Intrapreneurship: Pre-Seed Selection Criteria for Internal Corporate Accelerators

Abstract

Most research is done in the field of External Corporate Accelerators (ECA), where external ideas from students, start-ups e.g., enter the accelerator program of a corporate. Limited research is done in the field of Internal Corporate Accelerator (ICA) where ideas from their own employees can enter the accelerator program. Additionally, accelerators are mostly implemented in highly competitive environments. However, accelerator programs are used more and more in less competitive environments like government-owned liability companies because external pressure requires them to change their ways of working more rapidly. This research addresses this gap by studying an accelerator program of the government-owned liability company TenneT TSO that operates in the energy utility sector. TenneT wants to innovate its core business and ways of working with the TenneT POWERLab, which is an ICA where employees can enter the acceleration program. The main goal of the program is to create an ecosystem that enables cultural and creative change within the organization. Hence, the tool ICA in this context is not used to get a competitive advantage by innovation as for most applications that are described in the literature. The research objective is to develop pre-seed selection criteria for Internal Corporate Accelerators (ICAs) of government-owned liability companies.
A conceptual framework with pre-seed selection criteria is made from the accelerator literature and startup literature. Additionally, the research introduced three new pre-seed selection criteria that should be included in the research in the context of ICAs of government-owned liability companies, like the POWERLab. These are “Strategic Fit”, “Investment Cost”, and “Validation efforts”. This resulted in a list of 20 pre-seed selection criteria. Accordingly, the pre-seed selection criteria are studied on their relevance and compared to the literature.
Findings are that 9 out of the 20 pre-seed selection criteria are not deemed relevant for TenneT TSO. Examples of not relevant criteria are “Sustainable Advantage”, “Timing of Entry” and “Lead Time”. This can be explained by the non-competitive nature of government-owned liability companies who follow market needs instead of being a frontrunner of innovation. Highly relevant criteria are “Incoming Team’s Willingness to Listen & Adapt”, “Idea Solves a Real Problem” and “Investment Cost”. These pre-seed selection criteria indicate the importance of the team and the quality of the idea to solve real problems in the organization, leading to the innovation of the core business.
Implications of this research are that ECAs in competitive environments have similarities with ICAs in government-owned liability companies. Both ECAs and ICAs have an accelerator with stage-gates and focus on mentorship. Minor differences are in the duration and intensity of the programs. The pre-seed selection criteria can be used as a starting point for other government-owned liability companies in the energy sector that want to proceed with an ICA that boosts employee development and organizational efficiency to cope with new challenges like renewables. However, future research should determine if ICAs are a good tool for government-owned liability companies to innovate their core business.