Toward a framework for the emergence and monitoring of Innovation Lab Networks

Innovation labs are considered important orchestrators of innovation processes in multi-stakeholder settings. This is a phenomenon that has grown rapidly and exponentially world-wide, despite concerns on the measurable impact they produce and the necessary means to sustain their operation over time. The multiplication of these labs in the same territory could be analyzed as a risk of increasing competition and thus increasing the number of failures of these labs. Very few authors have addressed inter-innovation lab collaborations and how such interactions can facilitate their work and thus sustain their existence over time. These places have a strong culture of sharing, collaborative innovation and co-construction, which is why in this paper we put forward the assumption that the intention to create real collaborations between these places could allow them to identify themselves and feel involved in these relationships. This paper proposes a framework for creating sustainable connections between innovation labs. Drawing on existent literature on inter-organizational networks and collaborations, our proposition aims to establish a methodological basis for the design and implementation of innovation lab networks. A design method, quality function deployment, was adapted and partially applied to this study.