Let it flow: How design concepts evolve in large organizations

We investigated how design concepts from design student teams entered a corporate setting and how these design concepts evolved in the process of adoption by the company. Our study is based on 20 longitudinal embedded case studies at a large food multinational company of which we analyzed 4 more thoroughly. Our findings highlight the role of social interactions during the process, and specifically how these social interactions influenced the further development of the design concept. Our findings suggest a need for more detailed studies of the social interactions during deliberations between the conceptual development of the Front End of Innovation (FEI) development and the New Product Development (NPD) process.