Increasing Exploration Capabilities Through Employee Entrepreneur Interaction

The automotive industry is in a time of great environmental change. Due to new competitors and new technologies, the established OEMs are looking for ways to increase their exploration capability. One of the measures that are taken is the collaboration with start-ups. Within this study 13 interviews were performed and analyzed to see the effects of these collaborations. The objective was to see what challenges the employees of the OEM were facing and how they were acting during these collaborations with a focus on if these behaviors were entrepreneurial. Different challenges were found. Lack of organizational support, bureaucracy, hierarchy, and processes, the motivation of employees, as well as the experience at the company. Employees showed entrepreneurial behavior in two different ways during the collaborations. By being an ambassador for the start-up within the corporation and by adapting ways of working from the start-ups.
QC 20190430In student thesis: Increasing Exploration Capabilities Through Employee Entrepreneur Interaction.