Abstract:
Innovation has been identified as an important driver for organisation to remain
competitive. Design thinking has bee touted as a practice for organisations to improve
their innovation outcomes. With the proliferation of design thinking training, it is still
surprising that leaders still choose not to use the practice as part of their innovation
tools. This research investigates why leaders choose not to adopt design thinking as
an innovation approach.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen managers in different
companies belonging to different industries in South Africa. Their opinions were
analysed through the lens of the diffusion of innovation theory using the innovationdecision
process. The study found that lack of influence, poor learning outcomes,
existing innovation practices, organisational culture, existing work practices and the
lack of change management contribute to the lack of adoption of design thinking.
This study contributes to the literature on the implementation of design thinking by
investigating the adoption decision using an individual as a decision-making unit. The
study proposes adding change management design thinking training and augmenting
the innovation-decision process with a lot more emphasis on change management.
