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The purpose of this article is to describe how investing in entrepreneurial ventures can help large firms pursue corporate entrepreneurship initiates. Ventures can be attractive partners due to their ability to provide a disproportionate share of radical innovations.

Based on existing literature and information collected via 45 surveys and 72 interviews, the paper shows that strategic fit is an important variable that determines the type of benefits ventures can provide to investing firms.

Three benefits large firms can reap from investing in ventures are: managing the risks and uncertainties of innovation; learning from the venture; and increasing bargaining power over ventures that supply innovative products.

Existing research does not go far enough to explain the range of benefits corporate venture capital can provide. The majority of investments were found in ventures that sell innovative products to the investing firm and have technological competences different from the investing firm.

Organizing for innovation is often a challenge for large firms. Because ventures may be more effective when started outside the firm than inside, investing in select entrepreneurial ventures can help firms effectively explore for radical innovation while continuing to exploit their existing resources internally.

For corporate strategists concerned about improving their firm's innovativeness, corporate venture capital can be part of a corporate entrepreneurship toolbox that can help augment a large firm's growth and competitive position. It can be particularly helpful in managing the risks and uncertainties inherent with radical innovation.

The present study develops a multi-theoretic framework of the mechanisms of value creation in interorganizational relationships and of the key factors influencing those mechanisms. The integrative use of several theories in building the model is justified by numerous studies suggesting that a multi-theoretic approach is required to understand the complexity of interorganizational relationships (Gulati, 1998; Osborn & Hagedoorn, 1997; Park et al., 2002). We believe that the relationships between start-up companies and their corporate investors, with each party holding a diversity of strategic and financial objectives, are not less complex than other potential interorganizational relationships. They may therefore also require ideas from several theories to be properly understood. In this study, we build the models applying primarily the resource-based and the knowledge-based views, as well as social capital theory. Ideas from other theoretical approaches are used to complement these theories.

The fast-changing, highly competitive and technology-driven business environment forces established firms to continually search for new business opportunities and innovative ideas. In reaction, corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Bertelsmann have launched new corporate venture capital (CVC) units or have intensified existing CVC activities. This chapter examines the structure, patterns and investment focus of telecommunication, IT, consumer electronics and media & entertainment firms’ CVC investments by conducting a data-mining project based on the Thomson Reuters Private Equity database. The data-mining project reveals the increasing importance of CVC activities as a strategic development tool to address the requirements of the increasing costs, speed and complexity of a technology-driven industry since the bursting of the Internet bubble. Therefore, following chapter is one of the first CVC studies to describe and compare CVC investments of the last CVC wave across industry sectors.

Any corporate executive ever faced with the task of launching new businesses within her organization must know this is quite a difficult challenge. Creating a new business is risky enough by itself and arguably even more problematic for large, successful firms “caught in the chains” of ever‐improving what already works. In light of this true dilemma, this paper aimed to review rich up‐to‐date literature on corporate venturing in search for evidence‐based recommendations that are really practical.

By means of critical reading and careful selection based on real‐world experience from the trenches of Intel Strategic Planning, the authors screened relevant literature from diverse sources including professional practitioner publications as well as academic research journals.

Despite the surprisingly scarce practical advice found in reviewed literature, this paper emphasizes a short list of useful tips for corporate executives. For example: dedicate corporate resources but surrender central ownership; put your faith in the best people and not necessarily in the best ideas; ensure top executives “walk the talk” as sponsors and hands‐on leaders; and protect disruptive innovation from being shot down by existing customers' influence. These findings are accompanied by a conceptual model mapping the main issues in corporate venturing to four distinct areas: design, resources, decisions, and monitoring.

The key findings of this paper are brought as practical tips for executives attempting to construct a corporate venturing structure that works; these tips are noteworthy as they may contradict some of the common wisdom in corporate strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of strategic control and operational control on new venture performance in the China context.

This study tests the hypotheses in a sample of 83 new ventures that have equity investment by established firms and are founded between 1993 and 2007 that issued initial public offerings while not more than eight years old.

The results of this study show that: strategic control has a significantly negative relationship with new venture performance; operational control has a significantly positive relationship with new venture performance; industry relatedness between the corporate investor and the new venture and the new venture’s political ties moderate the relationships between the two types of control and new venture performance. The results are robust to alternative measurements of new venture performance.

The management control that the corporate investor exercises over the new venture is a significant determinant of the new venture success. Managers have to distinguish between strategic control and operational control and understand their impacts on new ventures.

This study highlights the issue of management of corporate venturing capital relationships from the new venture’s perspective. In addition, this study separates strategic and operational control within management control and examines how they influence new venture performance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the effects of existing capabilities, by exploration and exploitation, on the choice between internal corporate venturing and external corporate venturing.

Data from 259 Taiwanese firms in the information technology (IT) sector are collected. The study period is four years: 2003 to 2006. Information on corporate financial data and new ventures from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) database are collected, as well as patent information from the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO). Poisson regression is used to test the hypotheses.

There exists a positive relationship between a firm's existing capabilities and corporate venturing activities. The findings indicate that exploration is a better predictor of internal corporate venturing, while exploitation is better at predicting external corporate venturing.

Empirical results are derived from a sampling of information technology firms in Taiwan thus raising issues about their generalizability to other empirical contexts.

That internal and external corporate venturing could be complementary is clarified; meaning that each could contribute to a particular type of strategic renewal. For firms that engaged much more in exploration, internal corporate venturing is a better for growth than external corporate venturing; it can leverage existing technologies and keep valuable breakthrough technologies in‐house. In contrast, for firms that focus much more on exploitation, learning externally is a better renewal strategy than venturing internally; it can access and integrate resources trans‐organizationally to create novelty that may serve as avenues for further growth.

This is the first study that compares the effects of exploration and exploitation with regard to the decision to engage in internal or external corporate venturing.

Through digitization and globalization, corporate incubators have gained new relevance as tool to foster innovation within established companies. Although many studies address business incubators in general, the specifics of corporate incubators are often neglected in the literature. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The author systematically reviewed academic articles regarding corporate incubation, published in peer-reviewed journals. In the course of a subsequent analysis, open questions for further research were identified and addressed.

Corporate incubators differ significantly from business incubators. Based on an analysis of 45 academic papers, the main features of corporate incubators have been identified and addressed.

The present work suggests that it is one of the first that systematically analyze the literature on corporate incubation. Based on the literature review, a holistic framework was constructed that highlights the different elements of corporate incubation and also considers the incubator as knowledge broker between business units and ventures.

The purpose of this research is aimed at discussing the external and internal strategic fit in corporate ventures in Latin America.

This study is based on empirical investigation through semi‐structured interviews administered to the managers of multinational companies operating in Mexico. The success of the corporate ventures in Mexico has been evaluated from the perspectives of economic and relational attributes. The results of the study showed that the degree of fit between a corporate parent and venture affects the success of the venture. The success is associated with high levels of commitment, competitive skills and dynamics in the functional management of the venture. In this study the variables of economic and relational dimensions of external and internal fit have shown greater association with venture success. It has also been found that ventures opt for greater autonomy and less economic dependency with their parent ventures for leading success and these findings make an intuitive sense.

The study may have limitations on generalizing some of the findings because of the survey type study.

Corporate venturing as a strategy for international business development has become significant in view of the process of globalization resulting in free trade and business development opportunities for multinational companies. This study provides an understanding of the venture managers to succeed in Latin American business environments in view of the organizational culture and employee behaviour.

This paper is based on the economic and behavioural indicators affecting strategic fit in the corporate venture.

This paper would contribute to important areas in Latin American business where such studies are scarce.

Since corporate ventures operate under the organizational conditions of a parent company, this article aims to highlight key conditions influencing the success of a new venture.

Two cases of corporate venturing are analyzed regarding their performance since they are characterized by different conditions within one international consumer‐goods company. Hence, the literature on corporate entrepreneurship is reviewed and combined with a case study to explore the role and drivers of organizational conditions in the inception and development of new corporate ventures.

The case study reveals two key organizational differences pertaining to corporate new ventures — procedural clarity and procedural discipline. These differences mitigate the variety of risks that corporate entrepreneurs face and smooth or hinder their way to evolve their venture from ideas to business.

As the study includes two venturing cases within the same company in the fast moving consumer goods industry (FMCG), the findings are so far limited to the characteristics of this company type and its sector.

This article supports mid‐level managers to run corporate ventures more successfully by introducing a clear action plan with well defined phases. Individual managers' impact should be limited and linked to a more objective network‐structure.

In contrast to previous literature, this paper highlights the influence of organizational conditions under which corporate ventures are initiated and operated. Additionally, there are further factors identified, the ventures' internal visibility, and the knowledge support by the parent company, which will influence the venture's success or failure.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of opportunity relatedness and uncertainty on the decision of a corporate entrepreneur to pursue a venturing opportunity.

The study uses a conjoint experimental design to reveal the structure of respondents' decision policies. Data were gathered from 47 useable replies from corporate entrepreneurs and were analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).

Results show that product relatedness, market relatedness, perceived certainty about expected outcomes and slack resources all have a positive effect on the willingness of a corporate entrepreneur to pursue a new venture idea. Moreover, slack was found to diminish the positive effect of product relatedness on the likelihood to pursue a venturing opportunity.

By providing a better understanding of decision-making schemas of corporate entrepreneurs, the findings of this study help improve the practice of entrepreneurship at the organizational level. In order to make more accurate opportunity assessments, corporate entrepreneurs need to be aware of their cognitive strategies and need to factor in the salient criteria affecting such assessments.

This paper adds to the limited understanding of corporate-level decision-making with regard to pursuing venturing opportunities. More specifically, the paper adds new insights regarding how relatedness and uncertainty affect new venture opportunity assessments in the presence (or lack thereof) of slack resources.