The Role of Industrial Design Within New Product Development Process: Turkey and West Europe

Abstract

This article aims to investigate industrial design (ID) effectiveness within Turkish consumer manufacturing Industries (CMIs) and considers how Turkish CMIs need to become more aware of how ID is managed and utilised as part of new product development (NPD) process in other countries. The approach compares the NPD process for five successful Turkish and Western European CMIs, specifically focusing on the purpose, culture, process/performance, and people aspects of business process analysis, and combines qualitative data collection with case studies and a literature review.The research reveals NPD in Turkish CMI was biased to the domestic market, and company organisational structure and management styles were organised from this perspective before 2000. Further, the process of improving product quality to become internationally competitive was exclusively internalised and little influenced by product innovation or customer desirability. This finding established a model for NPD practice that mapped the differences between Turkish and Western Europe CMIs, and showed they occurred at an operational level in 2000.The narrowing domestic market profitability volume due to the competitive power created by China in global markets increased many companies' demands in design, in order to increase their exports. The government incentives for R&D and design affected the Turkish CMI development positively; before the year 2000, the exports were shaped by the domestic market oriented product development activities, while thereafter it has been observed that cross-cultural cooperation on NPD activities for target markets and the organisational aspects of design.