Lights and shadows of the relationship between industrial design and innovation

The text inquires as to whether, according to the literature, in contexts of low technological development, design weighs more heavily in innovation than research and development, R&D, but remains hidden in measurement exercises. The results from a representative sample of 2,924 industrial enterprises in Bogota and Cundinamarca indicate that adoption and adaptation predominate as forms of innovation and also show low innovative performance; and that design outweighs R&D, but is underestimated when following the Community Innovation Survey, as corroborated by alternative measurements. The paper also explores the challenges of employing design-driven innovation.