Innovation intelligence in managing co-creation process between tech-enabled corporations and startups

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of digital tech-enabled corporations that co-create an innovative digital-output with startups; in this process, they require knowledge for decision-making known as innovation intelligence to build a co-creation space by implementing and fortifying a collective intelligence. In this regard, this research introduces co-creation realization, co-creation pivoting, and co-creator relationship management as three key innovation intelligence topics (KITs). Then, it addresses the dynamic capabilities to create indispensable knowledge for decision-making in these three topics through empirical insight from a multi-case study in four tech-enabled corporations in the Iranian entrepreneurial e-commerce ecosystem. The results indicate two plannable and unplannable categories as organizational and group level capabilities for each recognized KITs, respectively. The proposed innovation intelligence framework represents how these capabilities are interrelated and the effect of strengthening and weakening them on the co-creation process by affecting collective intelligence. The results can provide insight to tech-enabled corporations in employing innovation intelligence to overcome a dipole between corporations and startups, which results in managing the co-creation process effectively. Also, it contributes to constantly filling the dynamic innovation gap between the expectations of innovation co-creation and actual achievements among managers during the co-creation process.