When Should Large Firms Collaborate with Young Ventures

Abstract

Young ventures can be highly interesting innovation partners for large firms. However, large firms frequently pursue collaborations with young ventures without a clear action plan, neglecting the challenges that such asymmetric partnerships may bring. Our study identifies multiple opportunities and challenges for large firms that want to collaborate with young ventures. By understanding the opportunities offered by collaborations with young ventures while simultaneously recognizing the challenges in different stages of the innovation process, large firms can achieve better results from these collaborations. We offer a young venture collaboration decision-making model to support managers in large firms in making the right decisions around asymmetric collaborations with young ventures.