Triple Helix Engagement with Users: Findings from a Survey of the European Network of Living Labs

Literature Review

The ENOLL living labs recognise, as did Mitchell, that technology, in particular ICT plays a powerful catalytic role in user engagement and most of them are focused on using technology to support user engagement, research novel ways of engaging with users, and communicate findings rapidly and accurately using low-cost, mass-adopted tools such as social networks.

Living labs are “collaborations of public-private-civic partnerships in which stakeholders co-create new products, services, businesses and technologies in real life environments and virtual networks in multi-contextual spheres” (Feuerstein, et al., 2008). A simpler definition is “a collection of people, equipment, services and technology to provide a test platform for research and experiments” (FarNorth, 2010). Some position living labs as a kind of technological test-bed (Ballon, et al., 2005) while others classify them as “innovation methodologies” (Kallai & Bilicki, 2008).

It is apparent from an examination of the living labs that many have a particular niche in which they operate. Some labs are region-based, others focus on a particular product family for example, automotive design, while others seek to address particular societal needs in, for example, healthcare. However, the use of technology to engage and support users as early as possible in product and service development is the common denominator for all of them.