Identifying the determinants of corporate venture capital strategy: evidence from French firms

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to empirically assess the main determinants of decisions of established large firms to launch or join a corporate venture fund. Our study is performed on a database of all French firms that adopted a corporate venture capital (CVC) strategy between 1995 and 2015. This specifically collected dataset includes 58 large groups listed on the SBF 120 index, with 29 groups that launched or joined CVC funds and the other 29 groups are our control sample. The results provide evidence that a firm's CVC strategy is an increasing function of the strength of its specific resources, its performance, the availability of resources, and its low level of indebtedness.