Meta’s done it. So have Mastercard, Spotify and Verizon, among countless other leading firms. Be it through acquisition or collaboration, established companies have leaned on knowledge produced by start-ups to boost innovation and launch new products. These partnerships are often win-win: Start-ups come to the table with fresh, cutting-edge ideas, while large firms offer resources, funding and scale.
To this end, many firms create dedicated units staffed with knowledge scouts – individuals who operate at the intersection of external innovation and internal operations. Their job is to identify promising start-up technologies and support their incorporation into the organisation’s product development efforts. However, making deep collaboration between corporates and start-ups work is very difficult, as our research (among other research) has shown. Few firms succeed in these efforts.
In our new paper published in the Academy of Management Journal, we take a closer look at the challenges knowledge scouts at multidivisional firms face when integrating external technologies across several divisions. Does their experience in one division necessarily transfer to another, or do certain factors limit their effectiveness across the organisation?
Although knowledge scouts with deep roots in one division can be effective in that division, it’s less clear whether they’re sufficiently versatile to leverage that experience elsewhere in the firm. If knowledge scouts struggle to do so, it reveals a tension between the versatility expected of them and the complexity of achieving it.
We hypothesised that cognitive and relational challenges could hinder knowledge scouts from using their cross-divisional experience effectively, adversely affecting product launches. Specifically, we predicted that knowledge scouts with more experience working with divisions other than the focal one will be less effective at helping the latter launch a new product based on external knowledge.
This negative effect would be reduced if the focal division had previously worked with integrating similar external technologies, but would be amplified if there was substantial product-market overlap (and therefore competition) between the focal division and divisions the knowledge scout had supported in the past.
Over more than a decade, we interviewed every manager in the scouting team, along with those at its headquarters involved in building on external knowledge. We sat in on start-up pitches and conferences, and had access to proprietary data, including information on teams engaged in integrating external technologies.
Among other sources, we drew on data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, annual and quarterly reports, as well as reports from the start-ups. We also engaged deeply with many other firms throughout the study period, ensuring our findings extended to other organisations.
The findings supported our predictions: The more experience a knowledge scout had with other divisions, the less likely they were to succeed in launching new products within a focal division. This effect weakened if the focal division had past exposure to similar technologies, but strengthened when there was significant product-market overlap with other divisions the knowledge scout had been involved with.
Knowledge scouts also recognised that copying and pasting strategies across divisions rarely worked, and could even backfire. For instance, one interviewee explained that the person considered equivalent to the go-to individual in one division may, in fact, be the person to steer clear of in another.
Their work became considerably easier if the focal division had prior experience with the external technologies they were helping to integrate. As one interviewee reflected, “The first cases typically faced a lot of resistance, but once the novelty was accepted as valid, it created an entry point and others could follow.” That familiarity reduced the need for knowledge scouts to explain or translate the value of the external knowledge, thus streamlining integration and making it easier for them to build on their experience to oversee a successful product launch.
Interviewees also noted that relations between divisions of that firm (as in many other firms) were “competitive”, and that such "rivalry and competition” generated counterproductive behaviours (e.g. refusing to collaborate across divisions). Instead of helping, knowledge scouts’ prior experience with overlapping divisions fanned competitive tensions – leading to resistance, not cooperation, and eventually hurting integration.
To help knowledge scouts thrive, firms should strike a better balance in how their roles are structured, combining deep expertise with broader exposure. One way to do so is to encourage knowledge scouts to engage with different divisions – particularly those not in direct competition with a focal division and to integrate external knowledge that a focal division is already familiar with. This allows them to build experience, social capital and an understanding of the unique workings of each division.
Firms could also broaden the scope of scouting teams to promote cross-divisional collaboration. Setting expectations around this – for instance, requiring scouting units to lead one or two projects each year that span multiple divisions – can help maximise both the benefits and scalability of external solutions across the organisation.
Finally, since knowledge scouts often lack formal authority, their performance hinges on their capacity to influence others. Targeted training programmes could help strengthen their ability to persuade others, navigate internal politics and engage diverse stakeholders, empowering them to be more effective in their roles.
Ultimately, knowledge scouts aren’t just passive messengers ferrying ideas from start-ups to internal teams. They are important ambassadors, negotiators and catalysts in the process of using that external knowledge to fuel innovation within the organisation. With the right approach, firms can build a more dynamic and impactful scouting function – one that enables the organisation to fully capitalise on external technologies.
First Published: Nov 04, 2025, 16:31
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