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Collaborations between startups and established firms are changing how organizations innovate and bring new technologies to market, yet they remain difficult to initiate and sustain without the involvement of intermediaries. Drawing on an in-depth study of a national matchmaking program in Sweden, we show how intermediaries orchestrate these collaborations from first contact to scalable partnership. We offer a framework that spells out the actions intermediary managers should take throughout the collaboration process. We conclude by presenting three strategic questions and evidence-based practices to guide intermediaries in navigating corporate–startup relations, along with policy recommendations for creating the enabling conditions necessary to make these collaborations work at scale.

Paradox theory increasingly acknowledges power, yet we still lack a clear account of how power dynamics shape the lived experience and constitution of organizational paradox. Addressing the question ‘what is the role of power in shaping organizational paradoxes?’ we develop a power-performative model grounded in Clegg’s circuits of power to show how tensions become enacted, legitimized or suppressed through interactions, institutions and material infrastructures. The article contributes to paradox theory by (1) articulating an ontology of paradox as performed through situated, multilevel power relations; (2) theorizing how power dynamics influence when and how tensions are surfaced, framed or rendered invisible; and (3) advancing a critical, reflexive agenda that asks whose contradictions are recognized, whose are silenced and with what organizational effects.

This paper examines how new ventures navigate asymmetrical collaborations with incumbents, focusing on the post-pilot commercialization phase. While these collaborations offer critical resources, they trap ventures in prolonged pilot projects that often fail to translate into commercial impact. We argue that this dynamic gives rise to a “bear hug” dilemma, wherein a firm becomes increasingly constrained by asymmetric relational dependence. Using a qualitative multiple case study of ten Swedish digital technology startups, we outline divergence in post-pilot commercialization trajectories, each guided by a sequence of contingencies that determine a startup’s collaboration engagement strategy. Importantly, we show that small firms navigate this dilemma not always by trying to “escape” bear hugs; instead, they may seek to “tame” them by deliberately deepening relational dependence. Overall, this study shifts attention from how to secure and protect against asymmetric partnerships to how to convert them into actual commercial opportunities.

Startup-corporate partnerships provide mutual benefits by combining startups’ innovation with established firms’ resources and processes. However, despite these clear advantages, initiating and nurturing such partnerships is often fraught with obstacles. Our research provides evidence-based insights for startup founders and corporate managers on how these partnerships unfold. Specifically, we identify two distinct pathways that can serve as a practical starting point for corporate managers. Also, we pinpoint three key “pathbreakers” in the formation process and offer strategies to effectively manage them. In addition, the article highlights the cumulative signals that both parties can use not only to create the potential for partnership but to bring the collaboration to fruition. This guidance to managers seeking to establish or engage in such partnerships includes outlining key factors to consider, potential challenges that may arise, and actionable strategies to address them.

This paper explores the role of the garage in entrepreneurship and innovation. By engaging sociomaterial and symbolic views, it develops a typology that aims not to repeat an overly romantic view of the garage as the space where lone heroic entrepreneurs start their ventures in idealized seclusion from the rest of humanity nor to dismiss it as a flawed, useless idea. By discussing four archetypes, the paper complexifies the notion of the garage as a space that can be material as well as symbolic and proposes how organizations can recreate ‘garages’ in their habitual workspaces.

In this paper, we examine how startup support interventions are orchestrated and scaled over time by zooming in on the micro-foundations that underpin their functioning. Specifically, we show how interventions that change existing venturing behaviors emerge from the interplay between macro-level ecosystem characteristics (e.g., structure, governance, and institutions) and micro-level communal initiatives, which themselves are facilitated (or impeded) by strategies to help maximize their reach and propagate their impact. We illustrate this process through an in-depth case study tracing the evolution of a startup-incumbent matchmaking program from a small pilot project to a national flagship initiative in Sweden. We introduce the concept of "ecosystem work” to capture the coordinated efforts to foster a diverse and co-evolving network around the intervention with the ultimately goal of fostering venturing activities. Our micro-foundational model of entrepreneurial support contributes to research by theorizing how localized changes to individual-level (inter)actions can transform venturing behaviors in the ecosystem, thereby illuminating new strategies for intermediaries seeking to foster entrepreneurial activity in more relevant, efficient, and scalable ways.

By asking why is improvisation paradoxical, we explore the paradoxical side of improvisation, responding to the growing realization that organizations are comprised of complex, emergent qualities that limit the value of predictions based on past routines and data. In this chapter, we explore eight paradoxes of improvisation. Conceptualized as a paradox, improvisation is contradictory and diverse rather than an expression of pure impulsive reaction.

This study explores partnership formation dynamics between startups and corporations. The literature on strategic alliances has placed significant emphasis on establishing a "fit" between internal organizational strategy and external resource needs. However, our research indicates that in the context of corporate-startup corporations (CSCs), this “fit” is rather co-constructed than evaluated in advance. Drawing from extensive fieldwork observations of 150 “first meetings” between corporates and entrepreneurs, we find that interest in collaboration is driven by the interplay between technology, adaptability, and alignment. Adopting a configuration approach and employing a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we uncover three unique patterns through which startups can secure interest from a corporation to collaborate. Contrary to the conventional strategy of matching startups based on how well their solution align with corporate needs, we advocate for establishing the right meeting conditions so that both parties can co-create mutually-beneficial collaboration opportunities. Taken together, our study underscores the fluid nature of corporate-startup relations, with interest in collaboration being (re)defined as the partnership formation process unfolds.

This captivating book delves into the complex realm of management and organizational dynamics, focusing on the significance of paradoxes.

From the intricate interplay between social obligations and business missions to the tension between stability and change, this textbook unveils the essence of these enduring contradictions. As organizations evolve, paradoxes become defining features, and illustrative cases of this are included throughout the textbook.

Organizational Paradoxes equips students of organization management, organization change and strategy with an understanding of paradoxes, their philosophical underpinnings and their management in practice.