Title

Exploring the Innovation Strategies of Young Firms: Corporate Venture Capital and Venture Capital Impact on Alliance Innovation Strategy

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2017

Keywords

Alliance formation, Innovation, Corporate venture capital, Venture capital, Founder influence

Abstract

We investigate how governance structure and power influence alliance exploration strategy. Adopting a real options perspective and the agency view, we suggest that innovation strategies differ based on the firm's governance authority. We find that the motivations of corporate venture capitalist firms, venture capitalists, and firm founders may have an impact on the formation of exploratory alliances among adolescent firms. Using a sample of 122 adolescent firms, we examine the influence that governance structure has on the firm's alliance portfolio and innovation potential. While the influence of corporate venture capitalist firms alone do affect alliance formation strategy, corporate venture-backed firms with founders having high influence (knowledge or ownership in the firm) are more likely to form innovation-focused alliances. In contrast, venture capitalist-backed firms tend to avoid innovation-focused alliances, preferring more exploitive ones, even when founders have high influence within the firm.

Comments

This article was originally published as Tera L Galloway, Douglas R Miller, Arvin Sahaym, Jonathan D Arthurs. 2017. Exploring the innovation strategies of young firms: Corporate venture capital and venture capital impact on alliance innovation strategy. Journal of Business Research, 71: 55-65

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