PI: Prof. Ulrich Weinberg, Dr. Claudia Nicolai

Abstract

The overall objective of this research project is to identify, understand and assess what are the ‘spatial ingredients’ that stimulate design thinking activities, how to create a stimulating social environment in organizations and how to create the conditions to flourish the innovation and design management process. By taking a practice-based approach, we seek to create knowledge on the influence of context on innovation processes in design thinking teams. We will conduct a case study that includes analyzing spatial settings and spatial interventions in four different companies and assessing their impact on the innovation capacity building within these organizations. The important key questions are:

• What characterizes the spatial structures (physical/socioorganizational) that foster innovation in organizations?
• How does work environments influence innovation processes in design thinking teams?
• What is the impact of the organizational context on innovation capacity building?

The knowledge created will provide the basis for designing a tool that enables leaders and researchers to identify, categorize, and prioritize the spatial factors that shape organizational innovation capacity building in order to effectively create innovation spaces within large organizations.