Open labs provide spaces for interaction across organizational boundaries. They create a huge potential to advance innovation processes. Making use of this potential, however, is not an easy task. It requires diligence, sophistication and perseverance from everyone involved in the implementation and the management of the lab. This book brings together contributions from leading experts in engineering, design, strategy, foresight and marketing research as well as policy makers and practitioners from an open lab. It explores from different perspectives how open labs can be used to facilitate innovation and what needs to be done to make the operation of an open lab successful. The topics addressed in the book include: interaction patterns and mediation in open labs, innovation technology, resource management, ecosystem and platform design, cultural translation, productivity, multi-channel communication, and more. The first part of the book is dedicated to the study of JOSEPHS®, an open lab in Germany. It gives insight in the practical challenges of running an open lab and its role in the local business ecosystem. The other parts of the book discuss the phenomenon of open labs in general and its significance in different contexts all around the world.

Albrecht Fritzsche; Julia M.Jonas; Angela Roth; Kathrin M.Moeslein, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany