Search and Integration in External Venturing: An Inductive Examination of Corporate Venture Capital Units

Abstract

How do external venturing units effectively achieve external knowledge search and integration of their initiatives with mainstream organizational units? We investigate this largely unexplored question through an inductive study of 17 corporate venture capital units. We document a set of five novel practices that influence the efficacy of a unit’s external search and internal integration, and identify how these practices complement a broader set of practices used by all units. We highlight the entrepreneurial nature of managing an external venturing unit, often to overcome unfavorable corporate contexts, a perspective that prior research has largely overlooked. Our findings provide unique insights into why some corporate investors are better at learning from external startups than others.

Keywords: External venturing, Corporate venture capital, Search, Integration, Qualitative

JEL Classification: M13, O32