The Role of the Strategic Corporate Accelerator: Overcoming Obstacles of Corporate Startup Engagement

Abstract

Despite the recent emergence of Corporate Accelerators (CA), scholars and managers have questioned their effectiveness. This critique arises from the superficial and inadequate design recommendations that have left many CAs faltering. We explore how strategic CAs in the context of digital transformation can be designed to become effective open innovation units by offering a new conceptualization of the role of the strategic CA. Our multi-case study of four European CAs with a focus on IT startups reveals three underlying obstacles: (1) missing engagement of corporate employees, (2) difficulty of sourcing the right startups, and (3) differences between large firms and startups. Based on these, we propose a framework that captures the role of the strategic CA in correspondence with the identified obstacles. By emphasizing the CA’s role, we propose three essential tasks (motivating, matchmaking, and mediating) that are pertinent in the relationships between stakeholders in a CA ecosystem.