Corporate Venture Capital: Towards Understanding Who Does it, Why and How - Executive Summary

Abstract

Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investments by established firms in entrepreneurial ventures are used to explore for new competences. I examine the question: Under what conditions do established firms engage in CVC? Conducting a field study and a quantitative study, I propose hypotheses about the influence of industry- and firm-level conditions on firms' CVC activity. I test these hypotheses by observing a sample of Fortune 500 firms longitudinally from 1990-2000. I also examine how CVC units enable exploratory learning in parent firms by inductively analyzing my field data. I discuss implications for corporate entrepreneurship, real options, organizational ambidexterity and dynamic capabilities.

Keywords: venture capital, entrepreneurial, venture, corporate venture capital, entrepreneurship