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FROM POPULAR TO PROFITABLE: INCUMBENTS’ EXPERIENCES AND CHALLENGES WITH EXTERNAL CORPORATE ACCELERATORS

Katja Hutter, Anne Gfrerer and Bettina Lindner
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Katja Hutter: University of Innsbruck, Austria
Anne Gfrerer: University of Innsbruck, Austria
Bettina Lindner: #x2020;University of Salzburg, Austria

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2021, vol. 25, issue 03, 1-30

Abstract: In search of innovation, incumbent firms are leveraging the creativity, knowledge and capabilities of corporate accelerators and are boosting their innovation engines by collaborating with startups. While this form of collaboration network with its heterogeneous partners is theoretically compelling and growing in popularity practically, the majority of corporate accelerators fails to deliver the desired results. Existing research still lacks an in-depth exploration of corporate accelerators explaining and suggesting how failure and challenges of incumbent firms can be overcome. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and innovation experts across industries and within one of Europe’s biggest corporate accelerators. This study contributes to the field of open innovation and collaboration networks by expanding our knowledge about challenges of corporate accelerators and in particular to decode the difficulties that occur during the different phases of accelerator programmes. Based on the findings, guidelines for practitioners are presented to enhance organisational learning and innovation performance for incumbent firms.

Keywords: Corporate accelerator; collaboration networks; innovation networks; heterogeneity; innovation management; startups; incumbent firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919621500353

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