Framing Open Innovation in Start-Ups’ Incubators: A Complexity Theory Perspective

Recently, concepts and principles from the Complexity Theory (or, generally speaking, the complexity sciences) have been applied as a perspective for capturing the influence of the context, interaction, and adaption in the innovation processes, such as the ones enabled in the business incubators. The purpose of this paper is to implement a frame of reference for understanding the start-ups’ incubator as a complex system where innovation, learning, and self-organization take place. We build on the interfaces between the Complexity Theory (i.e., complexity sciences) and Open Innovation literature to identify principles, patterns, and conditions that frame the incubation practices as simple rules aimed to sustain the innovation process towards the creation of new ventures. Results from the multiple case studies conducted in five incubators show that the features of variety, nonlinear interaction, interdependence, autonomy, and emergence of the incubation process framed as a complex system are enabled in different ways by the combination of the open innovation practices and services provided by the start-ups’ incubators, including the provision of physical infrastructure, access to funding streams, experts/entrepreneurs networking, education/workshops, mentorship, and advice.