Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Analytical Framework and Methodology

Innovation can be seen as a joint problem-solving process with persons of dif-ferent expertises/backgrounds collaborating. Our analysis of Living Labs builds on earlier work on joint problem solving involving experts (started with Birrer, 1999, and developed subsequently). We will present a brief synthesis of these ideas into a framework of analysis that we will use here. Since innovation is inherently an open-ended process of problem solving, it makes sense to start from an analysis of possible obstructions, rather than trying to provide blueprints that unnecessarily constrain the process and its outcomes. Management of problem solving then comes down to facilitation, in particular to overcome the obstructions thus identified. At an abstract level, two types of obstructions can be distinguished: cognitive barriers and motiva-tional barriers. Cognitive barriers manifest themselves when persons with different cogni-tive backgrounds (e.g., expertise, scientific discipline or practical backgrounds) communicate (Birrer, 2001). Not only do they make communication more diffi