ABSTRACT
Corporate and national competitiveness is founded on either actual or perceived difference. Products produced by one nation may have place-based associations constructed around history, design, distinctiveness, culture and tradition. This represents ‘national capabilities’ that have many similarities with the organisational capabilities identified by Chandler (1990). Difference provides distinctiveness, difference provides short-term protection against imitation and difference also encourages imitation. Well-designed products with embedded signs, symbols and associations provide firms with sources of competitive advantage. Design-based embeddedness may be formed around the relationship between the personality and identity of the designer. These tend to be expensive and exclusive products. The designer’s identity may also be fictional and the designer’s name may have been transformed into a brand. In many cases, the designer is no longer living, but the name and design identity survive as a design style incorporated into a brand; the designer and their design style will have been transformed into a commodity.
