Analysis of Japanese and Finnish furniture design : a consideration for product identity and the relativity of industrial development and cultural context

Abstract

In a globalized product design market, firms take national identity into consideration to survive among the competitors, because a particular identifying feature can be the decision making factor for customers to buy a particular product. In such a situation, you may realize something as “Japanese-like” or “Finnish-like” in designs as you hold the product in your hand. But why do you think like that? The aim of this study is to clarify the factors that characterize these ideas, in terms of furniture design, with a focus on industrial development and the cultural contexts of Japan and Finland. The study is twofold, with a theoretical framework and an empirical framework. The theoretical analysis works with cultural industrial context and also argues that the transition of industrial development significantly affects national product design orientation and helps characterize products. The empirical analysis works with questionnaires concerning product image. The results conceptualize cultural references in both Japanese and Finnish furniture design. However, the results also present the realistic difficulty of recognizing products. The paper concludes by arguing that factors affecting customer’s decision making are also influenced by not only product design but the socio-culture they belong to. Therefore, measuring product image is not the only way to define national product identity, and the image is formed by both customers and product design factors.