Measuring Social Values of Design in the Commercial Sector

CSR is seen by many as a self-regulation mechanism whereby businesses identify their impact on society and ensure that they comply with social standards, e.g. human rights. CSR is increasingly regarded as a crucial aspect of economic competitiveness, which can encourage product/service uptake on aspects beyond functionality and price sensitivity. While CSR takes an important role in brands, design has the potential to be a critical aspect of CSR, broadening activities from corporate sponsorship and certification to the incorporation of CSR principles throughout product/service development.

The widely-held belief that buying ethical products is a more effective way of tackling global poverty than giving to charity reflects strong commercial benefits, by ensuring sufficient social values in product offerings, enabling businesses to respond to CSR imperatives. However, most businesses do not yet use design effectively in CSR practices, which they interpret as supporting charities, and invest in design only with apparent benefits, e.g. promotional design. Moreover, the social return of design is implicitly quantified, and existing financial appraising tools for Return on Investment and social impact assessment are unsuitable for measuring social values generated through design. As a result, companies find it difficult to consider design as one of the tools to address CSR requirements and integrate social values into their mainstream products and services. The situation is worse for SMEs, which are less able to access and use good design, thereby limiting their potential for growth and innovation while larger firms are twice as likely to see design as integral to their operations. There is an urgent need to develop a toolkit for measuring social return of design, which will complement existing tools by explicitly identifying the social impact of non-financial investments in order to (i) make UK companies effective users of design in CSR practices and (ii) help to make UK companies leading ethical enterprises in the global market. The key question, then, is how to objectively quantify social values created by design.

We believe developing the toolkit will enable design disciplines to trace social values created through design during the new product/service development process, similar to the calculation of the carbon footprint throughout the product lifecycle. As a pilot study of the research idea, this project aims to understand the social value of design, especially in CSR practices, and explore contextual issues, value and means of measuring social impact of design, providing an underpinning theory and underlying knowledge to develop the tool for measuring the social values of design. The project will deliver following objectives:
OB 1. To review existing theories of the social value of design, with particular reference to the social impact of CSR practices.
OB 2. To identify the role(s) of design in relation to social value/responsibility and the critical notion of design value.
OB 3. To examine current social impact assessment tools to understand the limitations of existing approaches.
OB 4. To explore the potential opportunities and benefits of developing the impact measurement tool.

Potential stakeholders include research partners from non-profit design organisations, design academics, design professionals, and SMEs invited to participate in the project. In-depth desktop research and two interdisciplinary workshops will be conducted to achieve the objectives. An open knowledge-sharing platform and open discussion forum will be created, as an online repository of ongoing research results and debates, and the two workshops will serve as dissemination and knowledge-sharing strategies. The developed knowledge will also be disseminated by support of the not-for-profit organisations' networks, creating journal/conference papers and introducing it to design students at Brunel and CMU for educational purposes.

The project will provide insight into the existing state of knowledge about the social values of design, with particular reference to the social impact of CSR practices - especially where they are taken into consideration during the new product/service processes - and the limitations of existing approaches of current social impact assessment tools. The research will also generate knowledge about the role(s) of design in relation to social value and responsibility and the critical notion of design value and, finally, will explore issues relating to the potential opportunities and benefits of developing the impact measurement tool. The project will then have an impact on the following beneficiaries:
- SMEs are regarded as a 'direct beneficiary' of the project. Since many companies still fail to see design as a vital integral tool to address CSR requirements and integrate social values into their mainstream products/services, this research will enable businesses to understand the role(s) and values of design in CSR practices, resulting in enhancing design-led innovation in organisations. The project will also impact on improving business performance and competitiveness through (i) improving CSR capability by using design effectively and (ii) developing creative outputs by systematically improving social values in product/service design. The project outcomes and its future researches - through interdisciplinary collaboration between design and business innovation disciplines - would benefit SMEs' performance directly by providing guidelines for SMEs to change their perception of design and improve their economic competitiveness by using design for CSR practices.
- Design professionals: designers and design consultancies will be 'direct users' of the research outcomes. SMEs will benefit directly from the research project outcomes but design professionals are the key activity groups in the whole design process. They must therefore have a clear understanding of the impact of their decisions and to create product/services that make a positive difference to society and individuals. The project outcome will thus help design professionals to improve their capabilities, knowledge and skills of using design for CSR practices, by enabling them to identify and evaluate social values generated through the design development process, and justify design investment from the social perspective. The project will also influence design consultancies, helping them to expand and grow their businesses.
- The UK economy will also benefit from this project, which will foster the UK's economic competitiveness by enabling UK businesses to make effective use of design in CSR practices, which could help put UK businesses at the forefront of exciting new developments and secure a leading position in the global market as ethical enterprises. The project will contribute toward public policies by providing insight into current CSR activities in SMEs in the UK.
- The wider UK society will also benefit from the project. Integrating social values into products/services means designers and businesses must address social requirements, including the health and wellbeing of the community, local development, and job creation. By encouraging designers and businesses to continually consider and improve their social credential, social issues will be positively addressed by the private sector. This may benefit the wider general public and support the UK government in tackling social issues, especially in the current climate of an increasingly limited public budget. Finally, the clear and unambiguous definition of the relationship of design to Social Responsibility may benefit policy-makers and local/regional/national governments by assisting them in developing strategies of design-related programmes, e.g. urban regeneration and social housing.