Is Design-Driven Innovation the Next Competitive Advantage?:A Cross-Country Symposium of Japan, Germany, and the UK

Is design-driven innovation the next competitive advantage? This PDW, which is derived from a cross-country cooperation project between Japan, Germany and the UK, focuses on the topics of design-thinking and innovation management. The PDW aims to inform the change of discipline in business and management into design-driven innovation paradigm through a knowledge exchange symposium. The objective is twofold. First, it brings to the attention a refined theoretical and empirical understanding upon the application of the design-thinking for a key competitive advantage to reshape national and global economy – innovation. The second objective is to explore real-world experience from managers, policy makers and scholars, particularly in the ventures of the associated challenges and failures, rather than focusing exclusively on the praise of the design-driven innovation. This PDW is especially relevant to researchers, managers and policy makers who are seeking to better understand capacity building for the next competitive advantage towards a post-Covid new normal. The workshop will be led by an international expert panel, which is formed by scholars, practitioners and policy makers from Japan, Germany and the UK. Not only are these countries outperformers in the areas of design-driven innovation, but also they are distinguished in their idiosyncratic institutional environment with clear cultural differences (East and West) and apparent geographic divergence (island and mainland), providing BAM delegates with a unique consortium for knowledge assimilation and experience exchange. All in all, this PDW contributes to the BAM conference with rich and impactful insights, further fostering future endeavours for an important but under-understood topic