Context-Specific Influencing Factors within a Transfer of Innovation from Corporate Incubators

Corporate incubators are used to generate innovation outside existing corporate structures. However due to strategic aspects, the exploitation and commercialization of these innovations are mainly done through the corporate. The integration of the innovation within existing corporate structures thereby is a major challenge, since neither sufficient research results on this topic nor sufficient orientation knowledge on the basis of operational practice were generated so far. This research paper contributes to solve these challenges through the development of a model to describe context-specific influencing factors influencing the transfer process between corporate incubator and its parent company. Within the paper a framework which covers all relevant factors is derived. According to the sender-receiver model the framework consists of three relevant context factors: the corporate incubator, the parent company and a comprehensive perspective. Based on a comprehensive literature search, a total of 10 aggregated transfer-relevant and context-related influencing factors could be identified, defined and described regarding their transfer impact.