Startup Cooperation Capability: How Established Companies Can Utilize Startups’ Potential

Established company – startup cooperation increasingly moves into the focus of research. Yet, despite a growing body of literature as well as remarkable efforts of practitioners invested in startup cooperation, the high expectations are often not met. Bridging inter-organizational cooperation research and dynamic capability theory, this paper conceptualizes startup cooperation capability of established companies. Further, this study examines how startup cooperation capability can impact outreach success and coordination efficiency and consequently improve new product innovativeness. In addition, the moderating effects of resource availability as well as company formalization are investigated. To test the hypotheses, we analyze survey data from 195 startup cooperation managers working at established companies by applying covariance-based structural equation modelling. The results suggest that startup cooperation capability has a positive impact on outreach success, which in turn positively affects new product innovativeness. The relationship between startup cooperation capability and outreach success is strengthened by resource availability. On the other hand, startup cooperation capability is negatively associated with coordination efficiency. This effect is strengthened by the influence of company formalization.