation management activities and make medical technology innovation more challenging. The study contributes to the technology innovation model research by demystifying new factors and proposing a comprehensive conceptual model for understanding the roadmap of medical technology innovation and the influence of various factors on innovation management activities.

Fourth order design, which involves systems and environments, is a frequently misunderstood area of design. The concept of institution offers a way to clarify and enrich fourth order design in both theory and practice. Building on the idea that institutions are active sites of organizational change, this article argues that institutions are objects of design. Specifically, it is an inquiry into the role of institutions and how they provide a sense of durable form and unity, which is sorely missing in our contemporary lives. Using the different modes of thought first pioneered by the philosopher Richard McKeon and imaginatively applied in design by Richard Buchanan, this article introduces a pluralistic framework of institutions to better understand—and, more importantly, shape and reshape—organizations. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need for designers to embrace the humility that often accompanies a deep appreciation of institutions as unconventional creations of human making. As complex products that also can take on a life of their own, institutions challenge our inherited understanding of the design process and the role of designers. As formative systems, institutions are re-formable objects that have the power to form designers and design practices anew.

Shared leadership has gained momentum in fields ranging from education and healthcare to information technology and sports. Given its collaborative or participatory nature, design practice should be a fertile ground for the emergence of shared leadership. Yet, previous literature on design management and leadership has primarily conceptualized leadership as an individual characteristic. To extend the existing literature, this article presents an autoethnographic exploration of shared leadership from a sociomaterial perspective. It focuses on a design project dealing with remote healthcare solutions and contributes to existing literature on shared leadership and sociomateriality. I clarify how values, individuals, and objects interact over time to evolve, stabilize, and destabilize shared leadership. This finding calls for a more granular understanding of objects. This suggests that objects influence shared leadership not just through their form and development but also by imbuing and reinforcing certain values. The findings also highlight the need to regard design leadership as sociomaterial configurations rather than solely as an individual characteristic. The article concludes by proposing further research avenues and discussing implications for design practice.