Comparing contexts, comparing impact: A Meta-comparative case study of Living Lab impact assessment

Living Labs are increasingly used as open innovation intermediaries to address complex societal

challenges yet approaches for assessing their impact remain fragmented and context-dependent.

This paper explores how Living Lab impact assessment frameworks take shape across different

governance and cultural contexts through a comparative multiple-case study of Living Lab

organizations in Belgium, Japan, and the European Network of Living Labs. Using qualitative cross-

case analysis, the study compares contexts, conceptualizations of impact, methodological designs,

and assessment functions. Findings result in a layered model of context-sensitive impact

assessment, showing how assessment frameworks emerge through interactions between

governance and cultural conditions, impact assessment architectures, and the practical functions

assessment serves. The study contributes to Living Lab research by shifting attention from impact

measurement as a project management task toward impact assessment as a contextually

embedded and functionally diverse architecture, offering a comparative basis for further

methodological development in Living Lab evaluation.