Looking for Guidance? Five Principles for Leveraging Tensions in Corporate–Startup Collaboration

Published in: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science – August 2022

Written by 

Nora Varesco Kager, Jennifer L. Sparr and Gudela Grote

Summary 

What we found: We developed five guiding principles for managing tensions in corporate start-up collaboration with a both/and mindset: “gaining by giving”, “anchoring exploration”, “finding common ground in diversity”, “preparing for flexibility” and “implementing while learning”. Further, we suggest that the application of these principles enable positive dynamics within and between social relationship, collaboration processes and goal pursuit.  

Why it matters: Corporate-startup collaboration is an important means for co-developing innovation targeting pressing societal needs. Our guiding principles help facilitate these promising but often challenging collaborations.   

What next: Large organizations engaging in collaboration with startups to pursue social innovation can train involved employees to adopt a both/and mindset and apply the five guiding principles in order to make the collaboration successful.