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A destination management organization looking to integrate technology into its tourism offering tasked a living lab with engaging tourists and tourism providers in the process. At the end of the two-year initial funding period for an action research project, the process is a success and stakeholders are engaged in the innovation ecosystem. But what is next? By observing participants and gathering feedback from stakeholders through a Policy Delphi panel, the outcomes of the project and the intentions and actions of the tourism providers and other parties were identified. Innovation capacity has increased: spin-offs were created and stakeholders have embraced open and collaborative innovation. Now, stakeholders are determined to make the process sustainable by finding other funding sources. But what should be the level of cooperation and intervention? What level can best foster innovation and knowledge retention? A case study combining a grid of characteristics and levels of analysis for living labs was used to identify one key question: for a living lab in tourism, does scale matter? This article will explore that question and will contribute to the understanding of the living lab as a model of socio-territorial action.
Keywords: living labs, tourism, destination management, innovation, scale, level, territoriality, socio-territorial action, action research
" Why don't we scale up those things that do work? "
Tavis Smiley
Broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur
Introduction
To grow and develop, businesses must innovate (Schumpeter, 1934). The tourism industry is no different: it needs to innovate so that businesses and destinations can evolve and stand out. Because of its fragmented and multi-stakeholder nature, the tourism industry is particularly well suited to open and collaborative innovation (Egger et al., 2016). Some believe that the competitiveness of destinations is determined by their capacity to reinvent themselves by offering new products and services that recombine the partnerships between the various elements of the territory's tourism offering (Pikkemaat & Weiermair, 2011). Although destinations struggle to innovate (Najda-Janoszka & Kopera, 2014), opening up the innovation process by engaging stakeholders in a living lab project could stimulate innovation (Lapointe & Guimont, 2015).
Open innovation is about increasing and improving collaboration with an ecosystem's stakeholders and engaging users in the co-creation process. The living lab approach aims to promote and structure stakeholder collaboration, and its key...