H. Alpay Er Development Patterns of Industrial … Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World

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H. Alpay Er Development Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World: A Conceptual Model for Newly Industrialized Countries This article first critically examines the early literature on the role of industrial design in the Third World and subsequently sets out to explain the dynamics behind the development of industrial design in a group of Third World countries categorized as Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). For the development of industrial design activity in NICs, the vital ingredient appears to be competition. This is also conditioned by the market orientation of economic/industrial activity, which itself is largely determined by the governmental development strategies in the context of a globally organized world economy. The article concludes with a new theoretical model for the development patterns of industrial design in NICs. Introduction In today's global market industrial design is recognized as a powerful corporate tool, and it plays an increasingly critical role in competitive- ness. In an increasing number of design studies, 1 the link between a properly co-ordinated design activity and the competitive performance of com- panies is widely acknowledged in the industria- lized market economies of the West and Japan. In most of these studies, design has been defined as an activity in which market information is trans- formed into initial ideas—design concepts—and then into a specific configuration of materials and components—technical specifications—to manu- facture a new product. In other words, indus- trial/product design may be denned as a strategic process containing that knowledge about a product from which it can be materialized and positioned in the marketplace, the answers to the basic 'why' and Tiow' questions about a product. However, little is known about the develop- ment of this strategic industrial activity outside the core countries of the global economic system. Since industrial design has been usually asso- ciated with the product innovation activities of the industrialized market economies, the lack of literature regarding the design issues of the Third World may not be surprising to many. Never- theless, a growing number of peripheral countries have begun to play an increasingly active role in the international economy over the last two dec- ades. Yet, despite the academic attention given to the development of those countries in the eco- nomics literature, the development of industrial/ product design capabilities in the Third World has long remained under-researched. As Bonsiepe stated in 1977: Industrial design has advanced considerably in depen- dent countries, whether for good or ill. Design organ- isations have been established. Design promotion programmes have been sponsored by local govern- ments in semi-industrialised countries. But, we still lack a critical evaluation of these projects—their suc- cess and failures. 2 This statement remains true, twenty years later. The subject has been largely marginalized in studies of design as much as in studies of techno- logical change and development in the Third Journal of Design History Vol. 10 No. 3 © 1997 The Design History Society 293 at Universidad del Bio Bio on April 20, 2011 jdh.oxfordjournals.org Downloaded from

Transcript of H. Alpay Er Development Patterns of Industrial … Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World

H. Alpay Er

Development Patterns of IndustrialDesign in the Third World:A Conceptual Model for NewlyIndustrialized Countries

This article first critically examines the early literature on the role of industrial design in the Third World and subsequentlysets out to explain the dynamics behind the development of industrial design in a group of Third World countries categorized asNewly Industrialized Countries (NICs). For the development of industrial design activity in NICs, the vital ingredientappears to be competition. This is also conditioned by the market orientation of economic/industrial activity, which itself islargely determined by the governmental development strategies in the context of a globally organized world economy. Thearticle concludes with a new theoretical model for the development patterns of industrial design in NICs.

Introduction

In today's global market industrial design isrecognized as a powerful corporate tool, and itplays an increasingly critical role in competitive-ness. In an increasing number of design studies,1

the link between a properly co-ordinated designactivity and the competitive performance of com-panies is widely acknowledged in the industria-lized market economies of the West and Japan. Inmost of these studies, design has been defined asan activity in which market information is trans-formed into initial ideas—design concepts—andthen into a specific configuration of materials andcomponents—technical specifications—to manu-facture a new product. In other words, indus-trial/product design may be denned as astrategic process containing that knowledgeabout a product from which it can be materializedand positioned in the marketplace, the answers tothe basic 'why' and Tiow' questions about aproduct.

However, little is known about the develop-ment of this strategic industrial activity outsidethe core countries of the global economic system.

Since industrial design has been usually asso-ciated with the product innovation activities ofthe industrialized market economies, the lack ofliterature regarding the design issues of the ThirdWorld may not be surprising to many. Never-theless, a growing number of peripheral countrieshave begun to play an increasingly active role inthe international economy over the last two dec-ades. Yet, despite the academic attention given tothe development of those countries in the eco-nomics literature, the development of industrial/product design capabilities in the Third World haslong remained under-researched. As Bonsiepestated in 1977:

Industrial design has advanced considerably in depen-dent countries, whether for good or ill. Design organ-isations have been established. Design promotionprogrammes have been sponsored by local govern-ments in semi-industrialised countries. But, we stilllack a critical evaluation of these projects—their suc-cess and failures.2

This statement remains true, twenty years later.The subject has been largely marginalized instudies of design as much as in studies of techno-logical change and development in the Third

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World. Woudhuysen3 and Madge4 point out thatthe Third World is generally absent from contem-porary discussions of design. As Margolin5 alsostates, little writing on the issue of industrialdesign in developing countries appeared in thedesign literature. This lack of interest seems to berelated to the general trend that defines designonly in the context of the industrialized marketeconomies of the West and Japan.6 According toBonsiepe,7 the apparent lack of study on design inthe Third World fits into the ideological patternand parochial self-interpretation of industrializedcountries which claim to be on the forefront ofhistory and see everything that happened—andhappens—in the periphery as a second-handhistory and not something original in its ownright. In his own words:

It is all too easy to look at industrial design in the per-iphery as a second-rate, resource poor and delayedreplay of a process through which the industrializedcountries have passed during the nine decades in the20th century when industrial design was transformedinto a social reality. However, such parochial vision—admittedly quite common in the center—would notpermit to perceive the differentiated reality andachievements in the area of industrial design in theperiphery.8

However, the expanding scale of design activityand the level of concern for the development ofindustrial design education and practice by thegovernments of some countries in the Third Worldappear to have a growing impact on world mar-kets,9 and such developments have raised issuesregarding the nature of industrial change in dif-ferent social, economic, and political contextswhich can alter theoretical constructs of the roleof design. In this respect, as a diverse reality whichhas been marginalized for a long time in thedesign literature, the emergence and developmentcharacteristics of industrial design in the ThirdWorld require investigation as an objective factand deserve to be systematically explored.

With the aim of initiating discussion in thisemerging field, this article first critically examinesthe early literature on the role of industrial designin the Third World, and then sets out to explainthe dynamics behind the development of indus-trial design in a group of countries categorized as

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Newly Industrialized Countries. There is a greatdiversity among the countries of the so-calledThird World, a general term that is not welldefined, together with related terms such as'Developing Countries', 'Less Developed Coun-tries', ^Underdeveloped Countries', and 'Periph-ery' or 'Peripheral Countries'. The differencesbetween these terms depend largely on differenttheoretical approaches. However, all of theseterms refer to the same geographical parts of theworld, including Latin America, South and SouthEast Asia (except Japan), Africa (except SouthAfrica), and the Middle East (except Israel). Thestudy10 from which this article draws its datafocuses on the particular sub-group frequentlydescribed in the literature of development eco-nomics as TMewly Industrialized Countries'. Theseare the same countries that have attempted to gaindesign capabilities in parallel to their industrialdevelopment for the last three decades, althoughindustrial design is still an unknown industrialpractice in many parts of the Third World.

Industrial Design in the Third World: EarlyLiterature

The design literature on the Third World islimited to a small number of early studies inwhich the introduction of industrial design intothe industrial, economic, and social contexts of theThird World countries is associated with 'devel-opment' in these areas.11 In other words, indus-trial design was perceived as a 'problem-solvingactivity' directed towards the basic developmentproblems of those countries. Some early andinfluential studies on the subject even suggestedspecific 'developmentalist' roles for industrialdesign to play in this new context.12

Of the texts which appeared during the early1970s, Victor Papanek's influential Design for theReal World (1972) was the most popular. However,Papanek's work was not primarily about theThird World. His main concern was much morewith design in the 'First' world and consumerism,and his approach, which can be described as anidealized combination of the 'basic needs' and'appropriate technology' concepts, emerged as aby-product of his radical criticism of the role ofindustrial design in the Western capitalist societ-

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ies. According to Papanek, industrial design has,or should have a morally motivated idealist—anti-consumerist—role in the Third World onthe basis of those countries' own basic needs.Nevertheless, Papanek's approach, howeversocially responsible, did not offer any explanationof the dynamics leading to the emergence anddevelopment of industrial design in those coun-tries. Neither did it explain the actual role ofindustrial design in this new context. AlthoughPapanek revised some of his early argumentslater,13 he still maintains that designers have amoral role to play in the development process ofthe Third World.

Gui Bonsiepe is the second Western designerwho looked into industrial design in the ThirdWorld. He initially worked as one of the leadingfigures at the Hochschule fiir Gestaltung Ulm. Afterthe closure of the school in 1968, he went to Chileto undertake a series of projects for the socialistgovernment of Allende. For most of his profes-sional life, Bonsiepe has lived in Latin Americancountries where he has made his reputation as adesigner/theoretician addressing the design pro-blems of Third World countries.14 His first signi-ficant contribution was a working paper preparedas a basis for discussion between representativesof the United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization (UNIDO) and the InternationalCongress of Societies of Industrial Design(ICSID). This paper is the first document inwhich industrial design was clearly defined as aspecific tool for the development process of theThird World.

Industrial design should be used as a tool in the pro-cess of industrialisation of developing countries. As amatter of fact, industrial design constitutes an indis-pensable instrument for endeavours towards develop-ment.15

According to Bonsiepe, the significance ofindustrial design was based on the argumentthat it could help in the development of thosecountries. He definitely shared, though in aspecific context, the idea of a 'developmentalisfrole for industrial design with Papanek, withoutreferring to the capitalistic nature of industrialdesign activity.16 However, the similarity betweenBonsiepe and Papanek ends at that point. While

Development Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World

in Papanek the absence of a debate on thecapitalistic nature of industrial design resultedfrom a rather naive and moralist approach, forBonsiepe it was a result of an ideological perspec-tive. Bonsiepe's theoretical framework for indus-trial design in the periphery, in which theinfluence of neo-Marxist and Latin American-based Dependency Theory can easily bedetracted, was mainly supported by materialfrom the practical conditions of countries suchas Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.17 He definedindustrial design in the periphery as 'the dialec-tical counterpart of industrial design at thecentre', and from this perspective perceivedindustrial design as a technological variable inthe development context of Third World coun-tries. As he pointed out, 'the question of design inthe periphery is linked to the problem of techno-logical dependence, and by implication, financialdependence.'18 In a typical dependency schoolfashion, Bonsiepe maintained that the technolo-gical and financial 'dependency' of national eco-nomies in Latin American NICs on the capitalistcore through transnational corporations (TNCs)was the main reason for the failure of industrialdesign to root itself in the local industries.19

Bonsiepe, by establishing the first theoreticallink between industrial design and socio-eco-nomic dynamics in the context of peripheralcountries, can be fairly acknowledged for beingthe founder of this new study field in the designdomain. Nevertheless, his early theoretical ana-lysis of the subject, which often reproduced thegeneral arguments of 'technological underdeve-lopment' of the Dependency Theory, falls short ofproviding an consistent explanation for thedynamics and development of industrial designin the Third World.

Under the influence of Papanek and Bonsiepe'sarguments, the 1970s and the early 1980s wit-nessed a growing body of design literature witha strong 'developmentalisf tendency, mainly pro-duced by designers from the Third World coun-tries.20 However, by ignoring the capitalistic,profit-motivated nature of industrial design activ-ity for moral or political reasons, this early liter-ature reduced industrial design to a 'problem-solving methodology7, a 'neutral' planning toolthat can be employed regardless of its social and

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economic contexts. Both Papanek and Bonsiepeignored the fact that design had to function in agiven economic, social, and political system, yetthey expected industrial design to satisfy 'basicneeds', to reduce 'technological and financialdependency7, to transform 'craft industries', tocreate a 'cultural identity', and to improve theliving conditions of the poor masses, thus playinga 'developmentalist' role in the Third World.21

Although such expectations seem to haveremained unconfirmed, the idea that, on moraland political grounds, design should function as adevelopment agent in the Third World has per-sisted. The influence of this early literature canstill be traced in some recent studies looking atindustrial design in developing countries.22

Historical Model of Development for IndustrialDesign in the Periphery

The most significant recent contribution to theissue of industrial design in the periphery hasalso come from Bonsiepe. His new, post-depen-dency approach of the late 1980s offers a historicalperiodization of the development of industrialdesign in peripheral countries, and can thus betermed a historical model of industrial design.

Bonsiepe identifies six domains as a set ofindicators to organize the unstructured mass ofdisconnected historical data regarding industrialdesign in peripheral countries:23

i. Design Management: i.e. products that areopen to design interventions;

ii. Professional Practice: i.e. the insertion ofdesigners into manufacturing companies, thecreation of professional organizations and theexistence of design offices;

iii. Government Policy: i.e. the integration ofindustrial design in development and promo-tion programmes, and the finance of designevents;

iv. Design Education: i.e. the development ofdesign education at university level;

v. Design Research: i.e. the production of acritical body of knowledge;

vi. Design Discourse: i.e. the propagation ofdesign awareness 'as a particular system oflinguistic distinctions that structure, in a

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coherent way, a reality; and that allow talkabout a particular domain in a consistentmanner.'24 This is achieved through specia-lized publications.

Using these six domains, Bonsiepe defines aperiodization of the development of industrialdesign in the periphery as a five-stage process:

1. The period of proto-design (from independ-ence to the end of the Second World War);

2. Gestation period of industrial design (decadeof the 1950s);

3. Period of incipient institutionalisation (decadeof the 1960s and 1970s);

4. Period of expansion and incipient consolida-tion (decade of the 1980s);

5. Sovereignty phase, that may be reached in thefuture.

According to this model, which relies mainly onhistorical data from Latin American countriessuch as Brazil, the development of industrialdesign took place during the three decadesbetween i960 and 1990.

Although Bonsiepe makes a significant theoret-ical contribution to the discussion of industrialdesign in the Third World context, his model is farfrom being complete. It is mainly based on aparticular group of countries with large, inward-looking economies, and cannot be generalized tothe Third World including the export-orientedAsian countries. Besides, the model does notaddress the dynamics which determine the pro-gress of the six design domains from one stage toanother.

A Study of Industrial Design in NewlyIndustrialized Countries

Critically reconstructing Bonsiepe's model, thestudy from which this article draws its dataattempts to explain the common and diversecharacteristics of the development of industrialdesign in certain peripheral countries, the NewlyIndustrialized Countries (NICs). These are thecountries that have experienced high growth ofoutput in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly but notnecessarily, on the basis of manufacturingexports. There are no commonly agreed criteria

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for membership of this group, and the number ofcountries included in the NIC category is elastic,as there are two main approaches in definingNICs:

One approach is to define NICs as those countries withan export-oriented strategy for manufacturing: anotherincludes as NICs, those countries where manufacturinghas reached some threshold share of gross domesticproduct (GDP) either 20 per cent or 25 per cent23

In this study, the Third World countries wheremanufacturing has reached 20 or 25 per cent ofgross domestic product are considered as NICs.The most significant characteristics of all NICs isthat they have explicitly attempted to developtheir economies on the basis of industrialization.Nevertheless, despite their similar characteristics,there are also differences among those countries.In the economics literature, a distinction is madebetween the export-oriented Asian NICs andLatin American NICs with domestic market-oriented economic policies, with Korea, Taiwan,Hong Kong, and Singapore in the former group,and Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in the latter.India and Turkey have similar developmentexperiences to Latin American countries, andMalaysia may be considered an Asian NIC.

There has been an increasing interest in NICs inthe economics literature due to the rising import-ance of those countries, particularly the Asianones, in the global economy. In the literature ofeconomics the NICs phenomenon has attractedattention for two distinct reasons.26 Firstly, NICschallenge the classification of the world intoNorth and South with their new image of the'middle class of an evolving society7; secondly,the NICs syndrome has provoked policy debateson both the durability of the industrial order andstability of the West and the development strate-gies of the Third World countries. However, in thedesign literature the NIC phenomenon has notattracted any particular attention, even thoughNICs are so far the only countries of the ThirdWorld which have attempted and succeeded, atleast in some sectors, to establish design as anindustrial activity. The discussion of NICs con-tinues in a broader context in which design israrely mentioned.

This article draws its data from the findings of

Development Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World

the author's Ph. D. study completed at the Man-chester Metropolitan University.27 The study, inaddition to an extensive review of design andother related literature, consisted of semi-struc-tured interviews with industrial designers fromBrazil, Argentina, Mexico, Hong Kong, SouthKorea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia whowere studying for postgraduate design degreesin the UK and case studies of Turkish electronicsand furniture firms. The following sections pres-ent main findings of the study, concluding with anew model for the development of industrialdesign in NICs.

The Role of Industrial Design in NICs:Competitiveness by Product Modification

The study reveals that while product modificationthrough the redesign of existing products for aimssuch as adaptation to local manufacturing condi-tions or cost reduction was the dominant functionof industrial design in NICs, creating new productconcepts or evaluating market opportunities wererarely considered as roles of design.

Imitation emerged as a major task of industrialdesign activity in NICs.28 However thte does notnecessarily mean that it is simply a full reproduc-tion of foreign products since, in most cases, it isfinancially inappropriate and technologicallyimpossible for the firms in NICs to copy theseproducts in every detail. Imitating is mainly seenas replicating the product function and its marketposition; therefore research into need and market-ing is bypassed. Imitating foreign products, as adesign activity in NICs, involves a 'reverse engin-eering' process to find out the potential restric-tions of a product in the manufacturing process,and then 'redesigning' it to eliminate these. In anearlier study looking at South Korea,29 it was alsorevealed that industrial design developed fromthe mutation of existing products rather than thegeneration of innovative design concepts. There-fore, it may be stated that industrial design inNICs is mainly performed as an element ofproduct modification activity rather than newproduct creation.

Nevertheless, despite the emergence of acommon role for industrial design—i.e. productmodification—in NICs, the factors motivating

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such an activity appear to be divergent acrossthose countries. For instance, product modifica-tion aiming at cost reduction appears to becommon especially in the export-oriented AsianNICs such as Taiwan and South Korea. It has longbeen known that the design of a product can affectprice factors and thereby the product's competi-tiveness.30 Yet industrial design has been largelypromoted as part of an alternative approach to theprice competition, i.e. as quality-based competi-tion, in terms of product differentiation and'adding value' to products in the industrializedmarket economies. In contrast, in NICs industrialdesign appears to be considered as part of a price-based competition strategy, and that seems to beemployed particularly by Asian NICs competingon the price ground rather than technical excel-lence in international markets.31 On the otherhand, 'adapting technology to local needs'emerges as being more important than 'costreduction by design' in the domestic market-oriented Latin American NICs such as Brazil.Such findings confirm that local technical changeactivities in inward-looking NICs tend to bemostly adaptation,32 which appears to be thecase for industrial design activities, too.

Differences between the export and domesticmarket-oriented NICs regarding the factors lead-ing to product modification have also emerged, ina rather similar way, between export and domes-tic market-oriented industries. It appears that theaim of product modification is to differentiateproducts for different markets and to reduceproduct cost in the export-oriented Turkish elec-tronics industry, while it seeks to adapt foreignproducts to local conditions in the domesticmarket-oriented furniture industry.33

Consequently, the aim and scope of productmodification, as the main role of industrial designin NICs, appear to be influenced by the marketorientation of an economy or industry. This alsoleads to the unequal development pattern ofindustrial design across countries, industries,and products.

The Role of Exports in the Development ofIndustrial Design

In our study, production for export markets has

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emerged as the most significant factor stimulatingthe development of industrial design capabilitiesin NICs.3* In export-oriented economies, indus-tries, firms, and products, the extent of the invol-vement of design was greater and moresystematic than in domestic-oriented ones. Wehave found evidence that in NICs a correlationexists between gaining design capabilities andexporting to international markets. This is parti-cularly true for investment-driven, scale-intensiveindustries such as consumer electronics.

This finding clearly confirms the results of someearlier development economics studies looking atthe nature of technological change in NICs.35 Italso confirms the results of a recent World Bankstudy36 of the industrial development of AsianNICs: exports, facilitating the move towards inter-national best-practice technologies, direct thedevelopment of local economies towards theacquisition of added technological capabilities.Those added technological capabilities includeindustrial design. As is stated in the Korean case:

Until some experience has been gained it undoubtedlyis most cost-effective, and it may even be necessary torely on export buyers for product design technology.Not to be neglected in this regard is that productionfor export provides a potent means of acquiring pro-duct design technology through learning by doing,which spills over to product development in localmarkets as well.37

There is also evidence revealing the limitedscope and underdevelopment of industrialdesign activities in the absence of significantexport-based motivation. For instance, in inward-looking Latin American NICs, with the exceptionof a few uncommercialized attempts, industrialdesign has been most widely practised in thefurniture industry for an elite customer group. InTurkey, too, until the more outward-looking 1980s,a similar pattern existed. While design was widelypractised in the furniture industry, a design-oriented industry by nature, it was an unknownactivity in the electronics industry during the1960s and the 1970s. On the basis of such evidence,it may be concluded that exporting to the indus-trialized market economies provides a very im-portant means of acquiring industrial designcapabilities across the NICs.38

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The Role of Government: DevelopmentStrategy and Industrial Design

The increasing acquisition of firm-level industrialdesign capabilities in NICs has been largely aproduct of export-led, outward-looking economicactivity. However, the shift to such export-ledgrowth policies has not been simply a result ofthe private sector's receptiveness to emergingopportunities in international markets, but ofgovernmental strategies for coping with domesticeconomic and social problems through export-oriented industrialization (EOI). Therefore, theemergence and developmental patterns of indus-trial design in NICs are influenced by the devel-opment policies of governments, which determinenot only trade regimes—the direction of marketorientation—but also the mode of technologytransfer through foreign investment policy, andindustrial structure through sectorial policies. Thelink between development strategy and industrialdesign indicates the nature of government invol-vement in the development of design capabilities.NICs have been characterized by state involve-ment in their industrialization process, and thisextends to the development process of industrialdesign. Although direct government involvementby design promotion has not been widespreadacross NICs, indirect involvement through devel-opment strategies has had a critical impact on thedevelopment of design activity at firm level.Development strategies, defining the policies forindustry, trade, and foreign investment, effec-tively determine the nature of the competitiveenvironment in which firms operate. In thissense, the development prospects of industrialdesign in NICs are related to the extent to whichgovernments are prepared to absorb design as anintegral part of their long-term development stra-tegies, rather than to the extent to which they givedirect support to design institutions and promo-tion.

Consequently, the main effect of governmentinvolvement in the development of design cap-abilities appears to be to stimulate manufacturingfirms to use industrial design as a competitive toolin domestic and international markets. Theabsence of this kind of government involvement,in many cases, manifests itself as an underdeve-

Development Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World

lopment of industrial design in the Third World.Therefore, any meaningful attempt to link designto the economic development requires an evalua-tion of the role of design in the wider context ofgovernment development strategies.

The Role of Industrial Design in NICs:Development through Competitiveness

The 'developmentalisf role for design in NICssuggested by the early design literature39 has notbeen confirmed by our research findings. In otherwords, direct contribution to the developmentprocess of NICs in terms of reducing povertyand satisfying the basic needs of the poormasses, etc. is not a principal role of industrialdesign in those countries. On the contrary, designactivity in NICs appears to be primarily motivatedand utilized by corporate commercial interests.Hence, in terms of its principal aim, industrialdesign in NICs is no different from design in theindustrialized market economies. It is a competi-tive tool through which market and corporate-based problems can be identified and solved atproduct level, in order to increase or maintain thecompetitive advantages of a firm in the market-place. In terms of the development of industrialdesign, India can be cited as a dramatic exampleof this fact. Although the original aim was tofoster the craft industry in India, the role ofindustrial design has changed gradually into aprofit-oriented task in modern industry. Todayindustrial design activity in India is centredaround solving the problems of rich and middle-income groups.40 In the light of this fact, an Indiandesign theorist, who defines design 'as a problem-solving methodology to be applied as a tool fordevelopment', sadly concludes:

Design has emerged as a high-profile activity, indis-pensable to quality in sophisticated sectors of manu-facture and communication. Yet the originalinspiration for bringing design to this land—to lift thequality of life for millions living at the margins ofexistence in villages and urban slums—remains vir-tually untouched.41

In this context, the 'developmentalisf argument ofthe early design literature, which remained unchal-lenged for too long, appears to have weakened

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significantly. Yet this is not to deny that 'design' ina wider sense of the word could be used to refer to aproblem-solving approach to the issues of devel-opment in the Third World. Besides, by increasingthe competitive advantage of firms and industries,industrial design may still make some contributionto the development process of the Third Worldcountries, but this will be a by-product of itsprincipal competitive role in a market-orientedcontext. From this particular perspective, indus-trial design can only be defined as a 'problem-solving activity7 when it becomes the way throughwhich mainly market-oriented and corporate-based problems can be identified and solved viathe design and development of competitive pro-ducts.

A New Conceptual Model for IndustrialDesign in NICs

It is now possible to form a new conceptual modelthat attempts to describe a specific variable, theeconomic development strategies of NIC govern-ments, as the main dynamic behind the emer-gence and development of industrial designcapabilities across NICs. This model is illustratedin Table 1. The categories used in the model, someof which have been partly adapted from Bon-siepe,42 serve as guiding principles for depictingthe development stages of industrial design inNICs. These categories, five of them beingdesign related, comprise:

1. 'Development Strategy' manifests itself in thegovernment policies of industrialization, tradeand foreign investment. This is the most im-portant category in the model because it deter-mines the developments taking place in thefollowing design categories, and facilitates aprogression from one development stage toanother. This category helps us gain an under-standing of the emergence and developmentpatterns of industrial design activity in NICswithin the proposed conceptual model.

2. 'Sectorial Scope of Industrial Design' manifestsitself in the nature of industries in whichindustrial product design is intensively prac-tised. Through this category, it is possible totrace the unequal development pattern of

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industrial design across industries in relationto development strategies implemented.

3. 'Industrial Design at Firm Level' manifestsitself in the nature of industrial design activitysuch as its role, integration into a firm's struc-ture and strategy. Since design is a corporateactivity occurring within a firm structure, thiscategory serves to depict the changing functionand organization of industrial design in rela-tion to development strategies.

4. 'Industrial Design Education and Research'manifest themselves in the development ofdesign education and research at universitylevel.

5. 'Government Design Policy' manifests itself inactions taken to integrate industrial designwithin industrial development strategy, pro-motion programmes, and in the finance ofdesign events.

6. 'Design Discourse'—as in Bonsiepe's model—manifests itself in the propagation of designawareness.

With the help of these categories, the emergenceand development of industrial design in NICs canbe described as a process with seven stages: the'Proto-Design Phase', 'Embryonic Phase', 'Emer-gence Phase', 'Development Phases I and II',Take-off Phase', and 'Maturity Phase'. Like allconceptual models, this model does not corres-pond with the evidence in each particular country,but outlines a common pattern of developmentstages of industrial design in NICs. Exceptionsalways exist, such as Hong Kong, which doesnot fit the same categories as the other NICs dueto its special city state status. Nor are the sevenstages of the development of industrial designlinear and sequential in every NIC. That isbecause, in each NIC the development pace ofdesign categories is not equal, although it is acombined process conditioned by different eco-nomic development policies.

Proto-Design Phase. This phase is defined as aperiod in which industrial design was formallynon-existent, though a form of commercial artmight have existed in some craft-based traditionalindustries as in Hong Kong.43 This phase, char-acterized by primary specialization in raw mate-rial exports, was simply a pre-industrial growth

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Table 1 Development Stages of Industrial Design in NICs.

1I

i-̂1

3f33*.th

e!

a.|i**•

1

Proto-DesignPhase

2

EmbryonicPhase

3EmergencePhase

4DevelopmentPhasel

5DevelopmentPhasen

6Take-offPhase

7MaturityPhase

DEVELOPMENTSTRATEGY

Primary Specializationin Raw Material Export.Pre-industrial Growth(All NICs)Import Substitution I(Asian NICs late 1950sand early 1960s; LatinAmerican NICs, India,and Turkey 1950s and1960s)

Import Substitution II(Latin American NICs,India, and Turkey 1960sand 1970s) ExportPromotion I (All AsianNICs 1960s and 1970s)

Export Promotion II(Asian NICs, Malaysiaearly 1980s) LiberalTrade Policies (India,Latin American NICs,and Turkey)

Export Promotion HI[deepening] (AsianNICs 1980s)

Global Strategy(Korea . . . ? since theearly 1990s)

. . .?

Sectorial Scopeof Industrial Design

N/A

Design-oriented low-scale, low-techindustries, e.g. giftwareand furniture for homeuse.

Design-oriented, large-scale, investment-driven industries, e.g.furniture for homeand, office use,ceramics and somebasic consumer goods.

Investment-driven,standard technologyindustries, e.g.household appliancesand most consumergoods.

Specialized exportindustries e.g.consumer and,business electronics,sports equipment etc.Investment-driven,relatively more capitaland technology-intensivesectors, e.g. capitalgoods such as transportvehicles.New productdevelopment is practisedin all major branchesof industries.

Industrial Designat Firm Level

N / A

Self-formed artist-designer or architects.Outsider to industry.Design as a culturalmission.

ID as a tool of'imitative' productmodification. Individualdesigners employedby firms.

In-house ID teams. IDas a tool of systematicproduct differentiationand adaptation on thebasis of productmodification (redesign).The recognition of ID asa competitive tool.In-house design teams +use of design consultancyfirms. Design as amarketing factor.

Large specialized IDdepartments. ID isrecognized as part ofcorporate strategy.

Design as a leading forcein company strategy.Product innovation.

Industrial DesignEducation and Research

N/A

Individual courses arecreated as extension toart or architectureprogrammes. First IDschools in India andsome Latin NICs.

First generation IDteachers with art,architecture degrees orfrom foreign countries.4 or 3 years ID degreeprogrammes.

Second generation IDlecturers with mostlypostgraduate degreesfrom advanced countries.

Postgraduate ID courses.Faculty staff withprofessional experience.Localization ofID education starts.Specialization occurswithin design liketransportation design.Study programmesget a strong theoreticalinput.Differentiated and fullyequipped institutions.Courses contain scientificlecture programmes

Government DesignPolicy

N/A

ID is seen as a sort ofdevelopment tool, butthere is no dear policyabout how to use itwithin an ISI framework.Finance of theestablishment ofsome early design schools.

Finance of the IDeducation at universitylevel. Scholarships forpostgraduate educationin advanced countries.

Design groups areincorporated intogovernment agenciesin some NICs such assmall scale industrypromotion, but thereis no overall designpolicy.ID is incorporated intosome governmentpolicies such as exportpromotion.

ID is recognized aspart of a nationalcompetitive strategy.

ID as an element ofinnovation is part ofindustrial culture.Design centres runby professionals.

DesignDiscourse

N/A

Articles on IDas a culturalphenomenonappear in artjournals. Designis an image ofmodernization.

In architecture,interior andgraphic designjournals, articleswritten byindustrialdesignersdealing withID as a separatediscipline.In related designjournals, specialsections or issueson ID.

Same as above.But ID discourseis differentiatedfrom the others.

Specializedmagazinesdedicated to ID.

Books on ID arepublished dealingwith standardpractices, history,theory.

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period in NICs. However, the 'Proto-DesignPhase' occurred at different times in differentNICs, and mainly occupied the period before the1940s in Latin American NICs, the 1950s in AsianNICs and India, and the 1960s in Malaysia.

Embryonic Phase. This phase is characterizedwith the beginning of import substituting indus-trialization (ISI) policies during the 1950s and theearly 1960s. This is the phase in which industrialdesign began to establish itself as a concept,though it still did not exist as an industrialactivity. Design work, when it was required, wasdone by draughtsmen or engineers in a fewindustries. However, in design-oriented, small-scale industries like furniture, the early designerswere from related areas like architecture andcrafts. In investment-driven industries, thedesign of a product was usually obtained as partof the technology transfer through licensing.

Design, generally seen as part of the modernistparadigm,44 was perceived as a cultural issuerather than a commercial one. Although industrialdesign was considered as part of the industrialdevelopment expected as a result of the ISI poli-cies, there was no clear idea about how to utilize itwithin an ISI framework. Therefore, governmentinvolvement remained limited to the financing ofa few experimental design institutions in thelarger and inward-looking NICs like Latin Amer-ican countries and India. At university level, therewas no industrial design degree programme apartfrom some extensions to art and architecture orengineering degree programmes. Early articles ondesign appeared in some avant-garde art journals.

Emergence Phase. The emergence phase occurredroughly during the years between the early 1960sand the late 1970s. During this period, AsianNICs consistently and aggressively pursuedexport-oriented industrialization (EOI) policies.Although some Latin American NICs like Brazilbroke away from the ISI policies for a shortperiod under heavy foreign currency deficits,the rest continued their ISI-based policies. It wasin this long period that the main characteristics ofindustrial design activity in NICs were largelydetermined by the development strategies imple-mented by the governments; ISI in Latin Amer-

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ican NICs, India and Turkey, and EOI in AsianNICs.

Individual industrial designers were employedby firms operating in design-oriented but rela-tively investment-driven industries such as cera-mics and mass-produced home and officefurniture. At firm level, industrial design playedan 'imitative' role in product modification. Moredegree courses were introduced, and the firstgeneration of designers graduated from localdesign schools. Governments, directly or indir-ectly, continued to finance the spread of designeducation. Informative articles by industrialdesigners appeared in architecture, interior, andgraphic design journals.

In this phase, design began to appear as anindustrial activity in NICs, although limited to afew industries. Design began to root itself indifferent industries in two different groups ofNICs. In many large and inward-looking NICslike Brazil, the early industries in which industrialdesign was intensively practised were those withrelatively low technology and capital input likebasic metal, craft, furniture, and some basic elec-trical household appliances like irons, etc. Underthe ISI strategy, it was reasonable to accommodateindustrial design in those industries because, atthat time, production technology to manufacture alimited number of products without major invest-ments was available. Besides, during this periodindustrial design was understood as a tool forfostering development by designing products thatcould be locally produced and consumed in thosecountries. In Asian NICs, the early industries thataccommodated industrial design and designerswere technologically more sophisticated thanthose in the inward-looking NICs, although theyemerged later. In the late 1970s, the consumerelectronics and plastic products industries,which were highly export-oriented, started usingindustrial design on a significant scale.*5 Theseindustries were dominated by foreign buyers, andthey were competing in foreign markets on price,via sourcing arrangements with foreign firms. Inthis system, known as Original Equipment Man-ufacturer (OEM), products were mostly copied ordesigned by foreign design firms. The use ofdesign and designers in Asian NICs was stronglyunder the influence of OEM. In this respect,

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industrial design in Asian NICs was understoodas a commercial activity to sell commoditiesrather than a social, cultural, or technologicaltool to foster development, as has been the casein many other developing countries such as India.

Development Phase I. This phase corresponds tothe early 1980s in Asian NICs, and covers thatdecade for the rest of the NICs. The institutiona-lization of industrial design and the employmentof individual designers became common in manyNICs. Some specialized design firms, mostly infurniture/interior design, emerged. Industrialdesigners started to be incorporated into variousgovernmental institutions. Design education wasimproved, and some early examples of designstudies started appearing in special sections ofthe related design and architecture journals. In-house industrial design teams were establishedwithin firms operating in the most dynamic-scale /capital-intensive industries such as consu-mer durables. Industrial design was increasinglyused as a tool in systematic product differentia-tion and adaptation activities by export anddomestic market-oriented firms respectively.Gradually, industrial design began to be recog-nized as a competitive tool by local industry.

In the domestic market-oriented NICs, thisperiod was characterized by the end of ISI poli-cies. The ISI strategy was replaced by more liberal,market-based economic policies, or sometimes byexport-oriented policies. Latin American NICs,Turkey, and India still seem to be in this phasein terms of their economic strategies and thedevelopmental stage of industrial design. Duringthis period, design capabilities appeared todevelop more rapidly than in the 1960s and1970s, particularly in some capital-intensive sec-tors like consumer durables. Although there arecountry-specific reasons supporting this develop-ment in each NIC, the following are the mostcommon factors:

i. Firstly, the rapid development of industrialdesign in the 1980s was mostly accompaniedby the changing development policies from ISIto more liberal ones, which led to more com-petitive domestic markets, and sometimesexport incentives to compete in internationalmarkets.

Development Patterns of Industrial Design in the Third World

ii. The change in development strategies openeddomestic markets and industries to globalcompetitive factors like product quality,design, and innovation. The 1980s also wit-nessed the increasing importance of industrialdesign on a global scale in international com-petition.

iii. Finally, as a result of the experience in designeducation, and to a lesser extent due to thedesign practice of the last twenty years, the1980s boom in industrial design found thenecessary background conditions in NICs.

Development Phase II. This phase was character-ized by the recession in the international economyin the 1980s. Since Asian NICs pursued highlyexport-oriented policies, they were much moreaffected by the crisis. During the crisis, thesecountries also experienced shortcomings of theOEM-based export strategy with low profit mar-gins and increasing price competition from newlyexporting countries such as Thailand. It was firstin this period that the significance of new productdesign was recognized by the decision-makers atgovernmental level, and the role of industrialdesign began to be fully acknowledged byexport-oriented firms experiencing success in in-ternational markets.

For Asian NICs, this phase was simply anextension of 'Development Phase I', characterizedby the incorporation of industrial design intocertain governmental policies such as export pro-motion. In Asian NICs, industrial design was seenas a tool to move away from OEM to OriginalDesign Manufacturing (ODM), changing theirtraditional export strategy towards global, own-brand strategies. Industrial design has been aninstrumental part of this strategy, particularly infirms operating in specialized export industriessuch as consumer and business electronics.Design departments linked to overseas marketingunits have been established, and design consul-tants from target export markets have been fre-quently used by large NIC firms.46 Industrialdesign education has started to evolve in accor-dance with the needs of local industry in thisperiod, and early examples of design researchhave emerged.

Although some larger and inward-looking

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NICs like Brazil may be considered to be in thisphase, they cannot fulfil the criteria related togovernmental design policy, which appears cru-cial in NICs. Therefore, only Asian NICs likeTaiwan and Korea can be considered to havepassed, or to be passing through this phase.

Take-off Phase. This phase is a transition periodprior to the Maturity Stage which none of NICsseems to have yet reached. In the 'Take-off Phase',industrial design starts to emerge as an element ofcorporate strategy. Large industrial design centreswith overseas branches are established by largefirms. In addition to consumer goods industries,some capital goods sectors such as the automotiveindustry start to receive an industrial designinput. On the government policy front, industrialdesign is perceived as an important part of anational competitive strategy in the globalmarket. Only South Korea can be accepted asbeing fully qualified for this phase which hasbegun recently (early 1990s), due to the distinctiveglobal strategies that have been pursued by largeKorean conglomerates such as Samsung, Gold-star, or Hyundai. Although the same may beclaimed partially for some large Taiwanese com-panies like Tatung or Acer, in general Taiwanesefirms still seem to pursue the purer OEM route.47

Global strategy for NICs is beyond the simpleexporting activities. It does not only includeestablishing manufacturing plants in differentcountries, but also covers collecting market infor-mation about different market segments and endusers, and translating this information into pro-duct strategies. As Porter48 points out, globalstrategies not only create new sources of compe-titive advantage, but also provide a better founda-tion for proactive innovation instead of passiveresponse to foreign OEM customer requests. Thisphase is new and uncertain. The success of NICsrelies on complex and combined dynamics, notonly at national or international, but also atmanagerial levels.

Concluding Remarks

Apart from a discussion of the early 'developmen-talist' design literature, which has had a confusingimpact on the local configuration of the industrial

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design profession in many developing countries,this article has tried to reveal that the emergenceand development patterns of industrial design inNICs are not independent of the major economicdevelopment strategies of those countries.

The establishment and continuing expansion ofa manufacturing sector, while necessary, is notsufficient to bring about the development ofindustrial design activity in the Third World.Industrialization without design seems possiblein many developing countries. The vital ingredi-ent for a healthy development of industrialdesign in those economies appears to be competi-tion either in domestic or international markets.49

It appears that the recognition of the competitiverole of industrial design in the Third World, as inthe 'First' one, is inevitable. The findings fromour study also indicate that export markets haveadvantages over domestic markets in facilitatingthe necessary competitive environment Inexport-oriented Asian NICs, industrial designhas rooted itself more firmly in industry than itscounterpart in domestic market-oriented coun-tries. Therefore, it may be concluded that inNICs the overall development of industrialdesign is conditioned by the market orientationof economic/industrial activity, which itself islargely determined by the government develop-ment strategies in the context of a globally organ-ized world economy.

Consequently, without taking account of thesefactors, one is unlikely to develop a successfulstrategy for industrial design at national, or cor-porate levels, or even to use design as a 'develop-ment tool' in the Third World. Our study hasmany other implications for the design issues ofNICs and other countries, ranging from the role ofdesign in the government policies to industrialdesign education. One of the most significantcontributions may be to provide a model forstudies looking at the history of industrialdesign in the Third World. No doubt, this modelmay be improved and, if a history of design inperipheral countries is ever to be written, morestudies of industrial design in the context of theThird World are needed in order to test suchconceptual tools. In particular, empirical studiesat firm and industry levels are vital, since indus-trial design activity does not occur in a vacuum

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but within the corporate structure of a firm, andthis appears to be a persisting fact of industrialdesign in any part of the World regardless ofprevailing economic conditions.

H. ALPAY ER

Hacettepe University, Ankara

Notes

The author wishes to express his gratitude to GuiBonsiepe for his help in obtaining critical literatureand for his thought-provoking comments on earlyresults of the original study.1 Some significant examples of these studies are

Christopher Lorenz's The Design Dimension: TheNew Competitive Weapon for Business, Basil Blackwell,Oxford, 1986; and Davidson Ughanwa & MichaelBaker's The Role of Design in International Competi-tiveness, Routledge, London, 1989. Also variousstudies by the Design Innovation Group of theOpen University and UMIST.

2 Gui Bonsiepe, 'Precariousness and ambiguity:industrial design in dependent countries', in J. Bick-ell & L. McQuiston (eds.), Design for Need, PergamonPress, Oxford, 1977.

3 James Woudhuysen, 'A new kind of nationalism indesign', The Listener, 12 September 1985, pp. 11-12.

4 Pauline Madge, Design, ecology, technology: a his-toriographical review', Journal of Design History, vol.6, no. 3,1993, pp. 149-67-

5 Victor Margolin, 'Postwar design literature: a pre-liminary mapping', in V. Margolin (ed.), DesignDiscourse, University of Chicago Press, Chicago,1989, pp. 265-89.

6 H. Alpay Er & John Langrish, 'Industrial design indeveloping countries: a review of the literature', IASResearch Papers, RP-66, Institute of Advanced Stud-ies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1993.

7 Gui Bonsiepe, TDeveloping countries: awareness ofdesign and the peripheral condition', in C. Provano(ed.), History of Industrial Design: 1919-1990: TheDominion of Design, Electa, Milan, 1990.

8 Ibid.9 TDesign and the state and the state of the design',

Design, no. 495, 1990.10 H. Alpay Er, The emergence and development

patterns of industrial design in newly industrialisedcountries with particular reference to Turkey7, Ph. D.thesis, Institute of Advanced Studies, ManchesterMetropolitan University, October 1994.

11 For a review of the literature in English language onindustrial design in the Third World, see; Er &

Langrish, op. tit A short version of the samepaper also appeared in ICSlDNews, under the titleof Tteveloping countries in the design literature',vol. 92, no. 6,1992, pp. 5-6.

12 Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, Thames &Hudson, London, 1972.

13 In the preface to the second edition of his book(1985), Papanek made the following statement'much of what I wrote about design for the ThirdWorld in this book's first edition now seems some-what naive. None the less I have derided to let someof my observations stand in the second editionbecause they illustrate the somewhat patronizingviewpoint many of us had about the poorer coun-tries more than a decade ago.' Design for the RealWorld: Human Ecology and Social Change, 2nd edn.,Thomas & Hudson, London, 1985, p. xvii.

14 Margolin, op. tit. p. 285.15 Gui Bonsiepe, Development through Design, working

paper prepared for UNIDO at the request of ICSID,UNIDO/ITD.8o, Vienna, 1973.

16 The association of industrial design with corporateindustrial capitalism relies on a historical evaluationof its emergence as a specialized activity within thelabour process. According to John Heskett, profes-sional industrial design emerged at the beginning ofthis century as an essential feature of commercialand industrial activity, a specialist element withinthe division of labour implicit in mass productionand sales. John Heskett, Industrial Design, Thames &Hudson, London, 1980. In a similar vein, Tony Fryargues in his book, Design History: Australia, Hale ScIremonger, Sydney, 1988, that industrial design as aspecialist kind of labour is as much as a feature ofmodern capitalism as mass production, robotics, oradvertising. In this sense, the emergence of indus-trial design in Western countries was an outcome ofthe development of industrial capitalism. Support-ing this conclusion, Penny Sparke in An Introductionto Design and Culture in the 20th Century, UnwinHyman, London, 1986, points out that by the endof the nineteenth century, all the factors necessaryfor the development of industrial design hadalready occurred in both Europe and the UnitedStates, such as the expansion of mass productionand the emergence of the mass market Therefore itseems highly problematic to consider industrialdesign as a 'neutral' development tool that can beused with the same effectiveness in different eco-nomic models.

17 Er & Langrish, op.tit, p. 4. See also Madge, op.tit,

P-154-18 Gui Bonsiepe, 'Gui Bonsiepe', in A. L. Lordan (ed.),

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Contemporary Designers, St. James Press, London,1985.

19 This can be best demonstrated by Bonsiepe's ownwords: 'Very little is to be expected of globalcorporations towards the promotion of local indus-trial design because they have a congenital hostilitytowards any local autonomous technological devel-opmenf, in Bonsiepe, op. tit, 1977, p.i5- However,Bonsiepe changed his views on Transnational Cor-porations in the late 1980s. In a recent article hepoints out that 'since design is a strategic activity,it is not surprising that corporations controlled byoutside capital prefer to concentrate their innova-tive activities at their central headquarters. Never-theless, the presence of multinational firms doesnot explain why local firms have not exploredmore intensely the possibilities that design has tooffer'. Gui Bonsiepe, 'Designing the future: per-spectives on industrial and graphic design inLatin America', Design Issues, vol. 7, no. 2, 1991,pp. 17-24."

20 Some notable examples are: A. Charterjee, 'Design indeveloping countries', A. G. Rao, Idealities of thereal world: Indian example', and M. Rezende, Insearch of a Brazilian product identity', all from theProceedings of the 10th ICSID International Congress,SDI, Dublin, 1977; S. M. Idris, 'A framework fordesign policies in Third World development'; andL. R. Morales 'Whose needs does design solve?' in R.Langdon & N. Cross (eds.), Design Policy: Design andSociety, Design Council, London, 1984.

21 H. Alpay Er, 'Industrial design in newly industria-lised countries: an explorotary study of the factorsinfluencing the development of local design capabil-ities', MS Research Papers, RP-72, Institute ofAdvanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan Uni-versity, 1993.

22 See, for example, A. Hanna, 'Design aid', Interna-tional Design, January 1986; and R. Ghose, 'Designand development in South and Southeast Asia: anoverview', in R. Ghose (ed.), Design and Developmentin South and Southeast Ask, Centre of Asian Studies,University of Hong Kong, 1990. Similar argumentshave been recently raised again by Nigel Whiteley inhis book, Design for Society, Reaktion Books, London,

1993-23 Bonsiepe, op. tit., 1990.24 Ibid.25 John Weiss, Industry in Developing Countries, Rout-

ledge, London, 1988.26 C. I. Moon, The future of the newly industrialising

countries: an "uncertain promise" ?' in D. C. Pra-

getes & C. Sylvester (eds.), Transformations in theGlobal Political Economy, Macmillan, London, 1990.

27 Er, op. tit, 1994.28 C. H. Kim, The role of industrial design in inter-

national competition: a case study of the SouthKorean electronics industry7, Ph. D. thesis, Instituteof Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan Uni-versity, May 1989. See also Er, op. tit., 1994. NICs,particularly the Asian ones, also have an unenviablereputation for imitating products at low prices. SeeD. Johston, Ttesign protection in practice', in M.Oakley (ed.), Design Management: A Handbook ofIssues and Methods, Blackwell, Oxford, 1990.

29 Kim, op. tit.30 Ughanwa & Baker, op. tit.31 Er, op. cit, 1994, p.125- For example, in the inter-

views with designers from the Asian NICs, 'redu-cing product cosf and 'redesigning products .forimprovement' were ranked as the most importanttwo functions of industrial design. 'Estimating andcontrolling costs' was also described as one of thenecessary skills that industrial designers shouldpossess.

32 S. Teitel, Technology creation in semi-industrialeconomies', Journal of Development Economics, vol.16, 1984, pp. 39"61-

33 Er, op. tit., 1994.34 For a more detailed discussion of the role of exports

in the development of design capabilities in NICs,see H. Alpay Er, TDesign by export the role ofexports in the development of new product designcapabilities in the Turkish consumer electronicsindustry', in the Proceeding of International ProductDesign Symposium: Design, Industry and Turkey,Ankara, Middle East Technical University, 1994.See also H. Alpay Er, The role of exports in theacquisition of industrial design capabilities in NICs',ICSlDNeiPS, vol. 95, no 4, 1995, p. 9.

35 For example, C. Dahlman & L. Westphal, Techno-logical effort in industrial development: an interpre-tative survey of recent research', in F. Stewart & J.James (eds.), The Economics of New Technology inDeveloping Countries, Frances Pinter Ltd., London,1982.

36 World Bank, 77K East Asian Miracle: Economic Growthand Public Policy, World Bank/Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford, 1993.

37 L. Westphal, L. Kim, & C. Dahlman, 'Reflections onthe Republic of Korea's acquisition of technologicalcapability', in N. Rosenberg & C. Frischtak (eds.),International Technology Transfer: Concepts, Measuresand Comparisons, Praeger Publishers, New York,1985.

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38 Er, op. cit., 1994; 1995.39 Papanek, op. cit., 1972.40 See, for a recent account of the state of industrial

design in India, H. Aldersey-Williams, India: craftand commerce', International Design, August 1991.There is also a chapter on India in Aldersey-Wil-liam's book, World Design: Nationalism and Globalismin Design, Rizzoli International Publishers Inc., NewYork, 1992. See also, for an insider view, K. Mushi,Dynamics of design and technology: an Indianoverview', in Ghose (ed.), op. cit, 1990, and Rajesh-wari Ghose, TDesign, development, culture and cul-tural legacies in Asia', Design Issues, vol. 6, no. 1,1989, pp. 31-48.

41 Ashoke Chatterjee, 'Design in India: an experiencein education', in Ghose (ed.), op. cit, 1990.

42 Bonsiepe, op. cit, 1990.43 Matthew Turner, 'Early modern design in Hong

Kong', Design Issues, vol. 6, no. 1,1989, pp. 79-92.44 Bonsiepe, op. cit., 1990.

45 For example, Goldstar Electronics of Korea (LGElectronics) founded its Design Centre in thesecond half of the 1970s. Kim, op. cit, p. 151.

46 See, for the use of design consultants from indus-trialized market economies by large NIC firms,Ozlem Er, The use of external design expertise bynewly industrialised countries with particular refer-ence to the operations of British automotive designconsultancies', Ph. D. thesis, Institute of AdvancedStudies, Manchester Metropolitan University,December 1995.

47 Michael Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations,Macmillan Ltd., London, 1990.

48 Ibid.49 For a detailed discussion of this argument in a

specific context, see H. Alpay Er, The state ofdesign: towards an assessment of the developmentof industrial design in Turkey', METU Journal of theFaculty Architecture, vol. 1, no. 1-2, 1995, pp. 31-51.

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