覚悟と矜持

－スタートアップが提携先企業を選択する基準に関する質的研究－

抄録

Large incumbent companies have become increasingly involved in entrepreneurial ecosystems and alliances with startups have increased in recent years. However, though there are not a few studies from the perspective of incumbent companies, we have relatively few of them from the viewpoint of startups. We explored how startups select incumbent companies as partners in collaboration and alliances. We chose qualitative method to answer the above exploratory questions. We collected data through interviews with 41 startups and analyzed the data using thematic qualitative text analysis. From the perspective of entrepreneurial behavior in an alliance and of entrepreneur as individual with emotions, we discuss that the choices were greatly influenced by the factors such as target companies’ enthusiasm, organizational readiness, and acceptance of change (preparedness), and equality in partnerships, and understanding startups situation (dignity). We conceptualized selection criteria with highlighting the social and psychological aspects of entrepreneurs, whereas previous studies indicated resource and knowledge-based factors such as similarities in knowledge bases and complementarities of resources and skills, as well as the prominence of partner companies.