Promotors in the Implementation of German Corporate Company Builders: A Study on Persons and Tasks

Corporate company builders are a new phenomenon among established companies seeking to include transformational efforts in their innovation strategies. As a specific form of corporate incubation, corporate company builders have received little academic attention, which leaves practitioners experimenting with the effective establishment of these innovation units. In order to bridge this research gap, the presented study aims at understanding how innovation promotors can support the implementation of corporate company builders at the interface between corporate host and innovation ecosystem. To address the research question, this study develops a conceptual framework based on existing research on startup incubation in corporate settings, the management of radical innovation projects and innovation promotor theory. To refine and expand this framework, insights are gathered from participant observations and five interviews with German corporate company builders. Supporting prior research, this study finds a large share of informal tasks in corporate company builder implementation projects, which are shouldered by innovation promotors. Further, all four promotors that are proposed in literature are necessary but not sufficient to run implementation smoothly. Because of the boundary spanning character of corporate company builders, expert, power, and relationship promotors are supported by active and advisory process promotors as well as legitimation promotors to establish corporate company builder.