Managing the Internal Corporate Venturing Process: Some Recommendations for Practice

The strategic management of internal corporate venturing (ICV) presents a major challenqe for many large, established firms. A process model conceptualization of ICV suggests that vicious circles and managerial dilemmas typically emerge in the development of new ventures. These problems are exacerbated by the indeterminateness of the strategic context for ICV in the corporation, and by perverse selective pressures exerted by its structural context. Making a firm’s ICV strategy work better requires refining its structural context, elaborating the strategic context for ICV, moderating the destructive organizational consequences of a venture’s fast growth, and facilitating the integration of different important functional perspectives in the definition of a new business opportunity.