Design for innovation and competitiveness: new opportunities in the furniture sector

The purpose of this thesis is to understand whether and how design can be still considered as a source of innovation and competitiveness during the current and in the future economic scenario, characterised by increasing uncertainties and complexities. In this context, indeed, the connotation and the role of design have deeply changed, and the basic principles of design management have been gradually revised. Starting from the assumption that consumers and companies are increasingly concerned with sustainability and environmental issues, the role of design has been analysed, in this study, through the lens of the circular economy paradigm, which provides a broader connotation of design and suggests new opportunities for its management. The focus is on the furniture industry, on which literature still deserves further investigation on the above topics. A mixed-method approach has been adopted: a qualitative research has been developed to investigate the companies’ perspective, while a quantitative method was preferred to consider consumers’ view. The findings of the qualitative study revealed a significant awareness of furniture companies about the concept of circular economy and eco-design practices. Nevertheless, they are still little involved in the current implementation of these practices, thus revealing a potential attitude-behaviour gap, which deserved further investigation. In this regard, the analysis of the development process of an eco-design innovation within a family firm context revealed the effectiveness of eco-design practices for producing innovative design furniture objects. The consumers’ perspective was also considered in the second step of the study. The results provided a better understanding of the effects of consumers’ perception of design attributes on their decision-making and purchasing processes, by focusing on its constitutive three dimensions (i.e. functional, aesthetic and symbolic). Moreover, the effects of environmental concerns on consumers’ attitudes and beliefs towards the purchase of design furniture products were investigated. Overall, several interesting theoretical and practical implications emerged, while some limitations of this study provided useful suggestions for future research.