How European Living Labs Contribute To the Creation of Ecosystems of Innovation: A Social Network Analysis (SNA) of Project-Based Collaboration

In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to the role of collaboration and innovation in addressing sustainability challenges. Sustainable innovation has become a key driver of long-term value creation. Technological progress and knowledge exchange are crucial enablers of such innovation, especially within the open innovation framework, where firms integrate internal and external knowledge sources. Within this evolving landscape, living labs have emerged as pivotal actors in innovation ecosystems. Based on principles of co-creation, experimentation, and user involvement, living labs facilitate the development and testing of innovative solutions in real-life contexts. By bringing together multiple stakeholders, they foster collaborative processes to tackle complex societal challenges and advance sustainability transitions. This study addresses the following research question: How do knowledge collaboration networks among living labs contribute to territorial innovation ecosystems? To answer this question, we adopt a Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach, which is particularly suitable for examining patterns of collaboration and knowledge exchange. Data were manually collected from the websites of living labs listed in the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) database. The analysis focuses on four European countries (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) selected due to their high concentration of living labs and the availability of comparable data. In the constructed network, nodes represent organizations involved in living lab activities, and edges represent project-based collaborations. Each tie is characterized by attributes such as the number of shared projects, collaboration intensity, domain, and interaction type. Using RStudio, we analyse both global network properties and node-level centrality measures to assess the structural role of living labs within the ecosystem. Preliminary findings reveal a partially connected network characterized by heterogeneous collaboration patterns. While the overall network density is relatively low, a very small number of living labs act as central hubs. This study contributes to the literature on knowledge management and innovation ecosystems by providing empirical evidence on the relational mechanisms underpinning knowledge-driven innovation. However, limitations related to data availability suggest the need for future research integrating longitudinal and qualitative approaches to better capture the evolution of living lab networks.