Open Innovation Networks: Exploring Actor Roles And Network Orchestration In Living Lab

In our contemporary society, innovation is more and more considered as a collaborative effort between different actors who tap into distributed sources of knowledge. This has fostered research into open innovation, innovation networks and open innovation processes. However, research on how these innovation processes are coordinated within these networks is largely lacking. Therefore, within this chapter we explore a specific approach that tries to facilitate and govern distributed innovation processes through a Public–Private–People partnership with a central role for the end-user: Living Labs. As we consider Living Labs as clear examples of distributed innovation through a collaborative effort of different actors, we use concepts from open innovation and from innovation networks literature to analyse and make sense of innovation processes taking place in Living Labs. By means of an in-depth case study analysis, we look at the knowledge transfers, constellation and orchestration taking place in FLELLAP, a Flemish ICT Living Lab that generated some successful projects, but also failed on some aspects. This allows to abstract lessons and propose avenues for future research.