Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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PAPERS: Design in the Wild: Entrepreneurship, Markets and Cultural Value Location: 50 George Square, G.03 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Session Chair: Gianluca Carella, Politecnico di Milano | |
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Strategic positioning in design agencies: Achieving optimal distinctiveness through portfolios Institute for Creative Futures, Loughborough University London, United Kingdom The growing recognition of design’s value to business and society has driven rapid expansion in the design industries, intensifying competition among designers and design firms. Despite an increased scholarly attention to the strategic role of design, there is a lack of understanding how design businesses strategize and position themselves in the market. We aim to revitalise this debate by reviewing a diverse range of literatures on strategic positioning of design agencies and suggest a focus on the theory of optimal distinctiveness. This theory argues that to be successful, firms need to find an optimal balance between being different to be attractive yet at the same time being similar to gain legitimacy. We conceptualize the portfolio as a strategic interface for achieving this balance as it connects internal creative capabilities with external expectations. View Paper: https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2396
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