TY - JOUR T1 - Factors Affecting the Attrition of Test Users During Living Lab Field Trials JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2016 A1 - Annabel Georges A1 - Dimitri Schuurman A1 - Koen Vervoort KW - attrition KW - drop-out KW - field trial KW - Living lab KW - Open innovation KW - user engagement KW - user involvement AB - Next to active user involvement and a multi-method approach, a third major principle within living lab research consists of capturing the real-life context in which an innovation is used by end users. Field trials are a method to study the interaction of test users with an innovation in the context of use. However, when conducting field trials, there are several reasons why users stop participating in research activities, a phenomenon labelled as attrition. In this article, we elaborate on drop-outs during field trials by analyzing three post-trial surveys of living lab field trials. Our results show that several factors related to the innovation, as well as related to the field trial setup, play a role in attrition, including the lack of added value of the innovation and the extent to which the innovation satisfies the needs and time restrictions of test users. Based on our findings, we provide practical guidelines for managers to reduce attrition during field trials. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 6 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/959 IS - 1 U1 - iMinds – MICT – Ghent University Annabel Georges is a Junior Researcher in the research group iMinds – MICT – Ghent University in Belgium. She holds a Master's degree in Communication Sciences from Ghent University, with a specialization in New Media and Society. In her master's thesis, Social Media from A to Z: The Role of Media Coaches in the Diffusion of Social Media Literacy within the Library as an Organization, she used social network analysis to study the diffusion of social media literacy with library staff. At iMinds, her main interests are social innovation and the factors that motivate test users to participate in field trials. U2 - iMinds – MICT – Ghent University Dimitri Schuurman holds a PhD (2015) and Master's degree in Communication Sciences (2003) from Ghent University in Belgium. He joined the research group iMinds – MICT – Ghent University in Belgium in 2005 and started working at iMinds Living Labs in 2009. Together with his iMinds colleagues, Dimitri developed a specific living lab offering targeted at startups and SMEs, in which he has managed over 50 innovation projects. As a senior researcher, Dimitri is currently responsible for the methodology and academic valorization of living lab projects. He also coordinates a dynamic team of living lab researchers from iMinds – MICT – Ghent University. His main interests and research topics are situated in the domains of open innovation, user innovation, and innovation management. In early 2015, he finished his PhD entitled Bridging the Gap between Open and User Innovation? Exploring the Value of Living Labs as a Means to Structure User Contribution and Manage Distributed Innovation. U3 - iMinds – MICT – Ghent University Koen Vervoort manages and coordinates panels within living lab settings within one of the first living lab organizations in Europe: iMinds Living Labs in Belgium. He also represents iMinds within large Flemish and European living lab projects, hosts workshops, benchmarks internal processes within the entire living lab community (and beyond), oversees an internal quality survey, and organizes fieldwork for iMinds' flagship, Digimeter, a report that tracks the ownership and use of media (technology) among the Flemish population. ER -