A Process Model of Internal, Corporate Venturing in the Diversified Major Firm

This paper reports findings of a field study of the internal corporate venturing (ICV) process in the diversified major firm. It presents a grounded process model of the interlocking key activities, involving managers at different levels in the organization, which together con- stitute the strategic process in which new ventures take shape. The major conclusion of this study is that successful ICV efforts depend on the availability of a stream of autonomous entrepreneurial activity of operational level participants, on the availability of middle level managers with the capability to conceptualize the strategic implications of these initiatives in more general system terms, and on the capacity of top management to establish internal selection mechanisms that will allow viable entrepreneurial initiatives to change the corporate concept of strategy.