Not logged in.

Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Gems from the ashes: Capability creation and transformation in internal corporate venturing
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Thomas Keil
  • Rita G McGrath
  • Taina Tukiainen
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Organization Science
Publisher Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 1047-7039
Volume 20
Number 3
Page Range 601 - 620
Date 2009
Abstract Text Our longitudinal study of the entire population of internal corporate ventures within a large European electronics manufacturer finds that the conventional focus in the corporate venturing literature to evaluate ventures based on business growth and financial performance may be misguided. Instead, we found that ventures are temporary conduits for capability development and play a primary role in launching the founding stage of new capability life cycles. Ventures' main contribution was often to transfer valuable capabilities to other ventures or the firm's existing business units. The benefit from investing in ventures was therefore largely independent of their commercial success. Furthermore, estimation of success rates proved highly sensitive to the stage of the ventures at which sampling began. These findings suggest the need to reconceptualize the notion of early stage ventures and their success. We further found that the venturing process can be conceptualized as a nested system of simultaneous selection at both the venture and the capability level. We show that these selection processes are distinct yet operate in a coevolutionary way and are amenable to proactive management.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1287/orsc.1080.0373
Other Identification Number merlin-id:8134
PDF File Download from ZORA
Export BibTeX
EP3 XML (ZORA)