Living-Lab-as-a-Service: Exploring the market and sustainability offers of Living Labs in Germany

For more than 10 years Living Lab are emerging as new social participatory structure engaging societal stakeholders (such as public administrations, companies, civil society and research organisations) in collaborative environments. This paper presents the results of a mapping and assessment of living labs in Germany being a part of the national innovation system. The research objective of this paper is to explore the German living lab market and its offerings, which can support the innovation process of start-ups and SMEs; in a particular for the development of sustainability innovation. Beside a geographical mapping the following characteristics of living labs have been assessed: (a) degree of institutionalisation; (b) sector; (c) key actor, and (d) services offered. Nine different services have been identified and assessed based on literature review and evaluation of living lab websites. The services cover customer-oriented and user-integrating services as well as sustainability assessments. The results of the mapping were validated and discussed with research- and practitioners experts in three workshops. We conclude that living labs can be seen as an emerging element within in the national innovation system capable of driving sustainability innovations based on the services offered.