Strategic corporate venturing in interlinked ambidextrous units: An exploratory model

Abstract

With scarce research on the intersection of corporate venturing and firm strategy, few companies succeed in using their dedicated corporate venturing units (CVUs) for strategic renewal. This study examines this intersection in so-called interlinked-ambidextrous CVUs. Through relational interlinks with internal and external stakeholders, these organizational entities combine the exploration of new market opportunities with the exploitation of existing core competencies to develop new competitive advantages for their parent companies. That way, they aim to create organizationally consequential new business that can change the competitive positioning of a company. To investigate such strategic corporate venturing, the study collects and analyses qualitative data from interlinked-ambidextrous units in 16 European companies. The resulting key themes and their relationships are mapped onto an exploratory model of strategic corporate venturing that includes organizational context factors as antecedents; process activities, relational mechanisms and dynamic capabilities as enablers; and an ambidextrous orientation as a mediator for the intended strategic renewal task. Embedding these key findings within existing theory provides valuable contributions to the development of the strategic corporate venturing concept and the understanding of interlinked-ambidextrous CVUs. This can help practitioners tackle the strategic renewal challenge through corporate venturing.