What Happens to a Robotic Startup as It Evolves in a Case of Digital Transformation in Agriculture

Digital transformation alongside the increasing use of robots in agriculture prompts at exploring the strategic and tactical behaviour of startups developing them. This paper proposal presents the narrative of an evolving robotic startup and draws upon the theory of dynamic capabilities together with perspectives on strategy from positioning school, evolutionary and behavioural economics. A key observation in this case study is that collaboration with startup research partners cannot be neglected if we seek to understand the trajectory of company’s evolution over time. There are two phases in a startup life stage and two main enablers available, i.e. to collaborate on a systematic basis or more sporadically. Several outcomes are possible depending whether a startup collaborates explicitly, relies unconsciously on collaboration or starts showing the intentions to enter the explicit collaboration research projects. The contributions informing further strategy research and IS literature on entrepreneurship and digital transformation are highlighted.