Corporate Venturing as Catalyst for Transformation? Towards a Research Agenda

Abstract

Digitalization and technological progress have made radical innovations increasingly important for incumbent firms to maintain competitive advantages. However, unlike startups, incumbent firms struggle with radical innovations when using their regular research and development departments. These departments are optimized for developing incremental innovations due to their highly structured processes. Startups with more flexible approaches were found to be better able to respond to uncertain market conditions for radical innovation. Recently, researchers and practitioners have focused attention on corporate venturing to overcome this lag of incumbent firms by using flexible startup structures for innovation units. However, practical attempts differ in their innovation performance. Despite numerous studies in the field, there is no best practice guide to be followed by practitioners in corporate venturing. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the current state of knowledge through a literature review. Based on this, we explore current research gaps and develop a research agenda. This aims to support researchers to expand current knowledge to reliably improve innovation performance in corporate venturing.