Fostering corporate-startup collaboration in an open innovation environment
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2023-06-12
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master’s Degree Programme in International Design Business Management (IDBM)
Language
en
Pages
78
Series
Abstract
Taking into account the perspectives of both corporate and startup, it is evident that each side has their own set of strengths and weaknesses. The different characteristics of each party make bringing them together a challenging task. This research examined the collaboration examples in the literature, but the search for a complete model that considers all aspects with a holistic view remained unanswered. The main purpose of this research is to identify the various challenges and design comprehensive solutions for corporations without ignoring the needs and requirements of startups. This study addresses how can particular challenges seen in startup and corporate collaborations be overcome, what measures should be taken into account to accelerate open innovation and what factors should be considered when designing a framework for intellectual property rights and assisting a fair agreement. In light of the literature review focusing on open innovation and models of collaboration, structured interviews based on constructive research methodology were conducted with both selected corporate and different startup representatives. Analysis of the interviews indicates that finding the right partner is as important as eliminating deficiencies and weaknesses that provide the motivation for collaboration. The collaboration process is significantly influenced by various factors including innovation, intellectual property rights, legal agreements and sharing benefits. These perspectives play a crucial role in shaping overall collaboration. As a result of this study, a collaboration roadmap is designed for corporate consisting of three different phases: startup evaluation and funding, intellectual property rights management and common business model design. Even though the roadmap is shaped especially based on the specific challenges of the interviewed companies, it can be used with minor modifications, assuming that similar problems are seen to a large extent in the industry.Description
Supervisor
Lipponen, JuhaThesis advisor
Tognetty, VirpiOjanen, Mari
Keywords
corporate, startup, open innovation, intellectual property rights