Abstract
Corporate accelerators (CAs) are an emerging form of outside-in open innovation that facilitates interaction between large organizations and start-ups. Existing complementarities between established firms and start-ups make collaboration between these entities promising and have proven helpful for large corporations and start-ups. The process through which CAs fulfill strategic objectives of speeding up corporate innovation is explored in limited studies. In this paper, we use grounded theory methodology to explore the processes by which large corporations manage CAs and how these accelerators help firms to enhance their capabilities to face the VUCA world. Data shall be collected through semi-structured interviews and further processed with the help of ATLAS-ti. Our work aligns with various literature advancement calls for linking open innovation to a dynamic capability perspective and innovation ecosystem. Thus, this work focuses on boundary-spanning research linking open innovation to dynamic capability, stakeholder management, and the ecosystem components' interaction.