Exploring the role of prior success experience in the internal corporate venturing process

Lunch Seminar in presence

Monica Masucci
University of Sussex Business School, UK

Abstract
Intrapreneurs and corporate sponsors (‘champions’) are two key agents typically involved in the development of early-stage internal corporate ventures (ICVs). This paper investigates how a key dimension of the human capital of these agents – prior success experience at corporate venturing– influences the progress and survival of the subsequent ICVs they are involved in throughout their nascent development process (i.e., prior to commercial launch). Using event history analysis and drawing on a longitudinal sample of 1,527 nascent ICV projects reviewed by the internal corporate venture unit of a major energy company between 1996 and 2009, we provide evidence on the relationship between intrapreneurs’ and sponsors’ prior success experience in venture development and the likelihood that the subsequent ICVs they pursue are approved for further development or discontinued at the early and late phases of their nascent development process. We also examine whether workload constraints inhibit the ability of intrapreneurs and sponsors to leverage their prior success experience to the benefit of new venture projects. By providing a more nuanced understanding of the role played by prior success experience-an important dimension of human capital- in the internal venturing process, our findings enrich knowledge about the successful development of nascent internal corporate ventures.

Monica Masucci is an Associate Professor in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Strategy and Marketing at the University of Sussex Business School in the UK, where she is the director of the MSc in Strategic Innovation Management. She is also Affiliate Professor of Innovation at SDA Bocconi School of Management and Head of Pre-Acceleration at Bocconi for Innovation, where she leads a training program for aspiring entrepreneurs. Her research focuses on corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, industry architecture and ecosystem dynamics, open innovation and the creative economy. She has authored book chapters, articles and research reports on her topics of interest.  Her work has been published in Research Policy, Technovation, Small Business Economics and European Planning Studies and she has been the recipient of several research grants and teaching and research awards. She serves as co-editor in chief of the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management.

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