Intra-entrepreneurial industrial designers for innovation in Argentine SMEs: The case of Rmb Soldadura

Abstract

The link between Industrial Design and entrepreneurship in Argentina is not new. This self-organized practice was associated in the first decade of the second millennium with a palliative strategy for the socioeconomic crisis that had a negative impact on the Argentine small and medium-sized industries (SMEs) sector. In the same way, among the dominant discourses in relation to this field, the stereotyped figure of the solitary entrepreneur predominated. However, with the expansion of entrepreneurship within the field of design and the establishment of entrepreneurial ecosystems as current innovation models, a typological source took place that gave rise to new ways of undertaking. That is why the need arises to make visible the figure -somewhat unknown-, of the intraprapreneuship (internal entrepreneur) and analyze its innovative potential within the local productive scenario. To achieve this objective, a descriptive case study was carried out, which addressed the process of linking and integrating the entrepreneurial Industrial designer graduated from the National University of La Plata, Mariano Depino, and the company Alambres Rumbos S.A located in the city of Lanús ( Buenos Aires, Argentina). With this, we contributed to the dissemination of intrapreneurship in design, and highlighted its strategic potential by working in an articulated manner within an organization.