The master thesis “Open Innovation with Start-Ups in the Energy Industry: Value Capture Strategies and Start-Up Needs” examines the role of value capture strategies and the related needs of start-ups in the context of Open Innovation for the energy industry. Here is the abstract:

Since the rise of the Open Innovation (OI) paradigm collaborations with start-ups have become a vital source of innovation for corporations. In more recent literature, there are calls to evaluate how corporates can capture value in the OI process. Innovation managers in the energy industry currently have no clear recommendation how to appropriate value from OI with start-ups. Thus, this thesis answers the following questions. How can incumbent firms in the energy industry capture value from open innovation activities with start-ups along all stages of the Stage-Gate process? What needs do start-ups have during this process and how can corporates in the energy industry meet those needs to successfully capture value from collaboration? Identified start-up needs can be summarized as needs fulfilled by collaboration, namely need for knowledge and complementary assets, and needs that are potentially impaired by collaboration, namely maintaining the start-up DNA and the need for a purposeful collaboration. Two clusters of value capture strategies were defined: Contractual strategies and managerial strategies.