Empathy and Business Transformation

Due to its potential transformative nature, empathy has increasingly received attention in business, psychology, neuroscience, education, medicine, social sciences and design, to mention only a few. During the last two decades, discussions about the role of empathy in design and creative research and practice have developed, with empathy perceived as a key instrument in human-centred design and design thinking. This book revisits the powerful concept of empathy in the new post-pandemic era in which ubiquitous digitalisation presents challenges to retaining human-centredness when developing products and services. The book presents a practical four-step approach to the challenges presented concerning how organisations can turn from merely feeling empathy with or for people, to actions of empathy and compassion that can be implemented with and by communities. A wide range of organisations and organisational settings can benefit from the presented case studies and research methods. Through them, the book explores how to discover, share and act with empathy and compassion in the new digitally driven post-pandemic era to innovate across a wide range of organisations, including for-profit and not-for-profit businesses and those in the public and third sectors. This edited volume will appeal to global researchers in the fields of product and service design and digital, social innovation, as well those interested in organisational development. The practical, interdisciplinary nature of the book and innovative four-step approach will also appeal to upper-level students.

1 Introduction Melanie Sarantou and Satu Miettinen SECTION A The role of creativity and the arts in creating empathy: Step 1: Create connections for generating empathy 2 ‘We really have quite a lot to say …’: Fostering agency of youth with asylum-seeking backgrounds by arts-based methods and dialogue as actions of empathy Enni Mikkonen and Katri Konttinen 3 Encouraging empathy in creative tourism Tatiana Kravtsov, Maria Huhmarniemi and Outi Kugapi 4 Empathy in digital participatory artworks Katja Juhola, Marija Griniuk and Smaranda-Sabina Moldovan 5 Collaborative art and storytelling as an empowering tool for social design Daria Akimenko, Melanie Sarantou and Satu Miettinen SECTION B The role of stories in creating empathy: Step 2: Create emotional insights 6 Building empathy in a digital business through Love and Break-up Letters Rosana Vasques, Mikko Koria and Maria Cecilia Loschiavo Dos Santos 7 Comprehending the lenience on academic assessment regulations through university students’ emotional insights in Tanzania Albert Tibaijuka and Ludovick Myumbo 8 Building trust with storytelling: Dialogues and encounters in the Arctic Caoimhe Isha Beaulé and Mari Viinikainen 9 Imagine this! Storytelling, places and empathy Juha Iso-Aho, Nina Luostarinen and Pekka Vartiainen 10 Telling the story: How arts-based methods can create space for empathy in students and teachers in the postcolonial university design context Michelle Olga van Wyk SECTION C The role of design in creating empathy: Step 3: Wayfinding and initiating action with beneficiaries 11 Empathic perspective to understand people’s experiences in the service prototyping context in Chile Mira Alhonsuo and Mariluz Soto Hormazábal 12 Benefits and challenges of designer empathy work in multidisciplinary collaboration Tarja Pääkkönen and Marina Bos-de Vos 13 Towards a more empathic organization: An exploratory case study of a multinational manufacturing corporation Krista Korpikoski 14 Design, empathy and autonomy: Reflections on theory and practice Bruna Montuori, Maria Luiza Viana, Rosana Vasques and Maria Cecilia Loschiavo Dos Santos 15 Materiality as a mediator of empathy through culture-based product design for tourism Heidi Pietarinen, Eija Timonen and Melanie Sarantou SECTION D The role of technology in creating empathy: Step 4: Scaling up empathic action 16 Human or nonhuman agent? Experiences of empathy in a digital customer tourism journey Päivi Hanni-Vaara 17 Capitalising on empathic actions: Design principles of digitally transforming business processes Yangyang Zhao and Timothy K. Craig 18 Empathy and delivery cyclists Eduardo Rumenig Souza, Luiz E. P. B. T. Dantas, Rosana Vasques, André Casanova Silveira and Maria Cecília Loschiavo dos Santos 19 AI innovations, empathy and the law: A user-centric perspective on copyright and privacy Robert van den Hoven van Genderen, Rosa Maria Ballardini and Marcelo Corrales Compagnucci

Melanie Sarantou is an adjunct professor in social design and senior researcher at the University of Lapland, investigating how arts and narrative practices impact marginalised women in communities in Namibia, Lapland, Russia and Australia. Her current research focuses on the role of arts in societies that exist on the margin of Europe in the European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project titled ‘Action on the Margin: Arts as Social Sculpture’. Satu Miettinen is professor of Service Design at the University of Lapland, Finland, with research interests spanning the themes of design methods in engaging with the Arctic region, service design methods for inclusion, the participatory development of services and socially responsible art and design methods.