Keywords
Startup and large company cooperation
Relational capabilities
How to Cite
Abstract
Large companies seek innovation outside organizational boundaries in partnerships with startups. Corporate Accelerator Programs (CAPs) represent a recent and emerging way to engage with startups. However, in addition to willingness, relational capabilities (RCs) are needed to interact with other firms, coordinate competencies, and combine knowledge. This study investigates the presence of RCs in CAPs. For this, qualitative research was conducted with two PACs from Brazilian industries. The results reveal the importance of RCs to identify opportunities, to combine and to manage resources, to adapt to partners' needs, to learn with (and together) with them, to communicate transparently, and to develop collaborative innovations. This study opens up new research opportunities by using the lens of RCs to analyze aspects of cooperation in the programs in question. In a practical way, the findings can assist managers in cooperating with startups, as well as entrepreneurs of startups who want to pursue partnerships with large corporations.
References
ALLMENDINGER, M. P.; BERGER, E. S. C. Selecting corporate firms for collaborative innovation: Entrepreneurial decision making in asymmetric partnerships. International Journal of Innovation Management, v. 24, n. 1, 2020.
ALVES, F. S. Capacidades relacionais em cooperações para desenvolvimento de tecnologias com e sem fins lucrativos. Tese de doutorado—Curitiba: Universidade Federal do Paraná, 2015.
ALVES, F. S.; SEGATTO, A. P.; DE-CARLI, E. Theoretical Framework About Relational Capability on Inter-Organizational Cooperation. Journal of Industrial Integration and Management, v. 01, n. 04, p. 1650012-1-1650012–17, 2016.
CANTÙ, C.; GIORGIA, S.; TZANNIS, A. Exploring the role of business relationships in start-ups’ life cycles: Evidences from the Italian context. IMP Journal, v. 12, n. 3, p. 519–543, 2018.
CHESBROUGH, H. W. The Era of Open Innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, v. 44, n. 3, p. 34–41, 2003.
COSTA, P. R. DA et al. Relational capability and strategic alliance portfolio configuration: A study of Brazilian technology firms. International Journal of Emerging Markets, v. 13, n. 5, p. 1026–1049, 2018.
DAS, T. K.; TENG, B.-S. Between Trust and Control: Developing Confidence in Partner Cooperation in Alliances. The Academy of Management Review, v. 23, n. 3, p. 491, 1998.
DAS, T. K.; TENG, B.-S. Instabilities of Strategic Alliances: An Internal Tensions Perspective. Organization Science, v. 11, n. 1, p. 77–101, fev. 2000.
DONADA, C.; NOGATCHEWSKY, G.; PEZET, A. Understanding the relational dynamic capability-building process. Strategic Organization, v. 14, n. 2, p. 93–117, 2016.
DYER, J. H.; SINGH, H. The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage. The Academy of Management Review, v. 23, n. 4, p. 660, 1998.
GERBASI, A.; LATUSEK, D. Trust-building in international business ventures. Baltic Journal of Management, v. 10, n. 1, p. 30–51, 2015.
GUTMANN, T.; KANBACH, D.; SELTMAN, S. Exploring the benefits of corporate accelerators: investigating the SAP Industry 4.0 Startup Program. Problems and Perspectives in Management, v. 17, n. 3, p. 218–232, 2019.
HEINEMANN, F. Corporate Accelerators: A Study on Prevalence, Sponsorship, and Strategy. Master of Science in Engineering and Management—Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015.
HOCHBERG, Y. V. Accelerating Entrepreneurs and Ecosystems: The Seed Accelerator Model. Innovation Policy and the Economy, v. 16, p. 25–51, 2016.
JACKSON, P.; RICHTER, N. Situational Logic: An Analysis of Open Innovation Using Corporate Accelerators. International Journal of Innovation Management, v. 21, n. 7, p. 1750062-1-1750062–21, 2017.
JOHNSEN, R. E.; FORD, D. Interaction capability development of smaller suppliers in relationships with larger customers. Industrial Marketing Management, v. 35, n. 8, p. 1002–1015, 2006.
KANBACH, D. K.; STUBNER, S. Corporate Accelerators As Recent Form Of Startup Engagement: The What, The Why, And The How. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), v. 32, n. 6, p. 1761–1776, 2016.
KNOBEN, J.; BAKKER, R. M. The guppy and the whale: Relational pluralism and start-ups’ expropriation dilemma in partnership formation. Journal of Business Venturing, v. 34, n. 1, p. 103–121, 2019.
KOHLER, T. Corporate accelerators: Building bridges between corporations and startups. Business Horizons, v. 59, n. 3, p. 347–357, 2016.
KOHTAMÄKI, M.; RABETINO, R.; MÖLLER, K. Alliance capabilities: A systematic review and future research directions. Industrial Marketing Management, v. 68, p. 188–201, 2018.
LEHMANN, P. Corporate Accelerators: Characteristics and Motives. Master of Management of Innovation and Business Development—Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School, 2013.
LORENZONI, G.; LIPPARINI, A. The leveraging of interfirm relationships as a distinctive organizational capability: a longitudinal study. p. 22, 1999.
MCGRATH, H. Developing a relational capability construct for SME network marketing using cases and evidence from Irish and Finnish SMEs. PhD—Waterford: WaterFord Institute of Technology, 2008.
MCGRATH, H. et al. A relational lifecycle model of the emergence of network capability in new ventures. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, v. 36, n. 5, p. 521–545, 2017.
MCGRATH, H.; MEDLIN, C. J.; O’TOOLE, T. A process-based model of network capability development by a start-up firm. Industrial Marketing Management, v. 80, p. 214–227, 2019.
NGUGI, I. K.; JOHNSEN, R. E.; ERDÉLYI, P. Relational capabilities for value co‐creation and innovation in SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, v. 17, n. 2, p. 260–278, 2010.
RICO, A. L. Dicionário Startupês: Os significados dos principais termos do ecossistema empreendedor. 2. ed. [s.l: s.n.].
RUNGSITHONG, R.; MEYER, K. E.; ROATH, A. S. Relational capabilities in Thai buyer-supplier relationships. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, v. 32, n. 8, p. 1228–1244, 2017.
SALDAÑA, J. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. 2. ed. [s.l.] SAGE, 2013. v. 1
SARKAR, M.; AULAKH, P. S.; MADHOK, A. Process Capabilities and Value Generation in Alliance Portfolios. Organization Science, v. 20, n. 3, p. 583–600, 2009.
SCHILKE, O.; GOERZEN, A. Alliance Management Capability: An Investigation of the Construct and Its Measurement. Journal of Management, v. 36, n. 5, p. 1192–1219, 2010.
SHANKAR, R. K.; SHEPHERD, D. A. Accelerating strategic fit or venture emergence: Different paths adopted by corporate accelerators. Journal of Business Venturing, v. 34, n. 5, p. 105886-1-105886–19, 2018.
WANG, Y.; RAJAGOPALAN, N. Alliance Capabilities: Review and Research Agenda. Journal of Management, v. 41, n. 1, p. 236–260, 2015.
WEIBLEN, T.; CHESBROUGH, H. W. Engaging with Startups to Enhance Corporate Innovation. v. 57, n. 2, p. 66–90, 2015.
ZAREMBA, B. W.; BODE, C.; WAGNER, S. M. New Venture Partnering Capability: An Empirical Investigation into How Buying Firms Effectively Leverage the Potential of Innovative New Ventures. Journal of Supply Chain Management, v. 53, n. 1, p. 41–64, 2017.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2023 Creative Commons
Downloads
