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This paper aims at a broad scan of needs for knowledge advancing living labs and broader customer value co-creation in shopping malls. Special attention is given to the meeting and social integration function and metaverse development. Living labs are understood as a methodology of co-creative and open experimentation that is customer-led in a real-life environment. Emerging metaverse development tends to change opportunities and limitations, about which almost nothing is known. The paper uses a qualitative approach in two steps. The first step explores relevant theory on systems, like retail systems, customer-value co-creation (marketing) and capability and personal traits in behavioural change (individuals), while distinguishing between three living lab stages, namely, anticipation, processes on the way, and ex-post evaluation. A few central themes that are becoming increasingly important are the emerging metaverse, if and how traditional malls can continue serving as physical meeting places, and the possibility they will change course towards new combinations of physical and virtual activity. In the second step, a broad array of knowledge-advancing needs is discussed, and this results in a smaller set of knowledge gaps on the basis of urgency, like interests of new ICT stakeholders in shopping malls, impacts from metaverse on site-specificity, and benefits and barriers of disabled persons. The paper also forwards the need for more attention to the ex-post evaluation of co-creation projects, which calls for standard protocols and AI-supported data systems. The paper closes with contributions, management implications, and ideas about future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2006.10.009 Byline: Marina van Geenhuizen (a), Leonardo Reyes-Gonzalez (b) Keywords: Biotechnology; Bionanotechnology; Clusters; The Netherlands; Incubation; Innovation; Growth; Knowledge value chain Abstract: Young entrepreneurial companies in biotechnology tend to cluster in space, nearby research universities and research centers. This pattern is often ascribed to the availability of external economies, mainly local knowledge spillovers that help to reduce the uncertainty from a disruptive technology faced by these companies. Given a shortage of empirical research on cluster advantages and performance of clustered companies, we present results of a comparative analysis of clustered and non-clustered companies in biotechnology and Bionanotechnology in the Netherlands. It appears that, among other influences, a clustered location has no significant influence on innovation and speed of growth. However, a location in the largest cluster (Leiden) does contribute to a better performance in terms of innovativeness compared with all other locations. The kind of external economies involved seems to vary according to the stage in the knowledge value chain and the segment in biotechnology industry. Knowledge spillovers tend to be local for companies involved in new drugs and diagnostics research only in the first stage of the knowledge chain and for service companies regardless of the stage in the knowledge chain. Author Affiliation: (a) Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands (b) Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Article History: Accepted 20 October 2006

The textile industry in the Netherlands has often been viewed as an illustration of industrial decline resulting from global competition. This perspective sees the industry as being in the latter part of the product life cycle as well as a homogeneous sector. However, this view ignores variations from the simple product life cycle theory. An evaluation of the use of post-Fordist strategies as well as a zonal division of the Dutch economy leads to ambiguous views of the pervasiveness and spatial effects of flexibilization. The Dutch textile sector's future prospects are discussed., INTRODUCTION The Dutch textile industry provides an important example of industrial contraction as a result of the changed competitiveness of nations. The loss of employment over the past decades is [...]