Local and trans-local dynamics of innovation practices in the Taipei design industry: an evolutionary perspective

ABSTRACT

Spatial-organizational proximities are crucial elements underpinning the innovation practices of creative industries. However, few studies have systematically explored how creative industries integrate the heterogeneous synergies of local and trans-local innovation practices as the diversity driving the evolution of a creative cluster within an Asian city. This paper contributes to unpacking the spatiality of local and trans-local innovation practices in the design industry from an evolutionary perspective. Based on 55 semi-structured interviews with Taipei product designers from 2011 to 2015, this paper presents a multi-dimensional framework for the spatiality of innovation practices, which exhibit two evolutionary dynamics in Taipei’s design industry cluster. First, the political-economic context enables the design industry to recombine heterogeneous knowledge by illustrating different proximities and diversities in various spatial-temporal environments. Second, the design industry increasingly depends on local and trans-local innovation practices, leading to a dynamic spatial strategy of design product differentiation. Studying the spatiality of innovation practices in the design industry reveals that the role of strategic agency, not spatial conditions, is crucial to understanding the transformation of the design economy.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• evolution
• innovation practice
• design industry
• context

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The design industry refers to those design firms that operate the production and service of product design (e.g. electric consumer goods), fashion design and graphic design for local and trans-local clients.

2 A special Japanese design event in Taipei held on a particular night that allows designers to interact with each other.

3 For example, Taiwan was occupied by the Dutch East India Company and Spain (1624–1662), Jheng Kingdom (1661–1683), the Ching Dynasty of China (1683–1895), Japan (1895–1945) and the Republic of China (today’s R.O.C. government in Taiwan since 1945).

4 These processes are characterized by four stages of economic development: manufacturing export-oriented industrialization in the 1960s, import-substitution industrialization in the 1970s, industrial upgrading toward high-tech industries in the 1980s and the service economy from the 1990s to the 2000s.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [MOST-102-2410-H-152-019].