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In my previous article, I had discussed the richness of the theory of Translation (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1994) in order to shed light on the art and the way to foster the emergence of new devices within companies. This is a social illumination based on the interactions between stakeholders concerned by these devices. Two other insights can be provided. In this article, I would like to share one of them with you: Institutional Work.

For some time now, companies have been implementing new measures relating to intrapreneurship, or entrepreneurship: the objective is to accelerate innovation, whether internal or external! However, many of these measures are sometimes very difficult to be adopted within the company.

In our collective insights, Darwinism refers to the evolution of biological species through natural selection. In other words, as the context evolves, only certain species survive.

By « relative advantage » I mean the assessment on the basis of which one device can be considered better than others operating in the same field. In the field of open innovation, the incubator or the corporate accelerator of a start-up today benefits from a certain number of undeniable relative advantages compared to other older systems. However, other advantages would benefit from being systematised to anchor the incubator or corporate accelerator even more firmly in the reality of the large group.

Season after season, it is the meeting with new personalities from start-ups, as well as personalities from the market lines of large groups. I’m often asked what my job involves and finally what I’m going to do to make things happen. What is my job, in short?

Large companies have many common features despite their singularities. In terms of business, digital technology has been tearing down the walls that have separated the different sectors of activity for some time, and the phenomenon is still growing. So I don’t think I will surprise anyone if I say that ALL large companies are more than ever facing increased competition that is forcing them to innovate differently. It is in this vein that the corporate incubator or accelerator that deals with the business with start-ups is part of. But is the corporate accelerator or incubator just a business tool?

Solving complexities characterizes the work of the incubator or corporate accelerator. Indeed, the corporate incubator or accelerator constitutes an interface between inside and inside (the corporate incubator or accelerator AND the group with its players), and also an interface between inside and outside (corporate incubator or accelerator AND start-ups or partners). This dual configuration leads to having to manage complexities of two kinds in my opinion: social complexity (irrational) and organisational complexity (rational).

The term “ambiguity” may not sound very constructive to you… Yet this notion allows us to express a salutary characteristic for the corporate incubator or accelerator.

The digital world has constantly transformed our daily lives by bringing its share of innovations every day.

Among these digital players, sometimes very different in size and vocation, two regularly make the news: large groups, whether or not their core business is digital, and start-ups.

The end of the 90s marked the emergence of structures called “Start-up Incubators” in the United States, France and many other countries. Among the best-known incubators in the world are Bill Gross’ Idealab. More recently (compared to incubators), there has even been the emergence of so-called “Start-up Accelerators”. Many observers consider Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, created in 2005, to be the first structure of its kind, quickly followed by TechStars in 2006, and SeedCamp in 2007.