Abstract
Anecdotal evidence suggests that designers may be successful entrepreneurs. When designers become business founders and engage in strategic decision-making, they may encounter a strategic paradox. This paradox arises from pursuing interdependent, yet contradictory goals: optimising one single innovation outcome (desirability) versus satisficing multiple innovation outcomes (desirability, feasibility, and viability). We examine how designer-founders experience and manage the tensions resulting from this strategic paradox through a qualitative research design analysing secondary interview data. We find that the way designer-founders perceive their professional identity relates to their ability to effectively mitigate paradoxical tensions. Designer-founders who adopt a generalist role identity seem to be able to balance contradicting innovation outcomes and thereby mitigate tensions. On the other hand, designer-founders who assume a specialist role identity seem to focus on optimising desirability and avoid the experience of paradoxical tensions by erecting clear boundaries protecting their specialist role identity.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (ANZMAC) 2017 : Marketing for Impact |
Editors | Linda Robinson, Linda Brennan, Mike Reid |
Number of pages | 1 |
Place of Publication | Melbourne |
Publisher | RMIT University |
Publication date | 2017 |
Pages | 346 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Event | The Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference. ANZMAC 2017: Marketing for Impact - RMIT - Swanston Academic Building , Melbourne, Australia Duration: 1 Dec 2017 → 6 Dec 2017 https://www.rmit.edu.au/events/all-events/conferences/2017/december/anzmac |
Conference
Conference | The Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference. ANZMAC 2017 |
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Location | RMIT - Swanston Academic Building |
Country/Territory | Australia |
City | Melbourne |
Period | 01/12/2017 → 06/12/2017 |
Internet address |
Series | Proceedings of the ANZMAC Conference |
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ISSN | 1447-3275 |
Keywords
- Role identity
- Innovation paradox
- Designer-founders