Living labs for user-driven innovation: a process reference model: living labs can provide infrastructures within which companies can involve users in the development of new products

OVERVIEW: Living labs are innovation infrastructures within which software companies and research organizations collaborate with lead users and early adopters in creating participative strategies to define, design, develop, and validate new products and services that maximize the socioeconomic conditions of the partnership. For this kind of innovation cluster to succeed, it must implement effective practices to manage the collaboration. However, there is currently no process reference model for efficient practices to manage a living lab. A case study involving six living labs was carried out to create and validate a process reference model for living labs.