Product Design Management and Global Competition

Abstract

A global firm's success is conditioned by its ability to manage the system of corporate intangible assets (corporate culture, corporate identity and information system), and product intangible assets (product design, brand equity and pre/after-sales services). Corporate imitation and innovation processes have come to represent a primary condition to stand up to global competition on the markets, which takes the shape of identifying by the design management products with 'new' features to propose to customers that change in time and space. For global corporations, achieving a differential advantage in terms of product design therefore means designing an offer based on the best interpretation of specific distinctive characteristics, and to this end, information must be collected in continuum from the market, about customers and competitors.