Strategic Media Venturing: Corporate Venture Capital Approaches of TIME Incumbents

ABSTRACTMedia firms act in rapidly changing and converging environments characterized by new entrants and increasing competition from related industries. As a reaction to this, the incumbents of the telecommunication, information technology, consumer electronics, media, and entertainment industry have increased their corporate venture capital activities. Corporate venture capital activities are a popular approach for gaining access to new innovative ideas and opportunities. Despite this practical relevance, the theoretical underpinning of corporate venture capital and the corporate venturing activities of media firms are poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to close this gap by defining corporate venture capital as a bundle of dynamic capabilities (“organizational drivetrain”) and revealing the differences and commonalities of telecommunication, information technology, consumer electronics, media, and entertainment incumbents’ corporate venture capital approaches as response to the...