There have been various approaches to conceptualising design management issues, but most of these have considered design management from an organisational perspective, in isolation from the context in which the design profession is practised - the design industry - and thus are unlikely to capture the emerging issues driven by design industry trends. Sun’s paper proposes a conceptual framework positioning design management within the industry’s knowledge supply chain, defining it as the management of the interface between design practice and other industry forces. Design management thus becomes relevant to a significantly wider body of stakeholders.
Sun’s research is developed in three stages: a descriptive framework of the design industry; its use to locate design management; and evaluation by comparison with existing theoretical concepts and models. Through extensive analysis of the existing literature, it identifies roles missing from classical design management theory, identifying new areas of responsibility. Unlike many contributions to the field, it is sensitive to differences between organisations, and to those between macro-contexts including national attitudes to design management, highlighting questions of transferability. Local and regional differences are accentuated by recent change, such as the UK’s shift towards a knowledge economy while emerging nations industrialise. This is significant for the teaching of design management and its relevance to international students returning to local circumstances.
The paper has been referenced in journal articles, including Erichsen & Christensen (2013) in Creativity and Innovation Management 22(2) and Starostka (2011) in Swedish Design Research Journal 2 (12), in conference contributions and a forthcoming Springer book chapter (Nelson et al 2014).