Four Models for Corporate Transformative, Open Innovation

Abstract

Four models are identified for organizations to pursue simultaneous core growth and transformative innovation leveraging open innovation principles: 1) corporate accelerators —engage with or create autonomous startups; 2) external startup platforms — engage with startups through established third parties, 3) consortia or alliances — leverage resources of peers and emergent players across the innovation ecosystem; and; 4) direct entrepreneurial approach -- work from within the organization to develop new units. We identify “innovation maturity” as the key factor to select which model is most appropriate for the organization. Additional considerations include the resources, processes and values of the organization, and the developmental status of the transformative technology. Model choice(s) are dynamic and can evolve over time as the innovation capacity of the organization matures and adapts to change.

What Corporates Can Do to Help an Innovation Ecosystem Thrive -- and Why They Should Do It

“…), holding diverse and sometimes divergent goals. One important answer to these constraints, as we have previously argued 13 is open innovation. Partnering with other organizations, large and small, allows corporations to enrich their knowledge, resource and talent in ways that are simply not available to a single organization operating alone.…”

“…We briefly describe how corporates can move into this more complex multi-dimensional practice, informed by innovation models described in our prior work. 13 One-dimensional relationships. In traditional corporate scouting in the absence of a thriving ecosystem, outreach to potential startup partners tends to be outbound.…”

“…Many corporates leverage third parties such and Techstars or Plug and Play to identify relevant startups. This indirect approach 13 provides a one-to-many linkage: Through the 3 rd party, the corporate gets access to more startups that are (a) more relevant because of the 3 rd party's filtering service, and (b) higher quality because of the 3 rd party's development support. These third parties provide clear offerings to the corporate innovation market, and therefore are quite straightforward to engage even for corporates that have not yet developed strong innovation capacity.…”

Biopharmaceutical innovation ecosystems: a theoretical model and the case of Lombardy

“…Finally, a more recent dimension of analysis explores how rms organize themselves and modify their management practices to facilitate the implementation of the new innovation management paradigm. From this perspective, Weiblen and Chesbrough (2015), Boni (2019), and Panetti et al 2019, to name a few, focus on the types of engagement that large biopharma companies use to connect with startup companies and other organizations, e.g., board interlocks vs government bodies, agreements for the mobility of talent vs universities, licensing agreements vs startups, and co-participation in thematic associations vs PAOs.…”

“…Finally, a more recent dimension of analysis explores how rms organize themselves and modify their management practices to facilitate the implementation of the new innovation management paradigm. From this perspective, Weiblen and Chesbrough (2015), Boni (2019), and Panetti et al…”