Living labs: forums for tourism experience innovation and learning

• Co-creation stems from a perspective of value as arising from relational exchanges rather than being delivered by firms (Gummesson & Grönroos, 2012; Vargo & Lusch, 2008). Co-creation requires a common space or platform where various actors’ processes merge into one, and where “emotions, values, choices, ideas, and ideals emerge, converge or collide” (Campos et al, 2015, p 209). The concept of living labs is useful in order to understand and develop such spaces. Living labs can be defined as forums for innovation categorized by openness, co-creation and experimentation in real-life settings (e.g. Gascó, 2017; Hawk et al, 2012). In living labs, actors get opportunities to share ideas and develop goods, services, business models or systems (Hawk et al, 2012). Descriptions of labs often underscore end users as participants and sources of innovation. As such, living labs are interesting to consider for innovation in the tourism sector. Consumers continuously want novel experiences and they want to be involved in the production of their own experiences (Alsos et al, 2014). Living labs are also interesting for co-creation among a wider set of stakeholders than firms and their potential customers. The specificity of tourism, being context-dependent, makes the real-life setting valuable; it inspires to deal with problems and opportunities that arise at the specific location. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of living labs in relation to tourism experience innovation. The case study revolves around a program on “Scary seafood”, where workshops, exhibitions, training and other activities form the basis for product and business development and learning about marine species that are sustainable to consume but typically not eaten in Scandinavia. The case study methodology is participatory observations and interviews. Preliminary findings show that the concept of outdoor cooking seems to have particular potential in relation to living labs for tourism experience innovation. Cooking is an activity that many people can relate to and food is easy to experiment with. The real-life setting with raw material that is picked or harvested by the participants themselves triggers discussions around sustainability and new types of products, services and business models.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

living labs

tourism experience innovation

co-creation

co-innovation

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)