Bridging academia and industry: the role of consultants in implementing sustainable product development tools
2026 (English)In: Proceedings of the Design Society / [ed] Storga M., Skec S., Martinec T., Marjanovic D., Pavkovic N., Cambridge University Press, 2026, p. 817-826Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Academic tools for sustainable product development often fail to achieve widespread use in industry. Based on a case study of a consultancy firm, this study explores factors that enable consultants to adopt and adapt such tools and act as intermediaries that translate and integrate academic findings into practice. Interviews and a survey revealed that a solid conceptual foundation, clear client value, result visualization, adaptability, and integration with existing workflows are most important, and the study proposes nine lessons learned to guide future tool development and collaboration.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cambridge University Press, 2026. p. 817-826
Series
Proceedings of the Design Society, E-ISSN 2732-527X ; 6
Keywords [en]
case study, industry-academia collaboration, intermediaries, knowledge transfer, sustainable design, Ecodesign, Knowledge management, Product development, Sustainable development, Tools, Case-studies, Conceptual foundations, Consultancy firms, Intermediary, Product development tools, Result integrations, Results visualization, Sustainable product development
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-30382DOI: 10.1017/pds.2026.10440Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105045238091OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-30382DiVA, id: diva2:2091911
Conference
19th International Design Conference, DESIGN 2026, Dubrovnik, May 18-26, 2026
Projects
GENIE - Gender Initiative for Excellence and the Area of Advanced Production
Part of project
SPIRIT – Sustainable Product Innovation for Rewarding Transformation, Knowledge Foundation
Funder
Knowledge Foundation, 202400152026-08-132026-08-132026-08-13Bibliographically approved