Startup Collaborations in the Aerospace Industry: Identifying Challenges, Fit and Practice Gaps

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores how a Tier-1 aerospace supplier, acting as a representative case ofa corporation novice to startup collaboration, can internalize startup innovation throughexternal engagement. It identifies challenges which can be addressed either by startups’solutions, or through collaborations with them, and examines the practice gaps betweenthe current organizational way of working and the conditions required for successfulcollaborations within a highly regulated industry.Based on an abductive, qualitative research design, this study was conducted as asingle-case organizational study at Company X, a global aerospace engineering andmanufacturing supplier. Empirical data was collected through a series of semi-structuredinterviews, which was further built upon and validated through a workshop. The findingswere analyzed iteratively against the data from the literature review.The research identified two broader categories of challenges which could be addressedthrough startup collaboration at Company X. The first cluster relates to the specifictechnological needs of the company, while the second cluster addresses broadersystemic challenges. Startups were found to offer value as external agents of dynamiccapabilities, helping the collaborating firm develop sensing, seizing and reconfigurationcapabilities. Realizing this value, however, depends on bridging a set of practice gaps.The study found that Company X possesses fundamental enabling factors, includingexisting collaboration pathways, the structural isolation of early-stage activity and ademonstrated capability to actively shape its partner ecosystem. However, a set ofstrategic, cultural, structural and procedural barriers constrain systematic collaboration.The prevailing preference for confining collaboration to peripheral areas was found to bepartly a symptom of these barriers rather than a principled choice, and the absence ofdedicated mechanisms, champions at the project level and an alliance function at theorganizational level, was found to keep collaboration efforts dispersed rather thancoordinated. While the findings stem from a single case, they contribute insight into theearly considerations involved when novice collaborators in regulated industries beginbuilding the foundations for systematic startup collaboration.