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Corporate Venture Capitalists with a ‘Bird’s-Eye View’ — A Dynamic Social Network Perspective

  • Corporate Venture Capital
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Schmalenbach Business Review Aims and scope

Abstract

I empirically analyze the formation and transformation of corporate venture capitalists’ (CVC) social networks and social capital. I investigate the resulting structural and relational changes illuminating the process of interorganizational knowledge transfer and innovation generation of CVC programs. I find that CVC networks and the resulting social capital can ease knowledge transfer and innovation, but may over time also hinder it, thus turning social capital into a liability. Theoretically, I expand existing literature by investigating a so far unexplored intra-/interorganizational knowledge broker configuration, and I identify additional roles of the CVC manager as mediator and interventionist with a privileged bird’s-eye view.

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  1. University Hamburg, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Christiana Weber

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  1. Christiana Weber
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Correspondence to Christiana Weber.

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I thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments.

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Weber, C. Corporate Venture Capitalists with a ‘Bird’s-Eye View’ — A Dynamic Social Network Perspective. Schmalenbach Bus Rev 61, 195–224 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03396784

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