EBL Living Lab
Introduction
A Living Lab* is a user-driven open innovation ecosystem based on a business, citizens, government partnership which enables users to take an active part in the research, development and innovation process:
- bringing the users early into the creative process in order to better discover new and emerging behaviours and user patterns;
- bridging the innovation gap between technology development and the uptake of new products and services involving all relevant players of the value network via partnerships between business, citizens, and government;
- allowing for early assessment of the socio-economic implications of new technological solutions by demonstrating the validity of innovative services and business models.
Living Labs have an important role in filling gaps. They bridge the different gaps between technology ideation and development on the one hand, and market entry and fulfillment on the other. As flexible ecosystems, Living Labs can provide a demand-driven ‘concurrent innovation’ approach by engaging all the key actors across the phases and putting users in the driver’s seat.
*(Source: European Commission, Directorate General for the Information Society and Media)
EBL Living Lab
The European e-Business Lab is a Living Lab in Europe focused on e-Business developments. EBL will drive changes in the e-Business ecosystem using also a top-down approach, by leveraging on its close ties to EU policy makers and key market stakeholders.
The technology adoption life cycle
The technology adoption life cycle models the response of any given population to the offer of new technology, one that forces abandonment of traditional infrastructure and system for the promise of a heretofore unavailable set of benefits. Representing the total population exposed to a new technology, the model defines five personality profiles for determining when and why to switch from the old to the new.
These personalities correlate directly with the stages of technology adoption and include technology enthusiasts (Innovators), visionaries (Early Adopters), pragmatists (Early Majority), conservatives (Late Majority) and skeptics (Laggards). For any given technology, the market will develop in a characteristic pattern driven by the aggregate effects of these players. This includes an early market phase, a transition period, a stage of exponential growth ending at the Apex (when the product is generally accepted as the de facto standard), and sloping off into the period known as Cash Cow in Product Life Cycle models.
EBL will become a bridge between Early Adopters (Visionaries) and Early Majority (Pragmatics) in the e-Business Technology Adoption Life Cycle, taking the step from technology prototypes for innovative and visionary user to evolving products for pragmatic user (also called crossing the “pre-commercial gap” or “chasm”*).
“Early Adopters (Visionaries) adopt a new technology as a means for capturing a dramatic advantage over competitors who do not adopt it. Their role is to fund development of the early market. Directly opposite to Visionaries, the Pragmatists seek to adopt a new technology only if they believe is subverting their opinion to the marketplace wisdom. They are the foundation for the mainstream market.” Moore
EBL Living Lab activities cycle can be described as follow:
- Identify users’ issues and e-business shortcomings
- Seek feedback and practical guidance from the corporate community and top e-Business practitioners on how to address and solve identified issues and shortcomings
- Engage with the wider market, EU institutions, standardisation bodies, public authorities and other market stakeholders to share opinions, knowledge and ideas
- Provide the wider market with results of our consultation process (i.e. guidance documents, policies, pilots, recommendations, initiatives, etc.)
- Foster development and innovation to the benefit of the whole e-business ecosystem
EBL Living Lab can significantly improve the efficiency of the e-business innovation process and contribute to better take-up of R&D results, thereby improving the competitiveness of industry in Europe.
* Geoffrey A Moore: Crossing the Chasm, 1999
