Firm Renewal Through Corporate Venturing and Strategic Agility: Shifting from Spin-Out to Spin-in Ventures

Roman Gutierrez, Jose Miguel

Abstract

A qualitative case study approach is applied using both in depth interviews and ethnography to understand the lived experiences of the managers and executives of the successfully closed spin out firm, parent firm and newly created spin in firm. Overall this research provides insights into the relationship between parent firms and their offspring and contends that opportunity exploitation can be maximised when a parent firm flexibly reconfigures the surplus resources remaining after the closure of a spin out and leverages them to create a new venture in the form of a spin in. The study builds on existing literature through the exploration of firm renewal and corporate venturing strategies in three specific ways. Firstly the study finds that selected remaining resources from spin out ventures can be beneficial for other businesses when appropriately reconfigured. Secondly, existing work exploring on human capital and corporate venturing are elaborated on as the research highlights the linkage between the profile of parent firm employees and the propensity to create new spinoffs. Thirdly, the impact of formal and informal institutional factors and the impact they may have on workers cooperative firms are explored. The study’s focus on the study parent firm internal factors that convert an independently created spin in firm into a part of a worker cooperative company and sheds light on the way in which the strategic factors of parent firms can influence new worker cooperative spin in ventures.