Design Capital Transformation in the Global Creative Economy: Digital Infrastructure, Intangible Assets, and the Rise of Service-Led Growth
Keywords:
design capital, creative economy, digital transformation, intangible assets, service exports, platform economy, knowledge-based capitalAbstract
The global creative economy is undergoing structural transformation driven by digitalization, platformization, and the growing importance of intangible assets. This study examines how design capital has evolved into a strategic productive resource supporting service-led export growth and macroeconomic restructuring in digitally intensive economies. It introduces the Design Capital Transformation Model (DCTM), which conceptualizes design as accumulative innovation infrastructure embedded within digital ecosystems and cross-border service architectures. The study employs a quantitative secondary-data synthesis approach integrating international creative-economy datasets, digital-readiness indicators, knowledge-based capital literature, and comparative macroeconomic studies. Analytical triangulation combines structural equation modeling, input–output multiplier logic, spatial-econometric perspectives, and meta-regression synthesis to identify causal pathways linking digital infrastructure, design-capital accumulation, and creative-service export performance across countries. Findings indicate that creative-service exports are growing faster than creative-goods sectors due to the dominance of software-enabled services, licensing-intensive exchanges, and platform-mediated digital content distribution. Economies with advanced digital infrastructure, institutional maturity, and stronger knowledge-based capital formation demonstrate superior export performance and more effective design-capital accumulation. Software abstraction enables design knowledge to become scalable and repeatable economic assets, while artificial intelligence strengthens productivity, adaptive customization, and platform-based value creation. Nevertheless, substantial cross-country disparities persist because of governance differences, regulatory asymmetries, and uneven digital readiness. The study concludes that design capital constitutes strategic economic infrastructure essential for competitiveness, growth, and service-led trade expansion in the digital economy.
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