Collaboration between corporations and startups: goals, expectations and outcomes

Purpose Corporations strive to establish relationships with start-ups to increase their capacity for innovation and competitiveness. Through the theoretical lenses of resource dependence, collaborative learning and social exchange, this article seeks to identify the motivators for corporations' involvement in collaboration with startups and assess the level of completion of the benefits assumed through the acceleration programme. Design/methodology/approach The study covered 25 international firms participating in 10 acceleration programmes in Poland in 2019–2021. Findings Research results confirm that firms indicate the following main collaboration objectives: minimising the organisation’s operational costs, creating or the need to create or develop an innovative and specialised solution and/or technology and optimising internal processes. Meanwhile, when examining the level of achievement of objectives, the most frequently achieved objectives included creating or developing an innovative and specialised technology, product, service, process and/or sales channel, optimising internal processes, creating a modern corporate image and minimising operational costs of the organisation. Originality/value The study investigates three levels of collaboration: (1) the relevance of collaboration goals and their level of fulfilment, (2) the impact of collaboration time on the relevance of the defined goals and (3) the impact of the length of experience in collaboration with the level of achievement of the defined objectives. The paper proposes a theoretical framework relating three theories: drivers, goals, outcomes and mediating and moderating variables of corporate partnerships and start-ups' collaboration in the accelerator programme. Only some studies have examined this relationship comprehensively, considering multiple aspects. An integrated approach to these factors can contribute to a more holistic understanding of the dynamics and consequences of relations.