Design-Led New Product Development in Chinese SMEs

Abstract

Design-oriented new product development (NPD) has been recognised as beneficial for company growth; however, there is limited reporting on the understanding of its effectiveness in a real-world context especially in Chinese SMEs. This paper aims to explore issues related to the implementation of designer-led NPD in a Chinese SME. An experiment was setup whereby two NPD teams were assigned to conduct NPD concurrently. One of the teams carried out the conventional NPD process model used by the company, and the other adopted the designer-led NPD process model. A metrics tool was built in the form of questionnaires for obtaining the views of the participants. Results indicate that design-led NPD is perceived to be more inclusive of team members’ views, even if the effectiveness of designer-led NPD in Chinese SMEs requires further investigations.

Keywords

• Product Design
• Design-led
• Chinese SMEs
• New Product Development
• Global Markets
• Global Competition