Inovação em novos negócios para empresas consolidadas por meio de incubadora corporativa: estudo longitudinal em uma indústria do setor de óleo e gás

Abstract

How to develop a corporate incubator program in a large industry? To answer this question and design a corporate incubator development approach to foster corporation’s radical innovation, this study unfolded through a four phase Action Research program with a 4-year analysis period and involved a multinational steel industry’s corporate incubator. Corporate Incubators (CIs) “…are specialized corporate units that hatch new businesses and enhance a corporation’s technology base to support its overall development and growth” [1, p.21]. In order to foster radical innovation internally, they are generally given some autonomy and are removed from traditional hierarchical command lines. The intention is to provide a startup-like environment – distinct from the slow and bureaucratic parent organization – in which radical innovation can grow better and speedily. Although it seems a promising alternative for companies to innovate, the literature reports the failure of many companies to implement CIs. One of the reasons is to build CIs without adopting a structured process while implementing it. To date, few studies address how to design a CI, and an even smaller amount delves into how to enable and sustain the introduction of a CI work routine in a large organization. As a result of this study, we offer: (i) a Corporate Incubator development framework to help companies to implement them; (ii) a new tool to support decision-making by operative CI managers; (iii) an integrated operating process at program and venture levels; (iv) A new uncertainty-based tool for assessing evolution of ventures; (v) a breakdown of the organization's major conflicts behind the difficulties and challenges associated with facing uncertainties in the search for radical innovation in a CI.