Vivien Walsh

Design, innovation and the boundaries of the firm

Abstract This papers purpose is to make a first attempt at analysing the design function from a variety of disciplinary perspectives: economic, sociological and management. It explores what design is, and compares it to R&D and technological innovation. It surveys the literature on technological innovation and considers its usefulness in understanding and analysing the design function. It then examines the organisation and location of design activities in relation to manufacturing firms, referring to empirical studies of a number of contrasting sectors of industry in various countries, as well as to an historical analysis of the evolution of the design function.

Competitive by design

This paper is concerned with the role of design in the competitiveness of manufacturing companies and reports on design management in commercially successful firms. The findings are based on a survey of design policies and practices in over one hundred British and foreign companies from several industries, ranging from furniture to electronics. The paper shows that while in theory design plays a key role in competition, influencing both “price” and “non‐price” factors, in practice many managers do not give design high priority in company strategy and product development. The commercially most successful firms were those that not only invested resources in design and managed it effectively, but had other strengths, for example in marketing and manufacturing.

Small-firm formation in biotechnology: A comparison of France, Britain and Canada

Abstract A comparison is made of the pattern of emergence, survival and growth of small biotechnology firms in France, Britain and Canada, using surveys in the three countries. These data are compared in turn with what is known about US biotechnology firms from the literature. Although the literature suggests that the appearance of new industries based on the emergence of new, small high-technology firms is a US phenomenon, evidence is presented of a nearly comparable pattern of small firm commercialisation of biotechnology in the three countries studied, relative to the size of the countries. However, the Canadian, French and British firms appeared 1–4 years later than the US firms, and are still somewhat weaker. While the US is generally held to have an entrepreneurial culture and a supportive private finance industry providing venture capital, which provide a stimulus to new high-technology firm formation, in the other three countries public policy — to a greater or lesser extent — made up for the relative lack of an entrepreneurial culture and private-sector finance. Differences in the financial institutions and instruments of public policy in all four countries are analysed. In each of them, networks of cooperation between other organisations, including established firms, also played an important role in the survival of the small biotechnology firms. Unlike the microelectronics experience, there was a complementary role for new and established, large and small firms, and the large established firms in end-user industries have not been pushed aside by the new dedicated biotechnology firms. Some of the new firms have grown and been successful; in some cases the complementary role has now been overtaken, and some of the small firms have been taken over by established ones.

Cancer chemotherapy, biodiversity, public and private property: the case of the anti-cancer drug Taxol

The drug taxol has been hailed by many in the cancer community as a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer. It has already been approved in use against ovarian and advanced breast cancer in many countries worldwide. Taxol has also promoted profound debates in the policy arena not, as one might expect, because of the characteristics or purposes of the drug itself, but because of other far-reaching effects. Taxol is a complex compound found in the bark of the Pacific yew tree, primarily in Oregon and Washington in the USA. The bark was first collected in 1962 and cytotoxicity demonstrated in 1964. Yet it was not until 1989 that the first results of clinical trials were reported. In the US taxol was then rushed through the Food and Drug Administrations regulatory procedures, approval being granted for use in refractory ovarian cancer in 1992. The controversies surrounding taxol surfaced in 1989 and grew substantially over the next few years. In this paper we examine two principal controversies concerning taxol, the first of which focused on apparent conflicts between the needs of environmental protection and those of cancer chemotherapy. Although the media portrayed this as a clash of interests between the environment and people with cancer, we argue that it was an attempt to increase lay participation in biomedical decision making and policy formulation. The second controversy was between health policy and the transfer of public scientific property to the corporate sector. The pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb was given exclusive rights to provide taxol from Pacific yew trees under a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement signed in 1991. While this was seen to be in the US Governments (as well as the companys) interest, it provoked a public reaction questioning the terms and consequences of the transfer of publicly generated scientific knowledge to the private sector.

The designer as ‘gatekeeper’ in manufacturing industry

Abstract For the past three years the Design Innovation Group at the Open University in collaboration with Vivien Walsh at UMIST has been examining the processes, practices and management of product design, development and innovation in several sectors of manufacturing industry. This paper presents some of the findings, in particular from the survey of the plastics products sector, but with additional evidence from a preliminary analysis of data in the office furniture, domestic heating equipment and electronic business equipment industries. The focus of the paper is on the employment and activities of product designers and their role as ‘gatekeepers’, who, in the commercially successful, ‘design-conscious’ firms, manage to integrate the contributions of marketing, design and production in new product development. The paper also includes some evidence on the relationship between ‘good design’ and business performance.

From taxol to taxol®: The changing identities and ownership of an anti-cancer drug

This paper analyzes the emergence and evolution of taxol, the worlds best-selling anti-cancer drug. Over the years taxol has changed its identity, its status as property, and its association with different places (from the old-growth forests of Washington State to the government agencies of Washington, D.C., tolaboratories in France). Taxol is not only a profitable pharmaceutical commodity and a substance injected into women with breast and/or ovarian cancer; it is also a natural product found in the bark of Taxus brevifolia (the Pacific yew, which is native to the North American Pacific Northwest) and a chemical substance that was discovered and brought to the point of commercial production in the public sector. We explore its role in several controversies: the destruction of old-growth forests, public participation in policy making, and the privatization of intellectual property and its effect on the price of drugs.

Plastics products: successful firms, innovation and good design

Abstract A research project has examined some sectors of the UK manufacturing industry whose products are covered by Design Council Awards and Design Centre Selection Schemes. This paper reports on findings in the plastic products industry, looking at goals and strategies, marketing, design, price and commercial success. It concludes that good design and commercial success are possible, despite a previous bad image.

Patterns of Innovation

In previous chapters the problem of how innovative activities are managed within firms has been analysed. Reference has been made to different strands of literature dealing with theories of the firm, with its implications for the analysis of technological innovation, and with the way in which R & D is managed within firms. The theories of the firm which have previously been examined differ considerably with respect to their fundamental assumptions but they all share as their primary concern the behaviour of the firm. In other words the firm and not technological innovation is their unit of observation. In this chapter the focus of attention will be shifted away from the firm in two different directions: first, greater attention will be paid to innovation as a process, in which therefore common features may be shared in different firms, industries, countries and so on, and second, the analysis will often be conducted at higher levels of aggregation, such as the industrial sector. In this sense the chapter will still be concerned with microeconomic issues, since it will still be dealing with the composition of the economic system rather than with its aggregated flows, but at a level of aggregation higher than that of the firm.

The Promotion and Control of Technology by Government

We have seen that government involvement in technical change can be usefully divided into policies for promotion and for control of technology (Johnston and Gummett, 1979), and that these policies may interact in various ways. It is also clear from the historical development of these policies that they owe a great deal to the prevailing thrust of government policy with respect to the economy and the social order, as well as to specific concerns with particular aspects of science and technology. Thus promotion policies, for example, can be divided into direct policies which target specific institutions responsible for technical change, and indirect policies which have a broader focus on the business environment.

Research and Development in the Firm: II. Organisation and Execution

This chapter is concerned with the remaining three topics on the list of decision types introduced at the beginning of the preceding chapter. These are: the allocation of resources to R & D projects, the monitoring and control of projects, and the organisation of the R & D function, both internally and in relation to the other parts of the firm. These issues are therefore more closely related to the operational aspects of R & D than those discussed in previous chapters. This operational character has resulted in rather more attention being given to these topics by the management literature and rather less by the academic economics literature. However, it is through operational activities that strategic intent is expressed, if a rationalist view is taken; or is revealed, if a somewhat less rationalist view is taken. Therefore the connections between operational issues and the other decision types discussed previously should always be borne in mind.