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Assessing the Challenges faced by Startups in Collaborating with Corporate Accelerators

Senor, Nes Patrick LU (2021) ENTN19 20211
Department of Business Administration
Abstract (Swedish)
Corporate Accelerators (CA) have become popular over the years as a means of corporate engagement with startups. Existing research highlights the importance of CA’s role in increasing the likelihood of success for the new and inexperienced startups. Yet, there is a significant research gap in gauging the perceptions and opinions of entrepreneurs and startup founders who participated and collaborated with these CAs. Hence, this thesis aims to assess the challenges that startups faced in collaborating with a CA by interviewing seven (7) CEOs and founders who all participated in the CA’s 2020 program through a single-site case study. Interviews with two (2) key members of the CA team were also conducted to have a better appreciation of data... (More)
Corporate Accelerators (CA) have become popular over the years as a means of corporate engagement with startups. Existing research highlights the importance of CA’s role in increasing the likelihood of success for the new and inexperienced startups. Yet, there is a significant research gap in gauging the perceptions and opinions of entrepreneurs and startup founders who participated and collaborated with these CAs. Hence, this thesis aims to assess the challenges that startups faced in collaborating with a CA by interviewing seven (7) CEOs and founders who all participated in the CA’s 2020 program through a single-site case study. Interviews with two (2) key members of the CA team were also conducted to have a better appreciation of data through triangulation.

To achieve a comprehensive evaluation, a qualitative research technique was made through thematic analysis of data. This was facilitated through the use of semi-structured interviews and cohort sampling. The findings revealed the two (2) facets of collaboration challenges, namely, cooperative and coordinative challenges. Main cooperative challenges include: misalignment of business goals, growth plans and board investor goals. On the other hand, startups’ coordinative challenges primarily stemmed from: organizational bureaucracy, lack of transparency, tensions brought about by the virtual operations, timing and schedule issues, and the scarcity of follow-up and feedback sessions. This thesis also explored the practical implications by recommending strategies to avoid or overcome any collaboration challenges and to have an effective CA-startup collaboration to reap the maximum mutual benefits. (Less)
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author
Senor, Nes Patrick LU
supervisor
organization
course
ENTN19 20211
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Corporate accelerators, Open innovation, Corporate innovation, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Interorganizational Collaboration, Collaboration Challenges, Cooperative Challenges, Coordinative Challenges.
language
English
id
9060182
date added to LUP
2021-08-04 16:37:12
date last changed
2021-08-04 16:37:12
@misc{9060182,
  abstract     = {{Corporate Accelerators (CA) have become popular over the years as a means of corporate engagement with startups. Existing research highlights the importance of CA’s role in increasing the likelihood of success for the new and inexperienced startups. Yet, there is a significant research gap in gauging the perceptions and opinions of entrepreneurs and startup founders who participated and collaborated with these CAs. Hence, this thesis aims to assess the challenges that startups faced in collaborating with a CA by interviewing seven (7) CEOs and founders who all participated in the CA’s 2020 program through a single-site case study. Interviews with two (2) key members of the CA team were also conducted to have a better appreciation of data through triangulation.

To achieve a comprehensive evaluation, a qualitative research technique was made through thematic analysis of data. This was facilitated through the use of semi-structured interviews and cohort sampling. The findings revealed the two (2) facets of collaboration challenges, namely, cooperative and coordinative challenges. Main cooperative challenges include: misalignment of business goals, growth plans and board investor goals. On the other hand, startups’ coordinative challenges primarily stemmed from: organizational bureaucracy, lack of transparency, tensions brought about by the virtual operations, timing and schedule issues, and the scarcity of follow-up and feedback sessions. This thesis also explored the practical implications by recommending strategies to avoid or overcome any collaboration challenges and to have an effective CA-startup collaboration to reap the maximum mutual benefits.}},
  author       = {{Senor, Nes Patrick}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Assessing the Challenges faced by Startups in Collaborating with Corporate Accelerators}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}