A study of management tasks and stakeholders in a hybrid corporate incubator
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the main tasks and challenges of the manager role in a hybrid incubator organization, here defined as being one owned by both private companies and public organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a stakeholder management approach to focus on tasks related to multiple relationships. It employs an interview‐based case method. Semi‐structured qualitative interviews and documents were used to collect data. Interviews with external stakeholders provided additional information about management tasks and how they appear in the incubation context. The role of the incubator and the manager is described through the stories of three different technology ventures, which the incubator worked with at the time of the study.
Findings
The tasks and challenges of the incubator manager concentrated around helping incubated companies gain access to much‐needed knowledge. Different modes of knowledge were added to the start‐up companies from the incubator's staff and manager and the owner companies. In order to manage knowledge flows effectively, organisational knowledge mode was highly valuable to the incubator manager. The hybrid corporate incubator's assignment is more diverse and less associated with the parent companies' core strategies than what is typical for a corporate incubator's assignment. Production of shareholder value did not have the highest priority. Other stakeholder groups than the shareholders reaped most of the benefit from the incubator's work.
Practical implications
The paper discusses practical challenges tied to the work of incubator managers such as the need to be able to maintain relationships, align diverging interests and manage expectations from different stakeholders.
Originality/value
No previous studies have examined corporate incubator management through a single‐case study. A corporate incubator's different stakeholders have not often been examined.
Keywords
Citation
Branstad, A. (2010), "A study of management tasks and stakeholders in a hybrid corporate incubator", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 294-312. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601061011060139
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited