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| The Role of Product Design in Technological Innovation |
| Chen Guodong,Shen Yunxia |
| Department of Information Management,Taizhou University,Taizhou 317000,China |
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Abstract Product design plays an important role in new product development.Though having been studied thoroughly in foreign countries,it still remains a new topic in China.This paper,after investigating the design-intensive kitchenware enterprises in Ningbo,and researching on model of new product development and relationship of design,technology and market,finds that a taxonomy characterizing three roles for design in new product development is developed and explained from the three enterprises.In the first roles,design is explained as a functional specialism,where knowledge of market demand is innovation power,and design is embedded in the RD.It is a market-pull innovation.The second categorization develops the role of design as part of sub-process of new product development,where technology is the power of innovation.It is technology-push innovation.Not completely independent of technology,yet it has become a separate stage of new product development.The market stops playing a dominating role in design but merely an influencing factor.The third role depicts designer as process leader which is design-driven innovation,where design,equally important as the technology and market,becomes an innovation power.A design-led technological innovation network established by enterprises indicates that their innovative model has changed from a closed type into an open type and product design has become complementary to technology and market in new product development.
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Received: 08 January 2013
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2013, Vol. 1 
