| Corporate venture capital investment in young, entrepreneurial firms has become an important strategy for large, established firms to gain strategic and financial benefits. In this dissertation I explore whether corporate venture capital investments result in strategic benefits like knowledge creation for the corporate investor. Using innovation search literature and the knowledge based theory of the firm, I propose that corporate venture capital investments promote creation of knowledge in the corporate investor. I further argue that various attributes and capabilities of the corporate investor determine the efficacy of corporate venture capital as a mechanism to augment the rate at which knowledge is created by the corporate investor. I also examine whether characteristics of the startups funded by corporate investors enhance creation of novel technological knowledge in these investors. The relationships specified in the dissertation are tested on a panel of 36 firms in the telecommunications equipment manufacturing industry that made corporate venture capital investments in the period 1989--1999. The results of this dissertation indicate that corporate venture capital investments have an inverted-U-shaped relationship with the rate of knowledge creation in corporate investors. Greater involvement with startups, as well as prior corporate venture capital investment experience, facilitates an increase in the rate of knowledge created in corporate investors. Portfolio firm characteristics such as relatedness with the corporate investor, dissimilarity with other portfolio firms and mature startups help stimulate novel knowledge creation in investor firms. |
