Corporate venturing – a new way of creating a company’s future

Abstract

Purpose – More and more companies are embarking on an experimental journey into an unpredictable future – a future that is characterised by uncertainty and new challenges. Corporate venturing enables established companies, so-called incumbents, to deal with new markets and business models in a highly flexible and innovative way, besides their existing business and well known, successful business models. A new innovator’s dilemma has emerged: not only established companies are required to be increasingly creative and to question existing thought patterns, but it is similar for start ups and new businesses. Research method – After conceptualising the paper and conducting literature bibliometry by VOSviewer, the research gap was identified. It is based on the three presented approaches: Causation, Effectuation and Bricolage as transformative approaches for strategic decision-making. Using a qualitative research by conducting 30 in-depth interviews, a transcription and a MaxQDA analysis, 5 identified corporate venturing tools were shown. Originality/value – The paper introduces a new approach of management which rapidly gains importance and which is crucial for companies in upcoming times to compete with flexible and disruptive start-up based business models.