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Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 2018

Bringing It All Back Home: Corporate Venturing and Renewal Through Spin-ins

Richard A. Hunt1; David M. Townsend1; Elham Asgari1; Daniel Lerner2,3

1 Virginia Tech · 2 Universidad del Desarrollo · 3 Universidad de Deusto

Abstract

More often than not, corporate acquisitions are expensive and difficult, especially those transacted for the purpose of advancing the aims of corporate entrepreneurship (CE). Motivated by frequent, high-cost failures, firms are experimenting with novel organizational structures and fresh approaches to acquisition-driven CE. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of corporate spin-ins—acquisitions in which the acquired company is founded by former employees of the acquiring firm—in resolving key challenges of CE-motivated acquisitions Using a matched pairwise dataset of spin-in and non-spin-in acquisitions, we discover that spin-ins generate superior outcomes, positioning them as a high-potential facet of CE portfolios.

DOI
10.1177/1042258718778547
Sources
openalex

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