Three Essays on Firms' Management and Exploitation of Corporate Venture Capital Investments

Date
2020-04-22
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Abstract

Researchers in strategic management are increasingly interested in the role of corporate venture capital (CVC) investments in learning about external technologies and improving internal innovation. In this three-essay dissertation, I examine how firms manage and exploit CVC investments to facilitate the learning process. In Essay 1, I examine information externality of CVC investments. I propose that firms may attend to other firms’ CVC investments and take strategic actions by inferring investing firms’ strategic intent from their investments. In the context of acquisitions as the strategic action, I find that acquirers are more likely to acquire ventures in technology domains with a higher intensity of other firms’ CVC investments and this relationship is stronger if the domain has high technological proximity to the acquirer. I also find that technological proximity between an acquirer and a CVC increases the likelihood that the acquirer will acquire ventures that have received investments from the CVC. In Essay 2, I examine firms’ use of CVC investments to facilitate identification of acquisition targets in distant technological domains. I suggest that while firms are less likely to acquire ventures in more distant technological domains, such negative relationship is weaker if the potential target has high technological proximity to the firm’s CVC portfolio. I further advocate that firms are more proficient in using information and knowledge gained through CVC investing to facilitate acquisition of distant targets when they have more prior acquisition experience. In Essay 3, I examine CVC portfolio configuration. I propose that firms configure their CVC portfolios along two dimensions – technological distance between the firm and its CVC portfolio and heterogeneity of the CVC portfolio. I find that firms will choose a subsequent investee such that the heterogeneity of the updated CVC portfolio (after adding the new investee) is negatively related to the technological distance between the firm and its current CVC portfolio. I also find that firms’ learning from its CVC portfolio is positively related to heterogeneity of the CVC portfolio, but such relationship is weakened if the technological distance between the investing firm and its CVC portfolio is high.

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Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
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Thesis
Keywords
CVC investments, technology, learning, acquisition, portfolio configuration, patents
Citation

Chen, Zhuo. "Three Essays on Firms' Management and Exploitation of Corporate Venture Capital Investments." (2020) Diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/108367.

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