The way of knowing design management

Though design management has become influential and been viewed as a key element for business s uccess in rece nt years , it sti ll is conside red as a n under-researched and under- developed discipline with a l ack of body of knowledge. In this instance, survey and case study were initially considered as the best research methods for accumulating information. Moreover, a new research approach has em erged recently: a mixed method with qualitative and quantitative. Within studies of de sign m anagement, h owever, few e xplained t he reasons f or em ploying t hese research methods. This paper explored the reasons through analyzing previous studies of design management. As a resu lt, three ways of knowing d esign management: qualitative, qu antitative, and combined approach, were obtained. It is indicated that they not only emerge as a response of different recognizing stages, also represent different epistemologies of design management.