Theoretical model presentation Meta-analysis of urban living labs as a transition model of sustainability

The urban living labs is a physical or virtual space that seeks to overcome the challenges of the transitional period towards sustainability by bringing together different stakeholders for cooperation and collective ideation.

Despite the fact that in recent years, it has been highly paid attention to by policymakers, planners, researchers and executive officials of cities, but still its nature, dimensions, principles, goals, components and framework are still unknown. It is somewhat unclear. Based on this, the current research seeks to cover this gap by using the meta-analysis method.

Qualitative methodology and basic text technique of meta-analysis have been used. In the initial review, 722 sources were found, of which 58 were excluded based on the title. Abstracts of 664 sources were reviewed and 428 of them were removed from the research process. As a result, 236 sources were fully reviewed and 193 of them were rejected in terms of content and quality. Finally, 43 articles were selected for final analysis.

Based on the time analysis, the trend of research resources is on the rise, reaching its peak in 2021-2022, and magazines such as Technology Innovation Management Review, Sustainability Quarterly, and Cleaner Production Quarterly are very active in this field. In terms of research model, the share of content analysis, systematic literature review, descriptive-analytical, comparative and exploratory is equal to 14, 11, 23, 27 and 25% respectively. The research pattern of most of the sources is comparative and exploratory, and in total, 52% of the sources have been allocated to themselves.

51 codes related to the unique characteristics of urban living labs were extracted in 12 categories including historical period, dimensions, components, background factors, goals, principles, process, actors, typology, challenges, consequences and application stages of the final solution have been classified, which make up the theoretical model of urban living labs.