Re-imagining vision and values: design as a driver for value creation in the Internet of Things

In digital age in which a myriad of products is becoming connected through the Internet of Things (IoT), new business opportunities and challenges arise for organisations regardless of size and product/service offerings. The traits of digital technology and digital economy results in not only profound changes in the ways organisations create value and develop their IoT products and services, but also emergent and dynamic business models. It also opens new opportunities in terms of how organisations increase turnover, thus conventional theories and practices of how value is created in the design and development process is constantly being challenged. Although, academics and practitioners often critically debate these emergent opportunities and challenges to the adoption of the ‘Internet of Things’, there is a paucity of established academic theories and industry practices to support and re-think traditional processes of product design and development to meet current needs and potential commercial opportunities in the era of IoT. This paper will offer a critical examination on how design processes have evolved with regard to the differences in value creation between goods-dominant logic and the service-dominant logic in order to identify an emergent design process feasible for IoT product and service development. In addition, factors that affect value creation, and design and development process in the IoT are reviewed. It concludes by offering key insights and observations as to where design can contribute to value creation in the internet of things.