Recycling the unused ideas and technologies of a large corporation into new business by start-ups

•This study shows a new way of using non-core ideas and technologies.•It provides insightful analysis of a case.•It shows how an ecosystem can be developed to use ideas and technologies.•The results can be useful for other firms.

The objective of this study is to investigate how the non-core ideas and technologies (IaTs) of a large corporation can be reused by start-ups. Many IaTs are not deemed valuable or useful for a parent corporation, so for various reasons, these IaTs remain unused and eventually perish as they become obsolete. However, there exists a possibility to create new business from these non-core IaTs. We discovered that an intermediary organization, acting as a catalyst, can be instrumental in bringing corporations with unused IaTs together with interested parties and reduce the information asymmetry between them. A funding mechanism is also crucial for appropriating non-core IaTs. Moreover, the underlying market and economic conditions play a natural role in the transfer of non-core IaTs.