Initiating Open Innovation Collaborations Between Incumbents and Startups: How Can David and Goliath Get Along?

Abstract

In recent years, the phenomenon of open innovation has been on the rise in established firms, especially in terms of collaboration with startups. While the success factors of open innovation endeavours have been researched intensively, how collaborations are established is not well understood. Furthermore, there is a lack of research regarding asymmetric partnerships in open innovation, occurring when incumbents and startups collaborate. This study used a qualitative research design to approach the question of how incumbents select startups as partners in open innovation. The data incorporate the perspectives of both incumbents and startups along with the views of external experts. The findings are consolidated into a process model of partner selection for open innovation.

Open-Innovation Practices: Diversity in Portuguese SMEs

“…Technology licensing concerns the purchase and use of external technologies through intellectualproperty agreements [45]. Funding and participation in startups use different mechanisms such as venture capital, incubators, and strategic alliances to build relationships with startups in their industry, and through this approach, benefit from the technologies developed by them [46].…”

Processos em Relacionamentos Interorganizacionais para Desenvolvimento de Capacidade de Absorção em Startups

“…In collaboration networks, some cases have been highlighted, such as the alliances between large companies and startups, which are highly different partners, as pointed out by Groote and Backmann (2020). These differences begin with the selection of other organizations with which to innovate: while startups rely on their networks to find a partner, consolidated companies have professional mechanisms for monitoring possible alliances, including startups, but in particular those that offer more innovative solutions (Groote & Backmann, 2020). When it comes to agility, startups have an added advantage over large corporations, while large corporations have control over resources that are out of reach of startups.…”

“…According to Blank and Dorf (2014), startups are temporary organizations that seek a scalable, recurring, and profitable business model. In this regard, large companies help startups to build their business models as they provide access to established markets, branding, reputation advantages, intellectual property, and technical know-how, in addition to helping startups overcome some barriers to entry and inexperience (Ceccagnoli, Forman, Huang, & Wu, 2012;Eisenmann, Parker, & Alstyne, 2009) to gain market acceptance (Groote & Backmann, 2020).…”

Parceria entre grandes empresas e startups que participam de aceleradoras corporativas: benefícios e desvantagens para as startups

“…No contexto dos ecossistemas de inovação, as grandes empresas têm aumentado seu envolvimento com startups nos últimos anos (Groote & Backmann, 2020) com o objetivo de complementar recursos internos, ampliar o escopo e a velocidade da sua capacidade de inovação e geração de valor, atender as expectativas dos consumidores e sustentar uma vantagem competitiva (Weiblen & Chesbrough, 2015). Isso porque a maioria das corporações apresentam dificuldades para inovar isoladamente e buscam complementar suas competências internas (Jang, Lee, & Yoon, 2017).…”