Portfolio. BHSAD In Transition | L5, Critical & Cultural studies | Page 7

cases such as improving energy efficiency. Thus, Consumer-
Also,
there
was
described
driven approach is not the most reliable strategy to perform SRD a  traditional way of designer’s
decision-making in product development. performance in terms of creating
According to researchers, since both business management
and customers currently accept a  limited role in SRD
development designers contribute the  most to drive it.
The  findings confirmed that the  large numbers of SRD design
decisions are being made by designers based on their own ethics
and value system yet without having been marked CSR or SRD.
It becomes apparent that the designers’ sense of responsibility
and their willingness to incorporate it with their design
values as an  employed internal
professional at a  company. These
days designers have some alternative
opportunities such as collaborating
within
professional
networks,
or participating in different corporate
initiatives as external experts or
taking part in Pro bono projects.
Antonio
processes are key contributing factors to SRD-expressed design-
Capaldo
stated
that
where the  capability to innovate
decision making.
repeatedly
Alternative ways of designer’s
performance.
is
for  competing
a 
prerequisite
for  successfully,
firms benefit from business ideas
As it was shown previously, designers can provide a  set
of activities that guide business to new values or improvement
in which systematic connections
to
innovation
sources
beyond
the  organization’s boundaries are
of those already existing. They can explore and create new distinctive components from the very
forms of practice as well as identify worthwhile projects, which outset (2007). In practice it means
in turn leads to the  reinvention of design culture. In their that external design professionals
article, “Collaborative Strategies in Design-intensive Industries: who are not familiar in detail with
Knowledge Diversity and Innovation” (2010), Claudio Dell’Era the company’s approach and products
and Roberto Verganti identify designers firstly as brokers, tend to provide fresh and more
who capture, recombine and integrate knowledge about socio- innovative concepts unlike internal
cultural models and product semantics, and secondly as creators employees. On the  other hand, this
of breakthrough product meanings. In other words, designers opportunity allows designers both
are able to transfer product languages and meanings across to collaborate with companies on
industries, exploiting their connections and networks. different categories of development
and in different industries and
to  transfer languages from one
sector to another. For  example,
Alessi, a  leading Italian kitchenware
The clear linkage between
a company’s SRD initiatives
and actual consumer
purchasing patterns rarely
appear.
7
manufacturer, has a network of more
than 200  external designers, which
indicates its innovativeness cannot
be traced to an  individual external
talent. Similarly, single designers
that work with Alessi seem not
to  provide an  analogous value when
The role of designers in value creation process
by Ksenia Semirova