Users and Innovation Research –

INUSE- Research Seminar

Open Innovation House, Otaniementie 19-21

(2nd floor, room A208, Time: 9.30-11.30)

Users roles for co-creation of innovation in

living lab networks

Seppo Leminen, D.Sc. (Econ), Principal lecturer Laurea University of

Applied Sciences, Adjunct Professor Aalto University School of Business

seppo.leminen@laurea.fi

Anna-Greta Nyström, D.Sc. (Econ), Åbo Akademi University, School of

Business and Economics

Mika Westerlund, D.Sc. (Econ), Assistant Professor, Carleton University,

Sprott School of Business, Canada

Research gaps

• Living Labs provide a promising research area for studying open

service innovation. (Pascu & van Lieshout, 2009)

• The roles of the actors in Living Labs networks deserve further

investigation. (Nyström & Leminen, 2011)

• Research on living labs scarce from the network perspective (e.g. in

Leminen & Westerlund, 2008) and there is lack of rich case

descriptions of Living Labs (Schaffers & Turkama 2012; Leminen &

Westerlund, forthcoming)

Living Labs (1/3)

Experimentation environments, where stakeholders form public-

private-people partnerships (4Ps) to create, prototype, validate, and

test new products, services, and technologies in real-life contexts.

(Ballon et al., 2005)

Products, services, and technologies are developed and tested in

physical or virtual regions, where users are informants/co-

creators. (Kusiak, 2007)

Different from: (Ballon et al., 2005; Schaffers et al,. 2007)

• test beds for controlled testing in a laboratory environment.

• field trials for testing in a limited but still real-life environment.

• other forms of open innovation that have no concrete setting.

Living Labs (2/3) Participants’ roles: Living Lab is a real-life test and

experimentation environment, where users and producers co-

create innovations, and which connects them with utilizers and

enablers. (Leminen & Westerlund, 2008)

Global networks: many Living Labs join regional or global

networks of Living Labs: e.g., European Network of Living Labs.

(http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/)

Different types: i) narrow but sizable communities of expert

users; ii) whole bounded populations; iii) Living Labs for technical

service development; iv) Living Labs for non-technical research

using a service platform. (Stewart, 2007)

Living Labs (3/3)

• We define living labs as physical regions or virtual

realities, or interaction spaces, in which stakeholders form

public-private-people partnerships (4Ps) of companies,

public agencies, universities, users, and other

stakeholders, all collaborating for creation, prototyping,

validating, and testing of new technologies, services,

products, and systems in real-life contexts. They are used

for the development of communities for the use of

innovation. (Westerlund & Leminen, 2012)

5

Customer participation (customer contribution to co-production)

and interaction (dialogue between customer and business) vital in

service innovations. (von Hippel, 1986)

• Today’s organizations need a constant flow of ideas while competing

through emergent technologies and fast NPD. (Kao, 1997)

• Integrating customers and users to learn from and with them in

the innovation process is a key success factor for firms in all

industries. (Edvarsson et al., 2010).

• Firms involve consumers in the co-production of brands,

experiences, design, marketing strategies, and even product or

service development. (Jeppesen & Molin, 2003; Zwick et al., 2008)

Users as innovators

Objectives of the study

• Describe Living Labs as open innovation networks

• Identify the distinct structures of Living Labs networks

• Analyze users’ roles in diverse Living Labs networks

Customer involvement: two

different approaches

8 (Leminen, Kortelainen & Fred, 2010)

Methodology

Primary data

• A multiple case study among the staffs of 26 Living

Labs in Finland, Sweden, Spain, and South Africa

during 2007-2011 (a total of 103 semi-structured

interviews).

Secondary data

• Web sites, bulletins, magazines, and case reports

• Data collection aimed at identifying and

categorizing roles in Living Labs networks

Activity based user roles

• Four principal activity based user roles in Living Labs

found:

• Informant

• Tester

• Contributor

• Co-creator

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Living Labs: The network view

11

Enablers Innovation

development

Users

Providers

Utilizers

(Mod. Leminen & Westerlund, 2008)

A Living Lab network Network of Living Labs

Different types of Living Labs

• Utilizer-driven Living Labs

• Enabler-driven Living Labs

• Provider-driven Living Labs

• User/User community-driven Living Labs

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User

Utilizer

Enabler

Developer

(Kortelainen, Leminen & Fred, 2011)

13

Utilizer driven

User driven

Provider driven

Enabler driven

Living Lab actors

Co-creator, Contributor

Co-creator, Contributor

Co-creator, Contributor, Informant, Tester

Co-creator, Contributor User

Contributor 6, Informant, Tester

Coordinator, Co-creator, Informant

Co-creator 18, Contributor 15,16,18,19, Informant 15,16,17,18,19, Tester 15,17,18,

Coordinator, Contributor, Informant

User

Informant Contributor 4, Tester 2,4

Contributor, Tester

Contributor 11,12,13 Informant 13,14, Tester 11,12,14

Informant Tester

User

User’s roles in Living Labs networks

Activity

based

roles

Business networks: structure

• Business network can be classified according to the

firm’s position in the network and the

configuration of the network (Doz, 2001).

• The company may act as the engine, or hub, in the

focal business network, or it is one of the many

actors having a minor role as a partner with whom

the hub company cooperates.

• Networks centralized, decentralized, or distributed.

Barbasi (2002, ref. Möller and Svahn, 2003)

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Roles in networks

• Heikkinen et al. (2007)

• Webber, instigator, gatekeeper, advocate,

producer, planner, entrant, auxiliary

• Facilitator, compromiser, aspirant, accessory

provider

15

16

Utilizer driven

User driven

Provider driven

Enabler driven

Living Lab actors

Orchestrator, Facilitator

HUB

Co-creator, Contributor

Co-creator, Contributor

Co-creator, Contributor, Informant, Tester

Co-creator, Contributor User

Webber, Builder, Facilitator

HUB

Contributor 6, Informant, Tester

Coordinator (focal net), Co-creator, Informant

Co-creator 18, Contributor 15,16,18,19, Informant 15,16,17,18,19, Tester 15,17,18,

Coordinator (focal net), Contributor, Informant

User

Facilitator, Integrator

HUB

Informant Contributor 4, Tester 2,4

Contributor, Tester

Contributor 11,12,13 Informant 13,14, Tester 11,12,14

Informant Tester

User

Centralized

structure

Distributed

structure

Distributed

Multiplex

structure

User’s roles in diverse Living Labs networks

Position (structure)

based roles

New position (structure) based

roles for user found

• Builder

• Facilitator

• Orchestrator

• Integrator

• Coordinator (focal net)

17

18

Utilizer driven

User driven

Provider driven

Enabler driven

Living Lab actors

Orchestrator, Facilitator

HUB

Co-creator, Contributor

Co-creator, Contributor

Co-creator, Contributor, Informant, Tester

Co-creator, Contributor User

Webber, Builder, Facilitator

HUB

Contributor 6, Informant, Tester

Coordinator (focal net), Co-creator, Informant

Co-creator 18, Contributor 15,16,18,19, Informant 15,16,17,18,19, Tester 15,17,18,

Coordinator (focal net), Contributor, Informant

User

Facilitator, Integrator

HUB

Informant Contributor 4, Tester 2,4

Contributor, Tester

Contributor 11,12,13 Informant 13,14, Tester 11,12,14

Informant Tester

User

Centralized

structure

Distributed

structure

Distributed

Multiplex

structure

User’s roles in diverse Living Labs networks

Activity

based

roles Position

based roles

Main conclusions

We suggest that either

actors actively shape the environment they act in

or

they are restricted by predetermined social structures (e.g. business networks)

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Main arguments

• Innovation is the outcome of cooperation between actors in business networks

• Roles and positions of users are tools to manage the network

Found users roles

in Living Lab networks

Position (structure)

based roles for users

• Builder

• Facilitator

• Orchestrator

• Integrator

• Coordinator

• Webber

Activity based user roles

• Informant

• Tester

• Contributor

• Co-creator

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10.10.2012

22

Are you

innovating

together with

your customers?

Perspectives on

Living Labs

(in Finnish)

Living lab special issues and living

lab tracks at 2013 conferences

23

Technology Innovation

Management

Review

http://timreview.ca/

Living Lab tracks

at the 2013 conferences Forthcoming 2012/2013

Special issue on: "Living Labs –

Environments for Concurrent

Product Development“

IJPD (International Journal of

Product Developement)

Thank you!

Mika_westerlund@carleton.ca seppo.leminen@laurea.fi

seppo.leminen@aalto.fi

Questions?

anna-greta.nystrom@abo.fi

Comments?