The rise of digital technologies and open innovation has revolutionized innovation practices, creating new opportunities for moving physical open innovation to metaverse-like virtual environments. This study explores a virtual corporate-startup collaboration program in the energy industry to understand how digital feature usage facilitates trusted relationships and enables successful pilots. This article presents a framework that emphasizes the strategic use of digital information and interaction features for targeting and bonding with partners. Program managers can tackle social barriers through adaptive social engineering of digital interactions. This article also provides an outlook on evolving technologies and hybrid designs.
