The Wicked Problem of Design Management: Perspectives from the Field of Entrepreneurship

Inexplicable tensions and paradoxes exist between the underlying assumptions and logics of design and the related management perspectives. This paper aims to contribute to the design management literature by introducing entrepreneurship as an alternative management perspective. Entrepreneurship holds the capacity to add new valuable managerial meaning to the term design management that does not disrupt the uniqueness of design. A differentiation is made between two logics of management – administrative management and entrepreneurial management – and the article argues against a one-management-style-fits-all-design-processes approach. Design associated with complex and wicked problems may be more closely associated with entrepreneurial design management, whereas design based on simpler and tamer design problems may align better with administrative design management. A framework of entrepreneurial design management is introduced and the theoretical and practical implications of entrepreneurship as a platform for design management are brought into perspective.