Leveraging External Knowledge: How Business Incubators Facilitate Open Innovation in Start-ups

Start-ups represent one of the main sources of innovation and, consequently, national competitiveness. However, due to their limited size, they face several challenges, such as the scarcity of technical and financial resources, which significantly constrain their innovation capacity. To overcome these challenges, start-ups should engage in the adoption of open innovation (OI) processes, which enable them to collaborate with external organizations and exchange resources and knowledge. The effectiveness of such processes is amplified when start-ups are embedded in solid innovation ecosystems. Among the various actors that compose these ecosystems, innovation intermediaries — such as business incubators (BIs) — play a key role. BIs, through targeted networking services, enable incubated start-ups to more easily develop OI collaborations, either with one another or with external organizations. This study aims to explore the role of BIs as OI intermediaries — a topic that has received limited attention in the literature — by identifying the main operational strategies implemented to foster the openness of their incubated start-ups. To achieve this objective, a case study was conducted on the incubator of the University of Calabria (UniCal), “TechNest”. The findings reveal a strong commitment by TechNest to supporting the development of both internal and external innovation networks. However, some limitations were observed in terms of openness among start-ups operating within the academic context. This research provides valuable implications. On a theoretical level, it contributes to the limited body of literature on the topic. On a practical level, it highlights the importance for incubator managers to integrate an OI perspective into their incubation programs, while also emphasizing the need for managers of incubated start-ups to open their innovation processes to external collaborations. At the same time, policymakers should work to improve innovation policies, providing greater support to incubators and, more generally, to local and national innovation ecosystems.