이상과 현실 사이: 대기업-스타트업 간 개방형 혁신의 구조적 불균형과 창발적 대응 전략

Coupled open innovation (COI) between large corporations and start-ups has been recognized as a pivotal strategy for fostering innovation through complementary resource integration. Prior research, however, has often conceptualized COI under assumptions of decision-making symmetry and balanced governance. In practice, COI frequently entails persistent structural asymmetries that weaken sustainability and performance. This study investigates how such asymmetries are perceived, interpreted, and addressed from the perspective of start-ups, using grounded theory as the analytic lens. We conducted in-depth interviews with executives from 15 start-ups across ICT, manufacturing, mobility, and health care, and analyzed the data through open, axial, and selective coding. Findings show that start-ups typically enter COI with idealistic optimism but soon confront power asymmetry and exclusion arising from concentrated authority and information imbalance. In response, some engaged in selective distancing and progressively reconstituted experience-based strategies that strengthened their capacity to redesign collaboration. This trajectory from recognizing expectation–reality gaps, through asymmetry and exclusion, to selective distancing and strategic reconstitution culminates in emergent re-contextualization, illustrating how asymmetry becomes not merely a constraint but also a generative mechanism for redefining collaboration. Theoretically, the study substantiates a process model that re-conceptualizes COI as an actor-driven dynamic process rather than an idealized equilibrium. Practically, it suggests that managing expectations, strengthening bargaining capacity, and institutionalizing learning from failed collaborations enable start-ups to transform structural asymmetries into manageable and strategically exploitable conditions.