There is increasing interest in, and recognition of, the contribution that professional design services can make to a firm's long-term performance. The term strategic design is used ambiguously by design commentators and in empirical literature, with little relation to established theories of business strategy. This thesis documents a study seeking to align the many views of design’s strategic benefits, and to clarify the practical and conceptual relationships of these benefits.

The research began with a model development phase, based on literature of corporate strategy and design management, and on exploratory interviews with design practitioners. The second phase sought to test and develop the model derived, through fieldwork interviews and observations.

The study identifies nine strategic contributions that can be made by designers or design activity for a firm, and relates them to established models of business strategy. Field interviews and case studies find firms recognising and exploiting some or all of these contributions. However, in some cases – even in highly design-capable firms – these contributions may be recognised as important but are not practiced.

Case descriptions serve as examples in context, providing specific, comparable views of design application in two firms, and demonstrate how the design contributions may provide a framework for examining design exploitation in an organisation and identifying opportunities for improvement.