IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i5p2811-d511093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Living Lab as a Circular Economy Ecosystem: Advancing Environmental Sustainability through Economic Value, Material, and Knowledge Flows

Author

Listed:
  • Anil Engez

    (Center for Innovation and Technology Research, Unit of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, FI-33720 Tampere, Finland)

  • Seppo Leminen

    (Department of Business, Strategy and Political Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway, N-3007 Drammen, Norway
    School of Business, Department of Marketing, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
    Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada)

  • Leena Aarikka-Stenroos

    (Center for Innovation and Technology Research, Unit of Industrial Engineering and Management, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, FI-33720 Tampere, Finland)

Abstract

Environmental sustainability is an increasingly relevant aspect of urban living labs. The objective of this study is to examine an urban living lab through ecosystem approach lenses and reveal the actor activities and diverse flows between them, enabling sustainable urban development. The study examines an urban area through four living lab projects in the Hiedanranta district in Tampere in Finland. We apply a qualitative research design strategy including semi-structured interviews reinforced with the project reports and websites. The collaboration and co-creation nature of living labs resembles an ecosystem structure, as both include diverse complementary actors and have distinctive coordination mechanisms, shared goals, and system-level outcomes. Building on the ecosystem analogy and circular economy ecosystem typology, our study examines living labs as ecosystems, enabling the economic value flow, material flow, and knowledge flow and pursuing the shared goal of improved environmental sustainability. The findings of the study demonstrate how the different ecosystem types manifest in urban living labs, and the actors, flows, and outcomes in these ecosystems. The study concludes that urban sustainability-oriented living labs comprise all main types of circular economy ecosystems. The dominant type of the activities (biased to economic value, material, or knowledge) determines the ecosystem type in an urban living lab, highlighting a key topic for future research: The contribution of collaborative projects to environmental sustainability in urban living labs realized through diverse ecosystem types.

Suggested Citation

  • Anil Engez & Seppo Leminen & Leena Aarikka-Stenroos, 2021. "Urban Living Lab as a Circular Economy Ecosystem: Advancing Environmental Sustainability through Economic Value, Material, and Knowledge Flows," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2811-:d:511093
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2811/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2811/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marina Van Geenhuizen, 2019. "Applying an RRI Filter in Key Learning on Urban Living Labs’ Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Katharina Greve & Seppo Leminen & Riccardo De Vita & Mika Westerlund, 2020. "Unveiling The Diversity Of Scholarly Debate On Living Labs: A Bibliometric Approach," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(08), pages 1-25, December.
    3. James Evans & Andrew Karvonen, 2014. "‘Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Lower Your Carbon Footprint!’ — Urban Laboratories and the Governance of Low-Carbon Futures," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 413-430, March.
    4. Emma Puerari & Jotte I. J. C. De Koning & Timo Von Wirth & Philip M. Karré & Ingrid J. Mulder & Derk A. Loorbach, 2018. "Co-Creation Dynamics in Urban Living Labs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-18, June.
    5. Seppo Leminen & Mika Westerlund, 2012. "Towards innovation in Living Labs networks," International Journal of Product Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 17(1/2), pages 43-59.
    6. Federico Cuomo & Stefania Ravazzi & Federico Savini & Luca Bertolini, 2020. "Transformative Urban Living Labs: Towards a Circular Economy in Amsterdam and Turin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Annica Kronsell & Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, 2018. "Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 988-1007, May.
    8. Unknown, 2016. "Energy for Sustainable Development," Conference Proceedings 253270, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies (IDSAsr).
    9. Engels, Franziska & Wentland, Alexander & Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M., 2019. "Testing future societies? Developing a framework for test beds and living labs as instruments of innovation governance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    10. Engels, Franziska & Wentland, Alexander & Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M., 2019. "Testing future societies? Developing a framework for test beds and living labs as instruments of innovation governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 48(9), pages 1-11.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ilaria Marotta & Francesco Guarino & Sonia Longo & Maurizio Cellura, 2021. "Environmental Sustainability Approaches and Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-45, November.
    2. Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Castillo-Ospina, Danika A. & Facin, Ana Lucia Figueiredo & Ferreira, Camila dos Santos & Ometto, Aldo Roberto, 2023. "Circular ecosystem innovation portfolio management," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Diego Hernando Florez Ayala & Anete Alberton & Aksel Ersoy, 2022. "Urban Living Labs: Pathways of Sustainability Transitions towards Innovative City Systems from a Circular Economy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-29, August.
    4. Stuart Danvers & Jonathan Robertson & Ambika Zutshi, 2023. "Conceptualizing How Collaboration Advances Circularity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    5. Erick Elysio Reis Amorim & Monique Menezes & Karoline Vitória Gonçalves Fernandes, 2022. "Urban Living Labs and Critical Infrastructure Resilience: A Global Match?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Bartosz Piziak & Magdalena Bień & Wojciech Jarczewski & Katarzyna Ner, 2023. "Exploring Urban (Living) Labs: A Model Tailored for Central and Eastern Europe’s Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-19, August.
    7. Dimitri Schuurman & Seppo Leminen, 2021. "Living Labs Past Achievements, Current Developments, and Future Trajectories," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-6, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nguyen, Huong Thu & Marques, Pilar & Benneworth, Paul, 2022. "Living labs: Challenging and changing the smart city power relations?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    2. Inés Aquilué & Angélica Caicedo & Joan Moreno & Miquel Estrada & Laia Pagès, 2021. "A Methodology for Assessing the Impact of Living Labs on Urban Design: The Case of the Furnish Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-29, April.
    3. Guridi, Jose A. & Pertuze, Julio A. & Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M., 2020. "Natural laboratories as policy instruments for technological learning and institutional capacity building: The case of Chile's astronomy cluster," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(2).
    4. Katharina Greve & Riccardo De Vita & Seppo Leminen & Mika Westerlund, 2021. "Living Labs: From Niche to Mainstream Innovation Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, January.
    5. Federico Cuomo & Stefania Ravazzi & Federico Savini & Luca Bertolini, 2020. "Transformative Urban Living Labs: Towards a Circular Economy in Amsterdam and Turin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Chris Tennant & Susan Howard & Sally Stares, 2021. "Building the UK vision of a driverless future: A Parliamentary Inquiry case study," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Vassallo, Jarrod P. & Banerjee, Sourindra & Zaman, Hasanuzzaman & Prabhu, Jaideep C., 2023. "Design thinking and public sector innovation: The divergent effects of risk-taking, cognitive empathy and emotional empathy on individual performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    8. Pfotenhauer, Sebastian M. & Wentland, Alexander & Ruge, Luise, 2023. "Understanding regional innovation cultures: Narratives, directionality, and conservative innovation in Bavaria," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    9. Hannes Thees & Harald Pechlaner & Natalie Olbrich & Arne Schuhbert, 2020. "The Living Lab as a Tool to Promote Residents’ Participation in Destination Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-27, February.
    10. Darren Sharp & Rob Raven, 2021. "Urban Planning by Experiment at Precinct Scale: Embracing Complexity, Ambiguity, and Multiplicity," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 195-207.
    11. Undheim, Trond Arne, 2024. "In search of better methods for the longitudinal assessment of tech-derived X-risks: How five leading scenario planning efforts can help," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. Pel, Bonno & Haxeltine, Alex & Avelino, Flor & Dumitru, Adina & Kemp, René & Bauler, Tom & Kunze, Iris & Dorland, Jens & Wittmayer, Julia & Jørgensen, Michael Søgaard, 2020. "Towards a theory of transformative social innovation: A relational framework and 12 propositions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).
    13. Dimitri Schuurman & Seppo Leminen, 2021. "Living Labs Past Achievements, Current Developments, and Future Trajectories," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-6, September.
    14. Ran Sun & James Nolan & Suren Kulshreshtha, 2022. "Agent-based modeling of policy induced agri-environmental technology adoption," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 2(8), pages 1-26, August.
    15. Wei Nie & Katharina Vita & Tariq Masood, 2024. "An ontology for defining and characterizing demonstration environments," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 35(7), pages 3501-3521, October.
    16. José Miguel Aguilera & Felipe Larraín, 2021. "Natural laboratories in emerging countries and comparative advantages in science: Evidence from Chile," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(6), pages 732-753, November.
    17. Karel F. Mulder, 2019. "Sustainable Urban Innovation Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-3, September.
    18. Christian Scholl & Joop de Kraker, 2021. "The Practice of Urban Experimentation in Dutch City Labs," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 161-170.
    19. Thomas Hickmann, 2021. "Locating Cities and Their Governments in Multi-Level Sustainability Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(1), pages 211-220.
    20. Lummina G. Horlings & Christian Lamker & Emma Puerari & Ward Rauws & Gwenda van der Vaart, 2021. "Citizen Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-15, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2811-:d:511093. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.