Living labs in an evolutionary context of human orchestration

Networks are a new form of organising people, and with the recent rise of networks there has been a shift to new modes of thinking based on networks or ecosystems; this includes Service Dominant Logic (SDL) and Open Innovation. Networks represent a more complex organisational form. Living Labs as open innovation platforms are such complex organisational forms and should be able to manage greater external ‘variety’ in its innovation processes. We use ideas from Cybernetics about an organisation’s ability to control systems through its internal complexity and to examine variety management, value co-creation and value proposition development. We demonstrate this through two cases studies, the first of which examines the development of an active ageing portal and the second of which considers the development of technology for people living with dementia.