The impact of Italian incubators on the entrepreneurial ecosystem: in-depth analysis of corporate accelerators as a new model to challenge disruptive innovations

The accelerating pace of technological change is resulting in a redefinition of practices for many industries, forcing established companies to overhaul their innovation process. It is quite surprising to observe incumbent companies, which are generally large and well-managed, act quite helplessly when facing the challenge arising from new entrants. The inability to join an emerging paradigm or the underestimation of a new technology can have serious consequences for an established business, as some innovations can be disruptive and remould entire market sectors. Established firms are constantly confronted with an “innovation dilemma”, i.e. choosing between developing the existing business or venturing into new areas. Venturing new ideas often entails the allocation of considerable resources in an area distant from the core business. However, business units predominantly focused on the core business are not likely to explore disruptive concepts, and often face strong near-term pressures that discourage investments in new growth initiatives. Accordingly, established companies are likely to rely excessively on exploitation learning , but exploitation-based knowledge is not sufficient to fuel effectively the innovation process. The knowledge necessary to achieve innovations progressively resides outside the modern corporation’s borders and large companies are recently embracing an open innovation strategy to renew the source of their competitive advantage. Startups are recognized as a valuable source of that knowledge and have become a pillar of established firms’ innovation initiatives . Their innovativeness, speed and flexibility make them extremely precious business partners to collaborate with on new technologies or to reinvent existing business models. With the purpose of challenging disruptive innovations and getting closer to the world of startups, mature companies are progressively relying on corporate incubators to fuel innovation with entrepreneurial mindset. Corporate incubators are “company-supported programs of limited duration that support cohorts of startups during the new venture process via mentoring, education, and company-specific resources”.