What inventions do corporate entrepreneurship programs access? Corporate venture capital investment in complementary and substituting ventures

Dushnitsky, G and Shaver, J M (2016) What inventions do corporate entrepreneurship programs access? Corporate venture capital investment in complementary and substituting ventures. In: Handbook of Research on Corporate Entrepreneurship. Edward Elgar, pp. 290-312. ISBN 9781785368721

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of corporate venture capital (CVC) in enabling companies to gain access to innovations created by startups. These innovations can be a substitute or complement to a firm’s own innovations and ongoing market activities. Dushnitsky and Shaver reason that incumbents who use CVC typically rely on the disclosures made by the entrepreneurial startups themselves and, therefore, can fairly reliably assess the potential effect of their technologies. Using data from over 2500 startups, the authors identify 167 CVC investments. Their analyses reveal that CVC investments are likely to occur where there is complementarity in the products of corporate investors and startups. Their results also reinforce the importance of strategic objectives that companies have when they make their CVC investments. Interestingly, their results reflect a fundamental difference between CVC activities and other modes of venturing; in CVC investments, companies typically transact with startups with which they have no relationship, and thus focus more on what these new ventures have to offer in terms of complementarity.