Conference Agenda

Driven by the growing “beauty value” economy and the release of consumption potential, the beauty service industry in China has experienced a continuous increase in its market size. The market predominantly consists of small-scale individual parlours, presenting a highly fragmented landscape. Yet, these small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle with issues derived from limited resources and obsolete management strategies, resulting in decreased customer satisfaction and a high closure rate.

To address these challenges, this study aims to emphasise the value co-creation in beauty service businesses and propose a set of service innovations that enhance customer experience throughout the beauty service process. The qualitative research involves three phases. Firstly, participant observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify key problems throughout the journey. Secondly, a focus group with design experts and stakeholders was organised to generate innovative data-driven solutions, which were subsequently refined through feedback from two beauty service SMEs in the third phase.

The proposed innovative solutions are synthesised and presented in a renewal service blueprint, underscoring three core values across the service stages. The findings provide a deeper understanding of customer-centricity in the beauty service industry and offer valuable guidance for beauty service SMEs to boost competitiveness and sustainability.

This paper describes the transition from a traditional M.F.A. (Master in Fine Arts) to an M.B.I. (Master in Business Innovation) at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia. Based on industry trends, current research in design, and trends in design education (Meyer & Norman, 2020) (Meyer & Norman, 2020) we found that the traditional M.F.A. program does not align with the ongoing evolution of design, design education, and specifically, design management (De Mozota & Valade-Amland, 2020; De Mozota & Wolff, 2019; Miller et al., 2023). Responding to the demands for increasing relevance and wider accessibility to and diffusion of design research, SCAD is transforming the design management program to align with the shift from an interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary design, strengthening the program’s finance and management focus, formalizing design leadership and embedding sustainability and ethics in the curriculum. We have encountered numerous opportunities and challenges through the process of transitioning to the new M.B. I. curriculum. The opportunity to deliver value to students by redesigning the curriculum required making a compelling case for change. Addressing the challenges of introducing “the new” (Erwin, 2014) include (1) assessing the current curriculum to evaluate the relevance of existing components and courses, identifying what new courses are needed; (2) evaluating the knowledge-base and skill sets of faculty to develop and deliver the new curriculum; (3) initiating the process of framing, positioning, and communicating the M.B.I. to gain acceptance among various stakeholders. Collaboration between administrators, faculty, students, and staff the transformation has required putting into practice the lessons taught in our classrooms.