Unpacking experimentation in design thinking: Contributions to innovation performance and the moderating role of digital technologies

Stefano Magistretti, Dell’Era, Claudio, Marina Candi, Scott K. Swan, Mattia Bianchi, Giulia Calabretta, Ileana Stigliani and Roberto Verganti

Technovation, 2025, vol. 141, issue C

Abstract: Design thinking is an innovation approach that emphasizes developing and testing hypotheses about the desirability, feasibility, and viability of an idea through iterative experimentation. Although widely used, there is limited empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of experimentation practices in design thinking projects. Similarly, the impact of integrating digital technologies into experimentation processes remains underexplored. This study addresses these gaps by analyzing data from 246 design thinking projects to examine how early and frequent experimentation influences innovation performance, specifically in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. It also examines how the use of digital technologies moderates these relationships. The results show that both early and frequent experimentation positively influence innovation effectiveness, while only early experimentation significantly improves innovation efficiency. Moreover, the use of digital technologies strengthens the positive effects of early experimentation on both effectiveness and efficiency. This research provides valuable theoretical and practical insights by deepening our understanding of how experimentation and digital tools drive innovation performance in design thinking projects.

Keywords: Experimentation; Innovation; Design thinking; Prototyping; Digital technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497225000197
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:techno:v:141:y:2025:i:c:s0166497225000197

DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103187

Access Statistics for this article

Technovation is currently edited by Jonathan Linton

More articles in Technovation from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().