Towards optimal user involvement in innovation processes: A panel-centered Living Lab-approach

Living Labs as seen as a rather new research area with only a limited amount of supporting theories for understanding this concept. The absence of supporting theories, or rather the lack of agreement regarding the supporting theories has induced on the one hand a proliferation of papers and articles on Living Labs and on the other hand a wide variety of approaches and projects carried out under the Living Labs-umbrella. In short, on a theoretical as well as on a practical level, a further narrowing and specifying of the Living Lab-concept remains a task in progress. Within this research paper, we will show that the Living Lab-approach is in many ways a logical extension of some of the principles of the Open Innovation-concept. In order to aid to the concrete conceptualization of Living Labs, we will give an overview of history of the Living Lab-concept with a focus on characteristics and applications. This allows us to make a meta-analysis of discerning elements that, according to the most recent literature, should or should not be present in best practice Living Labs-research. Based on this meta-analysis and on the literature review, we will construct a modified consensus-definition of the Living Lab-concept as it is currently understood, described and practiced. By adding the `panel-centered' characteristic, we also add a Living Lab-characteristic that remained overlooked in most literature on Living Labs that however bears a large potential in terms of sustainability and added value of Living Labs.