Apollon – Deliverable D2.5
2. The need for a cross-border network of Living Labs on Health and Well-being At the start of the APOLLON the Living Labs were still confronted with a strong local focus. Today they are well connected in their own market, having the necessary eco-system in place. But within that market, the stakeholders often are already well connected. In order to be able to access new markets and the different ecosystems it is necessary that these local networks are being connected. The hypothesis here is that the Living Labs – as a neutral organizations – are well placed to play the broker role to connect the different eco-systems.
Figure 1 The importance of brokers in a network
This is in line with what Baden-Fuller (1995) 1 state eg. that “those networks that are not guided strategically by a ‘center’ are unable to meet the demanding challenges of today’s markets” . This means that, currently such network is becoming a necessity not only for Living Labs, but especially for SMEs and large enterprises and that it has to be facilitated by a broker. This broker needs to act as a gateway so that they can filter and dispatch in an efficient way. Our next hypothesis is that it is not sufficient to organize a network of which everyone is part of, but that, to connect different networks, a central gateway is needed.
Lorenzoni, G. & Baden-Fuller, C. (1995) Creating a Strategic Center to Manage a Web of Partners. California Management Review, 37(3), 146-163
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ICT PSP Project Reporting Template
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FINAL Version, 02/05/2012
