Design Thinking as a strategic device: facilitators and adoption practices in organizations

Design Thinking (DT) is increasingly positioned as a strategic device for innovation and competitive advantage within organizations. Despite its widespread legitimacy, however, its adoption often remains superficial, fragmented, or symbolic, undermining its transformative potential. While prior research has extensively examined the barriers to DT adoption, less attention has been paid to how adoption unfolds in practice and how it reshapes Design Thinking itself. This paper adopts a critical and empirical perspective on DT adoption, focusing on a dominant conception that frames Design Thinking as a driver of strategic innovation. Rather than treating this conception as a goal to be achieved, the study approaches it as an object of inquiry. Drawing on an exploratory study involving 100 design thinkers working in Italian companies, the paper analyses the facilitators enacted to render Design Thinking practicable as a strategic device within organizational contexts. The findings show that facilitators do not operate as neutral enablers of adoption. Instead, they function as practices of translation and legitimation that actively reconfigure Design Thinking, privileging certain interpretations of strategic value while constraining others.