Fostering a Design-Driven Management Culture: Intangible Industrial Heritage as a Driver for an Ethical Business Landscape

This paper presents the outcomes of an interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at formalizing a design-based framework for mapping the Italian North-Eastern entrepreneurial ecosystem, starting from the intangible body of knowledge expressed by local companies in their interactions with design culture. In particular, our contribution focuses on the ethical role that a design-driven management culture can play in establishing a smart, fair and sustainable economic growth, able to face the challenges represented by globalisation, social polarisation, climate warming, and increasingly critical and uncertain geopolitical scenarios. In fact, investments in design often include expenditures targeted to knowledge management, taking forms such as education and training, product research and development, communication and brand identity, quality of working and production spaces, provision of cultural activities and facilities. These kinds of assets and capabilities, which are increasingly shaping the distribution of income in global value chains, are crucial to develop a resilient and sustainable management culture; however, they are generally difficult to measure and assess, involving a variety of features that are not recognizable in merely quantitative terms. Given these premises, our research is geared toward identifying strategic design-based modes of business-making in the target area, through a cross-sectoral approach intercepting different fields, from design theory and history to territorial studies, economics, semiotics, and cultural heritage. While it is becoming increasingly clear that expanding knowledge management is crucial to enable a critical evaluation of companies’ organisational base, our framework interprets design as a major carrier of encoded knowledge, in order to unveil an underlying intangible industrial heritage able to activate virtuous interactions. Aim of the proposed framework is to synthesize and systematize an exchange of knowledge oriented not to consumption for its own sake, but capable of addressing all phases of products’ and services’ life cycle management (idea, project, production, distribution, usage, disposal). Such a perspective appears particularly significant at the time when the whole system of Made in Italy needs to reinvent itself relocating beyond financial capitalism, bringing into play the relevance of intangible assets and capabilities in enhancing companies’ economic and cultural value. Supported by field surveying activities such as interviews and workshops, our investigation has led to compiling a glossary of design-based indicators, which serves as a foundation for measuring intangible industrial heritage within local corporate entities through both qualitative and quantitative methods. By quantifying the presence of design in relation to a company's intangible industrial heritage, our framework outlines an interpretive paradigm that stands as an alternative toward those of traditional financial accounting and reporting, offering a more holistic perspective on corporate value. Collected data and information will converge into a digital platform functioning as a collaborative ecosystem, in order to enhance the accessibility of intangible industrial heritage, reflecting its evolving and dynamic nature, as well as its connections with design practices. Leveraging the principles of service design, we aim to foster a multi-layered narrative about intangible industrial heritage within the Italian North-Eastern entrepreneurial ecosystem, strengthening the relationships between economy, culture, and society, thereby contributing to a more ethical business landscape.