This paper represents the process of an on-going participatory action research project within a city affected by the socio-economic crisis. The focus of the research is to explore the possibilities of transforming idle capacity of skilled professionals into job opportunities through service design and defining strategies for designing a new value creation system between members in a community. The existing complementary currency models serve as an inspiration and foundation for conducting the research in collaborative and creative spaces, using a bottom-up approach in designing this service with the potential users in order to create value for that community. This could be achieved by giving shape to a service with its evidences as a framework to adapt to current conditions in peer-to-peer interactions. If a successful long-term and not only crisis-driven model could be designed, prototyped and globally replicated, based on debt-credit system and knowledge economy with enormous benefits of access to products and services, then it could enhance economic efficiency and distribute social capital while promoting new forms of entrepreneurship.

The current failures in income distribution among communities, social entrepreneurs and start-up founders result from deficit of money for accessing goods and services. However, it is increasingly recognized that money has the potential to be redesigned in order to serve a different purpose and to adapt to the emerging paradigm of the collaborative economy. Within this context, this article presents a study aimed to explore complementary currency systems as resilient strategies. This is done by adopting a service design perspective to analyse case studies from developing and developed economies. Both contexts are investigated in order to identify whether the case studies are founded by individuals, communities or governments. Furthermore, organizational models, as well as the main motivations and conditions for the emergence of these alternative economic models, are examined. Moreover, the key drivers for creating complementary currency systems are highlighted. For instance, in the developing world, those systems stem from the need for establishing financial inclusion and building stronger trust and community ties. Instead, in developed economies, they rise in order to use existing local resources, foster individual empowerment, enhance collaboration with a community, as well as achieve economic benefit. Complementary currency systems are here proposed as a tool for linking unmet needs with unused resources. They also enable informal financial institutions contributing to behavioural change through meritocracy. Once those systems are designed as small-scale initiatives, prototyped and implemented in different communities, they have the potential to become effective strategies for subversion and intervention. The case studies show that equal participation and local empowerment can lead to proactive democratic models increasing economic stability. In conclusion, this article argues that service design, through systems of permanent or temporary access to credit, not only responds to contemporary socio-economic conditions, but also contributes to shape new ways of practicing democratized economics.

The socio-economic crisis of 2008 persists in creating a need for structural change and radical transformation by applying systemic thinking and holistic approaches to design solutions. This paper questions those limits with regards to economic failures of income distribution among social entrepreneurs in co-working spaces. The argument focuses on exploring the potential for introducing alternative solutions where design can cut across traditional models and lead to economic transformations through new service models. Complementary currency systems structurally diversify monetary eco-systems and act as a mechanism for territorial and social cohesion. Strategic design is summoned here to focus on a new currency through the development of an integrated and resilient service system, a model for activating idle capabilities of community members into innovative collaboration opportunities. On-field research encompassing interviews, survey and persona design methods have been conducted with members of the Impact HUB social business network. The analysis of existing collaborative service models serves as an enabling action platform for service innovation to take place, driven by bottom-up behaviour changes towards social innovation. This research sets the stage to open up possibilities for empowering professionals and capacity building approaches to be implemented in emerging collaborative economies. Keywords: complementary currency systems, strategic design, service system design, resilient strategy.

Organisations have started to adopt open innovation processes to supplement their internal competencies and resources. Adoption of these processes assist them in keeping up with the pace of technology and protecting their competitive advantage in the market. Despite the significance of open innovation processes, there are few studies focusing on them. The purpose of this study is mapping coupled open innovation processes to contribute to the field of open innovation. The case study research was set up to explore how organisations undertake coupled open innovation processes from the perspective of employees working in a small-medium sized enterprise. The Activity Theory was used as a research framework. The research findings revealed how the importing and exporting mechanisms of coupled processes. The findings are discussed to fill the knowledge gaps in the existing literature and help design management academia and practice identify future work areas.

Abstract: The paper’s practical objective is to provide those developing community-scale food systems with an implementable model. Its theoretical objective is to examine the ways to effectively design post-capitalist models for food systems. In providing a testable model for food systems design, the paper advances concept formation in the field. The case study approach recognizes that local food systems design cannot depend on abstract, formalized models due to the specificity of each project. The crucial role for designers include the involvement of end-users in everyday life in the research process, experimentation in everyday life, building relationships, as well as prototyping, policy making and implementation of services to be delivered by public agencies. People-led food systems can engage agencies and citizens in a co-production process whereby users design and implement their own service program that can be enabled by public agencies. Design-led food strategies illustrate an approach to create eco-acupuncture points that will ultimately start to change the dominant industrial agriculture system into a new social and economic paradigm.

Abstract Service Startups and Creative Communities can be seen as two sides of the same coin. They are both organizations that adopt service dominant logic to create innovative services. These service models are a double-edged sword as they can facilitate the transition towards sustainability or they can support an unjust, neoliberal ‘gig economy’ that commodifies work and further elongates social inequalities. Understanding the similarities and differences of these organizations reveals a wider issue: the conflict of values between eco-modernist and radical approaches to sustainability. Reviewing the two antithetical positions of this spectrum would allow designers to make informed design choices. Finally, such a review provides a philosophical springboard for further debates in the field of design.

Designing the Invisible provides a foundational collection of the main definitions, theories, and concepts necessary for understanding and learning about the Service Design field. The main aim of t...

In recent history, different design approaches have been entering fields like management and strategy to improve product development and service delivery. Specifically, entrepreneurship has adopted a user-centric mindset in methodologies like the business canvas model and the value proposition canvas which increases the awareness of the users’ needs when developing solutions. What happens when a service design approach is used to understand the entrepreneurs’ experience through the creation of their startups? Recent literature suggests that entrepreneurial activity and success is conditioned by their local entrepreneurship ecosystem. This study investigates the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem of Medellín, Colombia - an ecosystem in constant growth but that lacks qualitative analysis. The sample consists of 12 entrepreneurs in early-stage phase. The data was gathered with two design research methods: Cultural Probes and Semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the information collected facilitated the development of 4 insights about the entrepreneurs and an experience map to visualise and interpret their journey to create a startup. The results of this study reflected the implications of the ecosystem, the explanation of the users’ perceptions and awareness and propose a set of ideas to the local government to improve the experience of undertaking a startup in Medellín.