Abstract

NANDHLAL, Kavisha; PROCHES, Cecile Gerwel  and  BODHANYA, Shamim. Achieving sustainable development by leveraging innovation outcomes with design thinking. JCMAN [online]. 2025, vol.22, n.1, pp.51-72. ISSN 1815-7440.  https://doi.org/10.35683/jcman1124.282.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: Sustainable development has garnered insufficient action around the world. A barrier to this has been pathways to achieve sustainable development. Innovation is a means by which sustainable development can be addressed. Design thinking has the potential to conceptualise innovations by understanding problems with greater depth where the complexity of matters is factored into the problem and multiple solutions are developed. The purpose of this study was to position design thinking as an alternative mechanism to traditional economics of research, strategy and policy in order to improve economic development outcomes and contribute to sustainable development RESEARCH QUESTION: The research question focused on innovation as a driver of addressing SDG 8 for decent work and economic growth METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted at a Municipality. Action research was used as a research strategy and qualitative research was used as a research approach for the data collection and the analysis of findings FINDINGS: Key findings related to the municipality's problem-solving capacity and ways in which to improve their ability to create an enabling environment CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY: The main contribution of this study was a new approach to improving economic development outcomes by addressing the SDGs with design thinking JEL CLASSIFICATION: M10, M19

Keywords : Design thinking; Economic development; Innovation; Public sector; Sustainable development; SDGs; 2030 Agenda; SDG 8; United Nations.

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