Comparing Practices Across Different External Corporate Venturing Modes: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis

Abstract

For established corporations, external corporate venturing (CV) is an important means to stay innovative within rapidly changing environments. Corporates can choose between different external CV modes such as corporate venture capital investments, alliances, and incubators/accelerators in order to reach this goal. Despite several insights on singular external CV modes, a comparison of managerial practices to design and enact each mode is missing so far. The same is true for a process model that takes important decisions and practices within the phases of different external CV modes into account. We address these issues through a comparative analysis of external CV processes with the help of a qualitative meta-analysis. This research design allows us to synthesize, compare, and generalize findings from previously published single case studies. As a result, we propose a process model of external CV that explains commonalities and differences in the practices that enact corporate venture capital investments, alliances, and incubators/accelerators. By comparing the practices of these three external CV modes, we contribute to previous literature in the following ways: first, we develop a process perspective missing so far on external CV. And second, we compare differences and commonalities of managerial practices within three different external CV modes, thereby informing future research as well as practice.