Ingo Oswald Karpen

As a Professor of Business and Design, my interdisciplinary research mainly revolves around designerly ways of thinking, working and being, and how this enables organisations to better serve people and their ecosystems alike. This includes service design in the marketing and design domains, as well as design thinking in the management domain. Combining human and systemic needs, I am also interested in regenerative and strategic design (see my publications). My research and education have been internationally awarded, including the SERVSIG Best Service Article Award (in 2013 and 2023).

In recent years, I have been focusing on understanding, measuring and managing organisations from a design and strategy perspective. For instance: drawing on service and designerly thinking to better understand and inform value cocreation and innovation strategies; unpacking and measuring the interplay of service-driving organisational design and customer experience design; managing service systems and human relations towards more engaging experience processes and better experience outcomes. For this purpose I am also a mixed methodologist using a variety of qualitative and quantitative research approaches.

Please see my Google Scholar profile for publications:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X9y3w0IAAAAJ

Illustrative recent publications:

Baldassarre, B., Calabretta, G., Karpen, I.O., Bocken, N. and E.J. Hultink (2024), Responsible design thinking for sustainable development: Critical literature review, new conceptual framework, and research agenda, Journal of Business Ethics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05600-z

Karpen, I.O., Edvardsson, B., Tronvoll, B., Jaakkola, E., and J. Conduit (2023), Circular service management: Toward conceptual understanding and service research priorities for a more sustainable future, Journal of Service Management, www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOSM-06-2023-0269/full/

Becker, L., Karpen, I.O., Kleinaltenkamp, M., Jaakkola, E., Helkkula, A., and M. Nuutinen (2023), Actor experience: Bridging individual and collective-level theorizing, Journal of Business Research, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113658

Danatzis, I., Karpen, I.O. and M. Kleinaltenkamp (2022), Actor ecosystem readiness: Understanding the nature and role of human abilities and motivation in a service ecosystem, Journal of Service Research, 25(2) 260–280.

Klenner, N., Gemser, G., and I.O. Karpen (2022), Entrepreneurial ways of designing and designerly ways of entrepreneuring: Exploring the relationship between design thinking and effectuation theory, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 39(1), 66-94.

Since completing my PhD in 2011 at The University of Melbourne and starting my academic position in full-time capacity, I have been passionate about inspiring students to interact with their peers, lecturers, and industry partners to cocreate exciting learning experiences and outcomes. This includes undergraduate, postgraduate and executive teaching. I view learning as a shared responsibility but put all my effort into engaging interactions in view of critical thinking and creative learning processes.

I teach courses at the nexus of business and design, such as Design Thinking for Business, Service Design for Entrepreneurs, or related Creativity and Innovation Management courses. Over the years I have built particular expertise in Executive Education and involve industry partners to design context-relevant strategy solutions together with students. My teaching interests further extend to Strategic Design, Cocreative Strategy and Service Management.

In terms of pedagogy, I have been recognised with school (department), college (faculty), overall university, national government and international teaching awards. 

I fundamentally care about and work towards improving and innovating human experiences, and the (eco)systems where these experiences emerge. The design discipline that underlies this purpose and my daily practice is rather interdisciplinary, not being bound by rigid ideologies but open philosophies, integrating valuable insights from various perspectives for the betterment of the (eco)system. This challenges me to meaningfully combine human desirability (needs of people), with system-level feasibility (resources, processes), viability (relevant returns) and sustainability (long-term shared benefits).

As a practicing Strategic Designer, I apply design principles and practices to support positive change and innovation across product/service systems, business models, and (eco)systems. For this reason, I lead projects and trainings across government, industry and social enterprise sectors. This includes, for example, strategic design projects to redesign legacy organisations with traditionally less service-centred perspectives such as courts or hospitals; but can also include entrepreneurs and businesses that seek to make a difference to the wellbeing of people and the community, such as organisations driven by a responsible and/or a strong social purpose.

While engaging in these projects, I also seek to translate important (yet non-confidential) insights into academic publications and leverage these in my education. This creates a circular knowledge flow that my clients, students and partners benefit from.   

Ingo Oswald Karpen is Professor of Business and Design, with a passion for interdisciplinary research revolving around designerly ways of thinking, working and being; and how this enables organisations to cocreate better strategies and improve the wellbeing of people and their (eco)systems alike. Multilevel and multimethod theorising is his favourite approach, connecting the essentiality and existentiality of individual human experiences with systemic innovation. As a faculty member at the Service Research Centre (CTF), Karlstad University (Sweden) and Adelaide Business School, Adelaide University (Australia), Ingo seeks to engage with researchers and entrepreneurs for positive societal change across contexts.

I am available to supervise PhD projects that focus on the nexus of service/strategic/regenerative design and management/strategy, including individual and organisational perspectives.