RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

220 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Living lab can be considered as an example of quadruple helix – cooperation. Living lab
is an innovation approach that emphasize user involvement to innovation process (Schuurman,
2015; Dekkers, 2011; Bergvall-Kåreborn & Ståhlbröst, 2009). Almirall and Wareham
(2012) describe typical Living lab as a collaborative project engaging companies, academia,
government and technological centres, in which users are involved in several stages of innovation
process. They also argue that Living labs are “intermediaries of open innovation”, that
focus on mediation between different actors capturing and codifying users insights in reallife
environments.
Schuurman (2015) has identified Living labs as potential concept for entrepreneurship.
The connection between entrepreneurship and user-involving activities is yet rather unexplored.
However, there are some examples in empirical cases that imply that user-led innovation could
have some impact to entrepreneurship. Hienerth, Keinz, and Lettl (2011) found in their study
that for example Lego fostered entrepreneurship-academia for its innovative users, whose
inputs Lego was utilizing in its innovation activities. Another hint can be found from crowdsourcing
initiatives that are defined as problem solving with bounty. A study conducted around
T-shirt company Threddless, the users’ motivation to send their designs to Threddless, was
occasional freelancer work and even change a hobby to full-time employment (Brabham,
2010). Autio, Dahlander and Frederiksen (2013) studied user entrepreneurship in online communities.
They found out that the individual’s exposure to technological information increases
the likelihood that he or she will recognize “third-person opportunities” whereas exposure
to information about user needs exhibits significant influence on first-person opportunity
beliefs. They found proof for earlier studies that opportunity evaluation and entrepreneurial
action are regulated by different external stimuli. Therefore, it seems that user related information
plays very important role for fostering entrepreneurship.
Shah and Tripsas (2007) described the process of user entrepreneurs, where user
entrepreneurs developed and validated solutions (or prototypes) with communities prior to
commercial opportunity and firm formation (See figure 1). Shah and Tripsas (2007) model
describes information inputs as ovals and actions taken by entrepreneur by a rectangle.
Figure 1: End-user entrepreneurial process model (Shah & Tripsas, 2007)