Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, and Theories of Strategic Design in Business Organizations

Authors

• G. Mauricio Mejía, Arizona State University, USAFollow
• Violeta Clemente, University of Aveiro, PortugalFollow
• Aroop Ratan Guha, Royal Danish Academy, DenmarkFollow
• Jeanne Liedtka, University of Virginia, USAFollow
• Beatrice D'Ippolito, University of York, UKFollow

Abstract

The DRS Edinburgh theme-track “Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, and Theories of Strategic Design in Business Organizations” includes a dozen papers that study the influence of strategic designers and strategic design practices in business organizations. This editorial describes and briefly assesses their contributions. While scholars have studied and explored the strategic role of design for organizational change, the papers show that designers and design practices must still contribute from their specific foundational mission and strengthen collaboration with other functions and senior management to materialise their potential. Future research should focus on solid case studies and the understanding of expert strategic designers.

Keywords

Strategic Design; Strategic Change; Designing Change; Business Organizations

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.148

Citation

Mejía, G., Clemente, V., Guha, A., Liedtka, J., and D'Ippolito, B. (2026) Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, and Theories of Strategic Design in Business Organizations, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.148

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License