Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Strategies in Collaboration
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Management and economics of innovation (MPMEI), MSc
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Rydén, Malin
Karlsson, Ella
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
For a B2B startup, its collaborations and how these are managed is what affects the current and
future possibilities. Established corporations and startups have shown to be co-dependent on
each other in order to develop innovative products in various industries. The food industry can
be seen as one of the oldest in the world and because of climate change and a growing
population, the industry faces new challenges to meet the future demands. There is a shift
towards a more open innovation mindset, where new companies are entering the industry. When
an innovative B2B startup enters, they must adapt to working with established actors. As
startups and established firms portray different organisational structures, collaborations entail
several challenges, especially when they are impacted by traditional market structures. In
addition, a startup’s limited resources implies that great consideration must be made into what
collaborative actions are made and how they are prioritised. From this context, this thesis was
aimed at understanding how B2B startups in the food industry manage the balance of several
collaborations and to simultaneously examine how this affects the consideration between short term and long-term strategies.
An abductive approach with a single-case design was used as the method for this qualitative
thesis. Interviews and observations were made at a case company and the collected data was
later analysed and interpreted within a theoretical framework. The findings indicate that a B2B
startup separates collaborations depending on if they fulfil a short- or long-term purpose. To
find a balance between these can be crucial for companies’ survival, but hard to achieve when
resources are limited. Managing collaborations have been seen to be greatly affected by how
expectations are set and not aligning these between actors can be devastating for the outcome
of a potential collaboration. The setting of the Swedish food industry also entails a B2B startup
to tackle a power imbalance between an established firm’s resources and a startup’s
innovativeness. This ability to innovate can also be hindered by the regulations of the industry,
together with incumbents’ lacking knowledge of new technologies and following precautions
to secure intellectual property. It is concluded that the characteristics of the food industry
impedes innovative collaborations between diverse actors. However, ecosystem innovation is
argued to be a possible tool to support the advancement of collaborative and open innovation.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
start-up , collaboration , foodtech , food industry , long-term , short-term , business to business (B2B) , business strategy , innovation