Innovation and Entrepreneurship Track: Corporate, Consortia & Moonshot Acceleration: Novel Approaches to Speed Up Entrepreneurial Innovation

Abstract

In many industries, entrepreneurial ventures are the source of disruptive innovation and industrial change. A burgeoning approach by which incumbent firms can react to or potentially tap into entrepreneurial ventures’ innovative potential is through Corporate Accelerator Programs (CAP). Yet, many CAPs fail, and extant research provides limited understanding of how incumbents can effectively harness innovation through these novel corporate-start-up engagements that go beyond traditional approaches like acquisitions and alliances. Following last year’s successful AoM Annual Meeting Symposium, this new panel session will highlight the ongoing state of research on different types of accelerators (with a focus on corporate-backed ones), the current tools deployed for validation and scaling as well as their shortcomings to address the great disruption challenges across industries. We will extend our understanding of different acceleration modalities, including consortia, deep tech and moonshot acceleration, and suggest ways for developing new and existing theories using the CAP context. Our panel of leading scholars and practitioners will share their views on how innovation and entrepreneurship theory relate to CAPs, how CAPs are distinct from conventional approaches to firm innovation and industrial change, and how academic research can contribute to a better design and management of CAPs. This distinctive Panel will be of great interest to the TIM and ENT Divisions.