Corporate startups: a systematic literature review on governance and autonomy

Many incumbents observe the startup world in jealousy of their agility and innovational performance. An increasing number of initiatives aim to mimic startup-like procedures in order to increase the incumbents’ innovational output. Structural models like accelerators, spinoffs, incubators, or corporate venture capitals aim to achieve that goal by implementing different governance setups. However, the success of such initiatives often remains unclear. While there is broad research on such topics, a clear empirical view on governance mechanisms for entrepreneurial structures in incumbents is missing. This paper outlines how to build a governance model based on empirically validated mechanisms and their relationship to corporate startup autonomy. This is achieved by following the systematic literature review approach by Webster and Watson combined with qualitative data analysis techniques. The results describe relevant gaps in current research and identify promising pathways for future research.