The Impact of Being a Spinout on Startup Performance: Considering Open Innovation as a Moderator

This research aims to deepen our knowledge of the impact of being a spinout and open innovation on startup performance and analyzes how the relationship between spinouts and open innovation strategy can affect startup performance. To achieve this, I examine the impact of being a spinout on startup performance (i.e., total capital raised) by considering open innovation strategy as a moderator. Using data from TechStars between 2010 and 2019, GitHub, LinkedIn, Rocket Reach, and Crunchbase as main resources and applying quantitative analysis, my analyses indicate that spinouts and open innovation can improve startup performance by increasing the amount of capital they raise. I investigate whether an open innovation strategy moderates the relationship between being a spinout and startup performance, but find no effect. The results have implications for the literatures on spinouts, entrepreneurship, strategy, and innovation. Spinouts can bring rich resources such as knowledge and networks from their parent companies to boost their performance. Moreover, startups can use open innovation as a useful strategy in strengthening their startup performance.