THE ROLE OF AMBASSADOR IN START-UP COLLABORATIONS

The goal of this research is to see which challenges the individuals on the OEM’s side meet during asymmetrical collaborations and which approaches they use to overcome them. Literature was focused very much on the managerial view of solving challenges in these collaborations. This study shows that individuals could play a major role in resolving challenges that occur in asymmetrical collaborations. The profound effect of individuals could resemble that of individuals in other fields, e.g. champions in innovation. To gain insight, 34 interviews within an automotive OEM were performed with project leaders of collaborations that were done with start-ups. These interviews were investigated by coding. These codes were analyzed once via text mining to get an overarching view, and once with traditional coding to get more nuanced and detailed insights. Four major challenges were found. Mismatches in processes, lack of time and capacity, potentially unknown stakeholders, and the assessment of the start-up. These challenges were approached through a variety of measures by the interviewees. Coaching the start-up, designing a proof-of-project, using the personal network, effective communication, explaining and shielding of the start-up, and implementing new processes in the start-up. The role that is described by these tasks shall be called the ambassador role. Implementing this role in a company enables individuals to facilitate asymmetrical collaborations. However, it is suggested that there should also be an institution established that is aware of the best-practices and therefore able to educate new ambassadors. INTRODUCTION Through a fast changing environment automotive OEMs are currently showing the need for more exploration, a trend that is also fostered by new competitors and new technologies (Sidhu, Volberda, & Commandeur, 2004). Since they are traditionally set up more for exploitation rather than exploration, e.g. through their size, structure, and culture (Burns & Wholey, 1993; Sørensen, 2002; Sørensen & Stuart, 2000), they have started to contact start-ups in order to address this need (Weiblen & Chesbrough, 2015) For that reason, the automotive corporation that is studied here has introduced five modes of interaction between a start-up and the OEM. Joint product development, establish suppliers, CVC investment, problem solving, and spin-outs. These modes 25th IPDMC Innovation and Product Development Management Conference, June 10-13 2018, Portugal 25th IPDMC Innovation and Product Development Management Conference, June 10-13 2018, Portugal have been installed to benefit from the start-up’s explorative capabilities. (Buck, Nilsson, & Ritzén, 2017) However, these kinds of asymmetric collaborations are known to bear challenges on a managerial level, for which some approaches were found as a solution (Minshall, Mortara, Valli, & Probert, 2010). A previous study within the OEM identified that employees acting in a specific way were able to facilitate the collaboration and solve the challenges(Buck, Arekrans, Gordin, Nilsson, & Ritzén, 2017). The employees there showed behaviors that were known from other areas, such as champions (Burgelman, 1983) or change agents (Lunenburg, 2010). It is known from these areas that individuals can be major reasons for overcoming challenges, if they show the correct behavior. To find out if individuals also could play a major role in facilitating asymmetrical innovations, this research will study the challenges that the individuals responsible in the departments face during the collaboration. Also, the approaches they use to overcome these challenges will be portrayed.