Facilitating innovation through lab projects: cases from experience-based tourism

Abstract

Collaborative innovation approaches, such as innovation labs, have the potential to enhance innovation in experience-based sectors. However, they are rare and understudied. This study investigates the facilitation of innovation lab projects in experience-based sectors. The theory of transformational leadership and team learning is explored in the context of four idea-generating lab projects in Norway. This multi-case study involves two cases that focused on meal experiences and two on cultural experiences. The findings show that short-term team learning can be facilitated using the four transformational leadership dimensions. This study contributes to leadership theory by identifying 10 new sub-dimensions within three of the dimensions. These include three new sub-dimensions within the inspirational motivation dimension, two within the intellectual stimulation dimension, and five within the individualized consideration dimension. The findings have practical implications for the facilitation of learning and ideation in tourism innovation labs.