This book examines returns on experience and managerial practices to generate deeper collaboration, intensify co-creation, support start-ups and established companies to explore, develop, and accelerate their projects thanks to open labs (living labs, fab labs, coworking spaces, "third spaces", etc.). Open labs are the beatbox to create a rhythm in ecosystems and make all stakeholders move forward, faster, together. This book proposes a framework to understand how open labs, innovation hubs, and collaborative spaces contribute to ecosystems.

The book looks beyond the short-term effects of open labs and identifies four main dimensions: communities, physical spaces, events, and portfolios of services offered to private businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-ups, established companies, or public institutions. Drawing on extensive field research lasting over five years, with more than 40 cases and more than 200 interviews plus direct observation within different environments, this edited book investigates how managers run these labs, and how "users" or "clients" evolve when benefitting from their services. All chapters analyse how an actual management impacts the dynamics of communities, how it shapes the co-evolution between open labs and their ecosystems, and how the management of the physical space impacts the mission of the lab and its role in the ecosystem.

Open Labs and Innovation Research is written for scholars and researchers in the fields of innovation studies and management science. This book can also inform teaching, public policymaking, and professional practice.

About the Author

Valerie Merindol is Professor at the Paris School of Business. She teaches the management of creativity and innovation and also knowledge management.

David W. Versailles is Professor at the Paris School of Business, lecturing in strategic management, innovation studies, and business modelling. David is also founding partner and CEO in ISK Consulting SA (Luxembourg), and a visiting professor at Luxembourg School of Business.

Together, Valerie and David co-head the PSB New Practices for Innovation and Creativity (newPIC) chair, which specialises in the investigation of the micro-foundations of innovation and creativity.

Reviews

"Open Labs"(i.e., incubators, makerspaces, fab labs, etc.) have become a major phenomenon of interest in innovation studies, reflecting that they have become massively prevalent over the last decade and a half. However, little is still known about them in terms of the motives and backgrounds of their members, their dynamics and their need for management. Valerie Merindol and David Versailles have collected a strong set of papers on open labs that is certain to become a reference in this emerging research space for years to come."

Professor Nicolai J. Foss, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

"In this book, reference researchers provide a rigorous, in-depth study of the open lab phenomena. Combining rich empirical material and solid analytical framework integrating multiple dimensions of management science, they show that the promises of open labs will only be fulfilled by relying on rigorous management of the innovation processes and the variety of innovation capacities."

Pascal Le Masson, MINES ParisTech, PSL, France

"Open Labs and Innovation Management edited by Valerie Merindol and David W. Versailles truly hits a sweet spot. By addressing the crucial role of labs as boundary spaces in a carefully selected series of chapters, this book opens new perspectives for the future of innovation management."

Prof. Dr. Kathrin Moeslein, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany, Former President (2020-2022), European Academy of Management (EURAM)

"In their seminal book on open labs, Valerie Merindol, David Versailles, and their colleagues explore the different facets of collaborative innovation, from living labs to fab labs, including the various incubators and their variations. As ecosystem-based innovation becomes increasingly the norm, this important book paves the way for developing best practices for orchestrating such ecosystems."

Catherine Beaudry, Polytechnique Montreal, Canada

"Open Labs and Innovation Management is a must-read for scholars of innovation management as well as for business and policy leaders who seek organizational and management initiatives that can boost the development of the innovation capacity of local communities. In a business world where the only certainty is the acceleration of change and the need for continuous innovation, it is crucial to understand the strategic and operative role the Open Labs can play as knowledge catalysts contributing to the dynamics of innovation ecosystems. Valerie Merindol and David W. Versailles edited a comprehensive understanding of the structural dimensions and managerial features distinguishing the development of flexible innovation platforms adapting to and supporting the innovative needs of communities and ecosystems. A timely work on an important subject."

Professor Giovanni Schiuma, LUM University and Tampere University

Book Information
ISBN 9780367612788
Author Valerie Merindol
Format Hardback
Page Count 262
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 520g