Antecedents, processes and outcomes of collaboration between corporates and start-ups

Collaboration between corporations and start-ups can dramatically accelerate respective actor’s innovation process. Previous research on this phenomenon has mostly considered the large company’s point of view on start-up collaboration. There is therefore a research gap related to start-ups’ objectives, processes and outcomes from corporate collaboration, as well as to the relation between these three categories of variables. The purpose of this study is to identify the critical factors for start-ups in collaborating with corporations. The paper synthesizes and discusses the findings from 12 qualitative case studies of corporate-start-up collaboration in Sweden, including different collaboration models and different industrial sectors. It contributes to fill the current knowledge gap in research focused on critical factors for start-ups in collaborating with large companies for innovation. The study identified three important dimensions: antecedents, outcomes, and collaboration characteristics. For each dimension the main variables and relations among variables are identified. This framework can be useful primarily for start-ups and could guide them in their decisions related to partnering with large firms. The framework is, however, also useful for other stakeholders involved in corporate-start-up collaboration initiatives, such as large firms, intermediaries like external accelerators, and the government. This is one of the first studies that explicitly addresses the phenomenon of collaboration between start-ups and large companies from a start-up’s point of view. The study is not limited to a specific collaboration model such as for example ‘accelerators’, but includes different models used by large firms. Further, it identifies the factors that could guide start-ups in analyzing opportunities offered by partnering with larger companies, and therefore could be important parts of their collaboration strategy.