Dancing in shackles: interactive learning of industrial design firms in Beijing

Huasheng Zhu and Pengfei Li

Industry and Innovation, 2019, vol. 26, issue 5, 568-591

Abstract: The paper addresses the structure-agency dilemma of interactive learning in innovation systems, namely the structuration process of how macro-conditions shape micro-actions of firms and the agency process of how firms react to macro-structures. We argue organizational boundaries of firms are an important dimension to tackle the structure-agency dilemma of interactive learning. Specifically, we propose the structuration process can occur through a boundary-stabilizing mechanism while the agency process can happen with a boundary-changing mechanism. We investigate the newly established industrial design firms in China and find that industrial policies, a weak design education system, a fixed-price practice for industrial designs set up clear boundaries between industrial designers and manufacturers, which restrict their interactive learning. To the agency process, we observe a few industrial design firms upgrade by extending their organizational boundaries upstream or downstream in their value chains. Further, we suggest the structuration and agency processes can be context-specific.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13662716.2018.1473243 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:indinn:v:26:y:2019:i:5:p:568-591

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIAI20

DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2018.1473243

Access Statistics for this article

Industry and Innovation is currently edited by Associate Professor Mark Lorenzen

More articles in Industry and Innovation from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().