Exploring factors influencing participant drop-out behavior in a living lab environment

Abstract

The concept of “living lab” is a rather new phenomenon that facilitates user involvement in open innovation activities. The users’ motivations to contribute to the living lab activities at the beginning of the project are usually higher than once the activities are underway. However, the literature still lacks an understanding of what actions are necessary to reduce the likelihood of user drop-out throughout the user engagement process. This study aims to explore key factors that are influential on user drop-out in a living lab setting by engaging users to test an innovation during the pilot phase of the application’s development. The stability of the prototype, ease of use, privacy protection, flexibility of the prototype, effects of reminders, and timing issues are the key influential factors on user drop-out behavior. This paper summarizes the key lessons learned from the case study and points to avenues for future research.