The need for sectoral transition design: A case of the shift to renewable energy

Scott T. Bryant, Karla Straker and Cara Wrigley

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2024, vol. 198, issue C

Abstract: In recent years the role of design has been expanding to tackle increasingly diverse and pressing societal challenges, known as ‘wicked problems’. However, little research exists that explores the role of design in developing and facilitating solutions to a major reoccurring wicked problem: sectoral transitions. Therefore this paper explores the role of design in facilitating societally required sectoral transitions through business- and governance-model innovation. The results of 28 semi-structured interviews, led to the development of a new overarching design approach, which is the adaptation of the existing design innovation and business model innovation approaches. This new design approach named ‘sectoral transition design’, exemplifies the need for designers to adapt their existing approach to creating individual product or service solutions for businesses and government and deliver solutions capable of providing societal-level solutions that can then subsequently be converted to business- and governance-model solutions to facilitate necessary sectoral transitions.

Keywords: Design; Wicked problems; Design theory; Innovation; Sectoral transition design; Design at scale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523006157
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:tefoso:v:198:y:2024:i:c:s0040162523006157

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122930

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().