1. Introduction
The entrepreneurial ecosystem has evolved over the last decade, not only because of technological advances that have created unprecedented opportunities, but also owing to the active sharing and dissemination of a growing number of tools and methodologies designed to support complexity and entrepreneurial risk [
1].
The concept of entrepreneurship covers a wide range of organizational and individual activities, but it is most often associated with an entrepreneur’s decision to start a new business. For this reason, the previous literature has paid more attention to the entrepreneurial activity involved in starting up new businesses [
2]. We follow these contributions, although different forms of entrepreneurship are not anonymous in the literature. According to Drucker [
3], the entrepreneurs can also be found in corporations; “entrepreneurs…create something new, something different; they change or transmute values. An enterprise also does not need to be small and new to be an entrepreneur. Indeed, entrepreneurship is being practiced by large and often old enterprises.” [
1].
Additionally, some authors have shown that “entrepreneurship is a complex phenomenon; sustainable entrepreneurship is perhaps more so, given the presence of commercially viable ventures that pursue economic, social and environmental outcomes concurrently.” [
1,
4].
The recent literature introducing the concept of sustainable entrepreneurship has integrated the social and environmental aspects [
2,
5], simultaneously linking the entrepreneurial process to the concept of opportunity recognition, which is in many ways closely related to innovativeness [
2].
Entrepreneurship and innovation are the keys to achieving lasting economic growth in the long run. Innovation is essential for sustained corporate success. In terms of employment and sales, innovative businesses grow twice as fast as those failing to innovate. A visible trend in recent years has been the increasing movement towards open innovation and, especially, collaboration with startups. This is particularly noticeable in high technology industries, where innovation rates are rapid and where knowledge is shared between several organizations, making it more difficult for a single entity to innovate without collaborating [
6]. In this research, we concentrate on four models of collaboration: gaining "exposure" to startups (potentially through one-off events such as hackathons and sponsoring co-working spaces), acceleration programmes, corporate venture capital programs, and acquisitions.
Constantly changing markets due to globalization have meant that knowledge and innovation have become key factors in the sustainable development of any economy, and industries have become increasingly dependent on academic research to generate marketable innovations and economic growth [
7,
8]. This new need for innovation has given rise to the triple helix theory. This model is associated with the concept of academic entrepreneurship, because seeks to define the new entrepreneurial dimension of universities, in which they and other knowledge-producing organizations play a strong role [
7,
9]. This theory was further developed to the quadruple helix, which involves a collaboration between governance, academia, industry, and citizens.
This paper contributes to the literature on academic entrepreneurship by stressing an aspect that is largely overlooked; that is, large companies’ role in stimulating local entrepreneurship and higher education institutions’ contribution of fostering the entrepreneurial activity, starting from quadruple helix theory. Thus, bearing in mind the theoretical premises outlined above, the aim of this paper is to offer a better understanding of how companies engage with startups or boost their existing collaborative activities, by finding answers to the following research questions. (Q1) What are the ways in which the development of startups can be stimulated by the large companies? (Q2) How can the higher education institutions contribute to the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem?
As research hypotheses, in the authors’ opinion, corporates engage startups through various mechanisms, often adapting existing collaborative models to new approaches. Additionally, higher education institutions play an important role in helping students and graduates who intend to start a business as a career option. In this respect, we have studied to what extent the Transilvania University of Brașov can offer targeted assistance to generate, evaluate, and act upon new ideas, building the skills necessary for successful entrepreneurship.
Using a qualitative research based on semi-structured in-depth interviews, the results suggest that Brasov City could turn into a startup city thanks to many business opportunities in which the entrepreneurs can invest: the Automotive industry, Information Technology (IT), Tourism, and so on. The findings also emphasize a determinant role played by higher education institutions in the development of such startup cities. Thus, the above stated hypotheses have been confirmed.
The article has the following structure:
Section 1 provides an introduction in the field,
Section 2 outlines the theoretical framework,
Section 3 explains the methodology applied in this research,
Section 4 presents the empirical evidence and discusses the results, and
Section 5 concludes the paper and presents the limitations of this study.
4. Results and Discussion
The research results are structured on every objective stated above in order to find answers for the research questions. The first two objectives address the first research question, while the third one is meant to obtain answers to the second research question.
(O1) Identifying managers’ opinions about the possibility of developing startups in Brașov
This topic of discussion approaches three aspects: the fields considered attractive in order to start a new business in the area of Brașov; the problems faced with Romanian startups; and the facilities to be offered to the newly established companies. The authors aimed at identifying the interviewees’ opinions about the fields considered to be the most attractive to start a new business in the area of Brașov. The interviewed managers emphasized the importance of two sectors: firstly, a forward-looking field is one in which new technologies are developed, considering that the startups in the field of IT software development are the ones with the highest scaling potential; secondly, because the automotive industry is the most developed in the area of Brașov and the major players in this sector are the large foreign corporations, the startups capable of identifying the problems faced by these companies, and of finding solutions by creating services offered to them, will have a future in the market. In this regard, two directions were anticipated: the creation of startups that provide logistics and mainly transportation services for large manufacturers and the creation of startups that design and develop new components and IT solutions for autonomous machines, which will enter on the market in the near future.
Most managers pointed out that a large number of companies were established in the field of tourism, a sector of little profitablity. This suggests that although not very attractive, this field was the easiest to approach.
Some interviewed managers mentioned that the medical sector, which has developed strongly in the recent years in Brașov, still has growth potential, and others consider that the entertainment sector is not explored enough, although it has potential.
As for the problems faced by startups, the interviewed managers emphasized two aspects: the absence of an adequate infrastructure and a legislation that does not encourage entrepreneurship in Romania. The lack of an airport and a highway; cultural problems that discourage entrepreneurship; the lack of social support from the government in the case of failure; and the improper implementation of the regulations and of the law, because of a poor legal system and corrupt administrationt, represent, in the respondents’ opinions, the main problems faced by the business environment and, implicitly, the newly established companies in Brașov. Furthermore, taking into account the high costs of real estate and the unavailability of human resources, the respondents believe that action is needed from local and national authorities, containing a number of facilities to be offered to the newly established companies so as to increase their numbers. Such facilities that would bind them to the local could be a free grant of land in order to build a hall or the renting of spaces belonging to the local authorities in order to develop their business, amoung others.
In addition to the legislative facilities, the managers interviewed believe that stimulating entrepreneurship in order to ensure sustainable development of the region compulsorily entails granting financing facilities. In a respondent’s opinion, “the lack of business education and especially the lack of financial education in conjunction with the lack of a nearby high tech business centre (the absence of Silicon Valley effect) can only be compensated by creating a framework for adequate financing and support from the financial institutions that would conceive packages meant to support companies involved in high-tech”.
A possible solution could be the establishment of a hub controlled by a local entity, where startups can interact, be mentored, receive consultancy, and connect with potential investors and financial institutions. Business accelerator programmes designed by government also represent solutions proposed by the foreign managers, taken from the model of their origin countries.
The above findings were confirmed by the results of the interviews conducted among the representatives of startups and public institutions, who mentioned the same fields in which startups could scale up. It was mentioned that “Brasov is on the 2nd place in Romania as number of tourists so tourism is one of the most attractive fields for startups”. The respondents highlighted that major investments have been made in tourism infrastructure of Brasov, which cover the market demand. However, these accommodation units need services that represent great opportunities for startups. The development of infrastructure and mainly the new airport to be built in the near future are also mentioned as opportunities for startups’ development. Such new facilities as well as the existing companies will need IT services, which is considered another challenge for startups. Additionally, it was mentioned that “the large industry should not be considered the main pillar of entrepreneurial ecosystem and the creative business based on innovation are more important”. In this respect, the startups’ representatives consider that the university, mainly through its IT study programs, can contribute to startups’ scaleup in this field. Such arguments are in line with other findings mentioned in literature [
2].
Starting with these general opinions concerning the opportunities of startup development, we set out to identify which of the four collaboration models mentioned in the introductory part are used by large companies in their relationship with startups.
(O2) Identifying managers’ opinions about the ways in which large companies can contribute to the development of startups
This topic of discussion was split up in the interview guide into four sub-topics. The results related to this objective are presented below, divided according to every sub-topic of discussion.
Advantages of Collaboration with Startup Companies
During their activity, all research participants declared that they have collaborative relationships with local startups. The main goal is to design goods or services meant to optimize their production, distribution, or sale. The common features of these products are the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies and artificial intelligence and the presence of a strong digital component. In the interviewed managers’ opinions, the collaboration between corporations and startups encourages and accelerates innovation, bringing mutual benefits. In this regard, one of the interviewed managers said, “As a corporation, we benefit from the entrepreneurial creativity and talent, we teach and bring innovations faster on the market, while the startups benefit from our expertise, infrastructure, network and marketing experience.”
In the current environment, where change occurs extremely fast, the corporations have come to the conclusion that they must complement their internal innovation efforts with new ideas from outside the organization. Therefore, startups are vital for the large companies’ capacity to innovate fast and to offer better services to clients.
A sustainable corporation bases its success on optimized, efficient, and high-quality processes. This is, however, limited by its capacity to add new businesses to its portfolio. Startups bring speed and flexibility, by the nature of their limited resources, which creates the premises of an ideal approach to the development of new businesses. Therefore, cooperations of startups and corporations can be “win-win” collaborations, offering speed to large companies and resources to startups.
According to a manager of a large company, “The startups are an integral part of our innovation strategy in so far as they give us access to advanced technologies and, by collaborating with them, we are faster in developing and implementing solutions. The collaboration with the startups allows us to be among the first to implement new technologies and capitalize on new business opportunities. Together, we share the passion and the determination to make things come true. We like things to be well-done, the entrepreneurs are good executants and, therefore, we like to collaborate with them.” Another respondent emphasized that generating ideas is the main advantage arising from the collaboration with local startups, because they understand the local needs better than large companies, which, in some respects, are inflexible.
The managers also referred to the financial aspects, saying that they appeal to startups also because of their low costs for developing certain products or services; furthermore, they are up-to-date in narrow fields as these products are their object of activity.
The representatives of startups confirmed their collaboration with large companies on a permanent basis or on specific projects, but some of them stated that they are only suppliers for such companies. They would be more interested in being involved in creative activities that could better help them to scale up, which is also highlighted in the literature [
43]. The public institutions’ representatives also appreciated the necessity of such collaborations, and stated that they currently offer business consultance for startups and also mediate contacts between different companies interested in specific business areas.
Large Companies’ Ways of Collaboration with Startups
In most cases, the collaboration between big companies and startups was achieved by “co-working space” activities, which means that, during the collaboration, the startup is permanently assigned an office within the company, so a team of 2–3 people can carry on with their activity when they require information from and interaction with company’s employees. In other cases, it was stated that only the implementation of the processes was done within the company, while the collaboration between the two companies was online.
Only one of the respondents said that his company had the role of accelerator for one of the startups they collaborated with. In this case, the company’s support was substantial and connections with other companies were established for the startup, helping it to rapidly scale.
The entrepreneurs asserted that they are very interested in using co-working spaces and other facilities offered by large companies as “accelerators” for startups. Even if they used some co-working spaces inside the large companies, the entrepreneurs consider that special attention should be paid to increasing the number and variety of such facilities, as also mentioned in the literature [
41,
42]. Nevertheless, the startups’ representatives stated that, during their co-working activities with large companies, turnover and profitability increased considerably.
Prospects for the Acquisition of Startups by Large Companies
Assessing the companies’ possibility to purchase startups or to invest in their capital, most managers stated that, although the collaboration with them is a priority, the purchase is not part of the company’s medium-term strategy. The main reason is the differences between the company’s activity and that of the startups they work with and, at present, the fact that they do not have the objective of expanding their field of activity. The mutual agreement upon this argument was that, “We only purchase when we consider it appropriate and it is more useful for us to own a certain division than to appeal to collaborators. We solely purchase what is related to “core business” and brings us a competitive advantage. Anyway, the purchase strategy is designed by the corporate board and not by the Romanian branches. Currently, there is no such intention to buy any of the startups we work with; on the contrary, the tendency is to outsource services.” Our theoretical framework assumes this idea also supported by authors such as Radziwon and Bogers [
59]. Only one of the managers stated that the negotiations for purchasing a startup began, with this purchase not being the first of this kind. The startups’ managers also declared that they are not interested in these kind of transactions and that their main focus is on business development.
The Companies’ Participation in Events Dedicated to the Startups
As for the involvement of companies in activities meant to stimulate the generation of ideas, the managers’ answers did not differ much. More than half stated that they launched competitions for business ideas or participated as sponsors in “hackathon”-type events dedicated to startups. Only a small number of the companies were not involved in this type of activity, mentioning that startups had come to meet them; startups made the proposals, and afterwards, the resulting instruments were designed through collaboration of both parts.
It can thus be concluded that from the managers’ perspective, the collaboration with startups is important for three reasons; that is, it enables the participation in the broader innovation ecosystem, it helps the executives get early signals on technologies that are succeeding in the market, and it allows them to bring innovative enterprise-grade solutions to companies’ customers. This is a mutually beneficial dynamic between the startups, the companies, and their customers.
Public institutions are also involved in increasing the startups’ exposure by organizing various events, but the participants are mainly new established companies from innovative fields, such as IT. This statement was also confirmed by the representatives of startups that did not participate in such events, with some of them having no information about these opportunities.
Keeping in mind the quadruple helix theory, we proceeded further to identifying the role that universities could play in the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Brasov.
(O3) Identifying managers’ opinions about the ways in which the Transilvania University of Brasov can contribute to the development of the entrepreneurial system
This topic was structured in three sub-topics of discussion. The results related to this objective are synthesized below.
The ways in which Transilvania University contributes to the formation and development of graduates’ entrepreneurial skills and competences
Ecosystems have a catalytic role in stimulating innovation, because the innovation actors and innovation policy alone are often not enough to drive change, which is why higher education institutions must interact with other actors in innovation [
56]. We analyzed the role of Transilvania University in promoting entrepreneurial culture and developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Brasov.
Asked if they believe that Transilvania University contributes to the formation and development of graduates’ entrepreneurial skills and competences, the respondents unanimously approved, exemplifying which are, in their opinion, the main tools used by university to achieve this goal. Most managers mentioned that, according to their knowledge, the use of digital technology in teaching–learning activities, with a view of developing the relevant digital skills and competences; organizing meetings with entrepreneurs from different fields of activity; and teaching entrepreneurship courses are the main methods approached by the Transilvania University of Brasov. They believe that in order to train graduates with entrepreneurial skills, who are customer-oriented, able to work in teams, and prove a ”can-do” approach, the startup weekend activities, the idea contests, and the reward for the best pitches, as well as inviting successful entrepreneurs, are very important. They mentioned that such activities regularly take place in Transilvania University. In everyone’s opinion, the university helps its students and graduates who want to start a business as a career option, through the newly created structures that offer mentorship and consultancy, and that organize activities meant to encourage the generation of new ideas and the formation of entrepreneurial skills. Nevertheless, half of the respondents appreciate that, in terms of funding, the university does not provide enough support, because there are no funding projects run by the university in order to create startups, but rather the university only connects the students with institutions and organizations that may provide financial support.
The interviewed representatives of startups and public institutions highlighted similar ideas. They consider that the university has to offer a performant entrepreneurship education in which companies, including startups, should be involved. Organizing contests of business ideas or business plans is also considered very useful. Joint projects for graduation theses are considered to be very important by all participants. All the above-mentioned statements are in line with the findings presented in literature, which highlight the crucial role played by academia in developing the entrepreneurial ecosystems [
52,
53,
54,
55].
The ways in which Transilvania University can collaborate with the business environment in order to develop entrepreneurial education
As for the ways in which Transilvania University can collaborate with the business environment in order to develop entrepreneurial education, respondents issued an impressive number of ideas, which can be grouped in a few categories. Some research participants believe there is a need for a better synergy between education, research, and practice, and consequently an improvement of the university curriculum.
Another category expressed the idea that close links between research and teaching activity should be established by involving doctoral students in approaching research topics in the fields of interest to the business environment.
The third category claims that organizing mentoring and feedback sessions with members of the business community, as well as conducting surveys among the students and graduates who have built a career as entrepreneurs, should be extended to larger groups of students.
All the research participants asserted that it is important to jointly find and develop innovative solutions, which should be disseminated widely. The collaboration with external stakeholders is considered essential for providing extracurricular learning activities and for accustoming students and teaching staff with the companies’ expectations and needs. These outcomes are in line with other widely highlighted theoretical approaches [
56], which was also confirmed by the representatives of startups and public institutions included in our sample. They consider that the university should act as catalyst of these collaborations, as it has relationships with a large spectrum of economic, social, and public entities.
Measures to be taken by the university with a view to transfer innovation from the university to the business environment
Regarding the measures to be taken by the university with a view to transfer innovation from university to the business environment, all the respondents stated that this goal can be attained only by developing skills around companies’ needs, by adapting the academic programmes and by achieving a synergy between business and academia. Prior to making a technology transfer from the university to the business environment, it is necessary for the university to proceed with the implementation of modern education, which can contribute to the formation and development not only of students’ entrepreneurial skills and competences, but of all the skills required in the labor market. This goal implies renouncing to classical courses, approaching innovative teaching methods, and granting greater autonomy and responsibility to the students in the learning process. This does not mean introducing only entrepreneurship courses into the curricula, but also courses designed in collaboration with representatives of the business environment.
As the exchange of knowledge between the university, industry, business environment, public sector, and society is an important catalyst for organizational innovation, teaching, advanced research, and local development, the visibility of research and cultivation of entrepreneurial spirit must be a preoccupation of all faculties and departments, each of them having contacts with different stakeholders, with different fields of work and research. A proposal from the managers would be to make the doctoral theses in collaboration with companies from various industries. Some of the respondents appreciate that the Transilvania University of Brașov established a Council of Economic, Social, and Cultural Partners, which includes representatives of the main companies and institutions in the region, and which meets twice a year in order to discuss and implement collaborations. The startups’ representatives suggested an increased involvement of SMEs in the activity of the university because, at the moment, there is a preference for partnerships mainly with large companies.
The interviewees suggested the adoption of models used by universities from abroad, which have, at the moment, a large number of spin-offs. Moreover, they emphasized the importance of collaborating with Google Romania with a view to develop Google digital workshops that offer training courses in the field of digital marketing, digital marketing events, free and personalized tips for using digital tools, and online marketing. However, although Transilvania University is digitally engaged in teaching, learning, and assessment practices, the mutually agreed upon premise was that, “It would be useful to create a digital incubator to focus on digital economy, startups in cloud computing, IoT, drones and robotics, big data analyses etc. The idea of creating “Google Hub” to support students who want to start a company with the help of their colleagues from Google should be put into practice. Furthermore, it was recommended the development of an online portal to promote employment opportunities and interships for students directly on the university site. Thus, the interested companies can meet students directly through this platform, and the graduates can be also permanently connected with employment opportunities.”
An idea expressed by some of the managers participating in the research is that, “The granting incentives and rewards given by university to the ones with entrepreneurial initiatives, to the staff and students who promote university’s entrepreneurial agenda, who support and contribute to increase institution’s entrepreneurial capacity, should be part of the university strategy. Entrepreneurial goals can only be achieved if the persons throughout the organization are allowed to manifest their own initiatives, to engage in innovation and to develop relationships with external stakeholders.”
There is a consensus and a shared vision for all the managers that students’ involvement in activities that develop an entrepreneurial way of thinking is essential.
These results are in line with the current strategy of Transilvania University, which focuses on entrepreneurship education to develop and encourage the entrepreneurial mindset among students by organizing activities and events for students. All the activities are concentrated on developing three major directions of action, which are: entrepreneurial education; development and mentoring; and financing entrepreneurial initiatives. The main resources used are seminars with business topics, workshops, mentoring sessions, and even pitching events.
5. Conclusions and Proposals
The results of our study confirm the importance of both the academic and business environment to startups and to the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, an aspect widely debated in the specialized literature [
10,
35,
56]. On the basis of the opinions of the interviewees, the answers to the research questions were obtained. Thus, in response to the first research question (Q1) regarding the ways in which large companies can stimulate the development of startups, there is a high potential for the development of startups in Brasov, with the main fields of activity identified by the respondents being the IT industry and the automotive industry, which is highly developed in the area, as well as fields in the sphere of services for population, such as tourism and entertainment. The significant majority (88%) of the corporations we surveyed have a dedicated open innovation unit with direct report lines to the CEO, Chief innovation Officer, or Chief Digital Officer. It was emphasized that startups are much more flexible and can implement new ideas more easily than the large companies. In this respect, the support of large companies comes in several ways, such as offering workspaces within the company (co-working space) where the startups can develop their activity on different projects; online collaboration and project implementation in mixed teams; and organizing idea contests or sponsoring “hackathon”-type events dedicated to the startups. Open innovation methods vary greatly depending on objectives, size, development stage, sector, and financial and technological resources. On the basis of the collected data, we identified that, from the diversity and richness of collaborative methodologies for open innovation among corporations, only exposure and accelerators programmes continue to be widely adopted. There is the general conviction that the collaborations between corporations and startups are mutually beneficial: startups bring to corporations new opportunities to innovate as well as cultural change, while startups can scale up faster with the resources and established routes to markets in which the corporate is operating.
All these answers confirm one of the research hypotheses, which states that corporations engage with startups by collaborative models. Mostly using the basic model (“exposure”), companies are available to outsource a series of activities that will be assigned to startups. This availability for collaboration is also confirmed by a low interest of the analyzed companies in buying successful startups or using corporate venture capital programmes. Our evidence shows that only the basic models (“exposure and accelerators”) are used and almost no complex models are used, which suggests that collaboration between corporates and startups in Brasov is in an incipient phase.
Nevertheless, the development of startups is hampered by a series of environmental factors, among which the poorly developed infrastructure, legislative shortcomings, high costs for renting spaces, and insufficient financial and human resources were mentioned. For these reasons, the entrepreneurial initiatives and development of startups must be supported by both the business environment and stakeholders, such as authorities, non-profit associations, and educational institutions. In this context, the second research question (Q2) addressed the ways in which the higher education institutions can contribute to the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The answer to this question focuses on the need for an increased involvement of the students in educational activities meant to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit. In this regard, a stronger connection between theory, research, and practice, as well as the active involvement of the specialists from the business environment in initiating entrepreneurial projects in which students have a central role, is needed. These results confirm the second research hypothesis, which states that universities play a vital role in the development of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The above-mentioned research results support the theory of the quadruple helix found in the literature, which emphasizes the need to involve several categories of actors, such as the public sector, academia, industry, and citizens, in achieving a sustainable entrepreneurial environment [
31].
In conclusion, in Brasov city, the collaboration between the Transilvania University and large corporations might support the establishment and development of local startups. In this way, Brasov can become a startup city for businesses from various activity fields, with its potential being mentioned in the answers of all the interview participants.
Starting from this general conclusion, a few proposals have been outlined for both the business environment and the higher education institutions. Although at present, Transilvania University supports motivated students and graduates in taking their first steps in preparing for a startup, through the organized activities that include startup weekends, the organization of idea and startup pitch prizes, helping entrepreneurs at different stages (developing an idea, finding a team, and exploring the technical and market feasibility of a project), a closer collaboration with the business environment would add value to these activities. Thus, the university should involve students in as many projects as possible proposed by the business environment (especially by the large companies), and they should attract specialists from these companies to coordinate the respective projects. These specialists should stay in contact with the students on a permanent basis and conduct mentorship activities meant to provide them with the specialized support for project implementation. Furthermore, the university should provide the conditions for the formation of startup hubs, where the students can set up and develop their own business, benefitting from specialized, logistical, and even financial support. Thus, by intensifying the relationship between the university and business environment, by supporting the students and graduates in setting up their companies, and subsequently by the support granted to startups to scale up, Brasov would be transformed into a startup city. By this collaboration, all participants can obtain material and immaterial benefits and the local business ecosystem could reach sustainable development. Thus, the local entrepreneurs can gain more confidence in their own forces and in the viability of some ideas, knowing that they can receive professional assistance from experts in the field.
As for large companies, the main recommendation is to continue the process of outsourcing some activities that can be provided by startups. By encouraging the newly established enterprises to specialize in producing or supplying certain products or services, large companies can receive a higher added value than that obtained in achieving the respective products/services through its own forces. On the basis of this specialization, the startup can increase its market share by bidding to other companies that need those goods or services. Moreover, it is important for large companies to provide the logistical support for startups, by offering workspaces, as well as access to their own infrastructure or other elements necessary for the smooth development of their activity. Not least, an honest relationship based on mutual gain is required between large companies and the startups they collaborate with in order to stimulate sustainable growth of the second category of enterprises.
Although investment in startups requires significant resources and expertise, the benefits can be compelling, often creating a competitive advantage through exclusive access to cutting-edge technologies and other innovations. For this reason, companies should invest in startups through corporate venture capital funds.
In contrast to past contributions that only deepen an open innovation model, this current research, proposing several models, offers a wider insight into open innovation activities. The authors consider that this paper contributes to a better understanding of how large companies engage startups through various mechanisms, often adapting existing collaborative models with new approaches. Past research on Romanian entrepreneurial initiatives and possible successful fields of entrepreneurship is not enough [
62].
In our opinion, we dare say the above proposals can be applied in other cities as well, even if the levels of development of these ecosystems are different, as they have a high degree of applicability and can contribute to the sustainable development of the business environment. Furthermore, the results of our research also have theoretical implications that can be used by the academic environment. Thus, the four collaboration models mentioned above can be the subject of some study topics in the entrepreneurship courses, with an emphasis on the need to capitalize on some market advantages offered by the large companies.
Obtaining sustainable economic growth based on the development of startups should also benefit from the support of other stakeholders, such as professional associations, local and central authorities, and residents, as mentioned in the quadruple helix theory. Such stakeholders often have a decisive role in the development of a startup city. In fact, one of the limits of this research is the non-inclusion of such stakeholders’ opinions in the analysis. This is a first study that covers the objectives initially proposed, but that is open to new advances proposed along future lines, because we want to go deeper in finding leverages that a startup city can use to step up its game and unleash its real potential. In this respect, for future research, we aim at identifying the other above-mentioned stakeholders’ opinions.
Another limit of the research is given by the research method employed. As this is qualitative research, the results cannot be generalized, which may reduce the validity of our findings. For this reason, we propose as future research to conduct survey-type quantitative research on large samples, which will include all categories of stakeholders. The goals of these studies will be established starting with the results of this qualitative research.
This paper contributes to this ongoing debate by empirically determining the models of collaboration between large companies and startups in order to accomplish the most successful innovations and create an innovative ecosystem to achieve the goal of establishing a startup city. We consider in our theoretical framework the significant relevance of higher education institutions in the entrepreneurial ecosystem development. Given that, in the literature, the problem of sustainable growth is usually approached separately, either in large companies or SMEs, our study is different in its attempt to highlight the need for collaborative relationships between them, especially between large companies and startups. Thus, both categories of companies can reach a repositioning in the market, from competition to partnership.