Key Success Factor of Alliances with Start-ups for Large Company
In recent competitive and rapid changing business environment, it is extremely important for a large company to utilize research and development capacity of start-ups as an open-innovation activity through alliances with them. However, unlike the US or European counterparts, Japanese large corporations are not positive to alliances with start-ups.
The reason is the typical management style of Japanese large companies such as an emergent strategy becomes an obstacle to alliances with start-ups. That is to say, to set up a partnership with start-ups is special compared with routine practices, and because of its special characteristic Japanese large companies cannot accomplish an alliance with their traditional management style.
In this paper, we analyze the success case of alliance between the Japanese large company and the start-up, and propose a hypothesis that an intentional clarification of the strategic position of alliance activities can become one of the most effective methods for Japanese large companies to address the challenge.