To invest or not to invest? Leveraging external corporate venturing for strategic renewal

The study "To invest or not to invest?" examines how innovations contribute to strategic renewal through external partnerships using Corporate Venture Capital and Corporate Venture Clienting. Corporate Venture Capital identifies and captures future growth opportunities through investments, while Corporate Venture Clienting integrates start-up innovations into the company's core operations through equity-free purchases. Based on 83 semi-structured interviews with representatives of both corporate venturing approaches, the results show that the combination of Corporate Venture Capital to develop new competitive advantages and Corporate Venture Clienting to increase current competitiveness can drive comprehensive strategic renewal in different but complementary ways. This research extends the theory of strategic corporate venturing and open innovation through external partnerships and offers practical guidance for corporate decision-makers on how innovations can be used for strategic renewal.