This book explores if and how a startup's entrepreneurial behavior can be transmitted into different organizational levels of an established firm. Both qualitative and quantitative research was conducted, using computer-aided text analysis, an abductive coding approach as well as validated items derived from the scientific entrepreneurship discourse for measuring transmission effects. The findings suggest that the transmission of entrepreneurial behavior is embedded in an organizational change process, in which four categories of employees (personas) were identified: The intrapreneur, the person of conviction, the opportunist and the objector. Depending on the category they belong to, employees of established firms are triggered by different stimuli and have different effect mechanisms for the transmission of entrepreneurial behavior. The quantitative analysis revealed that startup collaboration primarily stimulates innovativeness on firm level and proactive behavior among employees. The effects are contingent upon a number of variables. After graduating, Jan Johann Conrads joined a German startup collaborating with multiple established firms. By walking between these two archetypes of firms, he became fascinated by the established firms' paradox of stability and change - and began exploring how they can utilize startups to drive transformation for becoming more entrepreneurial.
