Abstract:
In the past few decades, in the furniture industry, the value of traditional culture has been
underestimated in many countries under the process of western-centric modernisation.
The process of the culture grounded competitive advantages of furniture& furnishing
firms has not yet identified and still undeveloped theoretically and practically. Using the
local identity (culture) to add an emotional and symbolic value to the furniture and
creating marketing differentiation advantage is not yet fully recognised by academics and
practitioners. The research is an in-depth study to discuss how this traditional cultural
capital can be incorporated into modern furniture design with a view of promoting a
modern lifestyle with a local identity. Also, whether the innovative cultural design with
more abstract elements of traditional culture perceptions is more successful in satisfying
users’ perceptual needs, and if their purchasing behaviour tends to be affected
prominently in this way. To address these questions a qualitative research and case
analysis were used for analysing successful furniture companies` value propositions
which are created on emotional and symbolic cultural values and lead to differentiation
advantages, Moreover, the study submitted quantitative research to verify the impact of
culturally innovative design on costumers’ perceptions by analysing their purchase
intention and attitudes towards furniture. The results showed that in a globalised
economy, the cultural and creative industry is an emerging industry with creativity as its
core. Currently, in Egypt, the design development of cultural creative furniture is varied,
but some cultural creative products are reduced to a transfer of patterns or are limited to
traditional crafts. Other examples use a design strategy to produce creative furniture that
can impart cultural heritage and present culturally distinctive aesthetics that are practical
in daily life, which gives their brands a differentiation competitive advantage.
