The topic of sustainability has found its way into the corporate entrepreneurship activities of large corporations. The Sustainable Corporate Entrepreneurship (SCE) strand is still in its infancy. Since most large corporations engage in corporate entrepreneurship and are exploring new business models inside and outside corporate boundaries, several questions arise from different viewpoints. First, from corporate perspective researchers and business leaders wonder which internal modes of SCE activities have emerged in business practice and how large corporations explore sustainable value propositions. Second, from entrepreneur and investor perspective, the question emerges which factors influence the likelihood of corporate ventures, such as spin-offs from corporations, raising venture capital to scale sustainable business models. Therefore, to further develop the field of SCE, this cumulative dissertation presents three research papers analysing sustainable corporate entrepreneurship at the intersection of corporations and start-ups.
To shed light on how incumbent firms implement sustainable corporate entrepreneurship (SCE) processes, this study investigates how organizations connect sustainability and venture departments. Based on qualitative interviews with 14 experts from 12 multinational corporations headquartered in Germany, we identified five maturity levels of SCE with increasing cross-functional collaboration: Non-Existent, Occasional, Expert, Collaboration, and Strategic Collaboration. Using secondary interview data from seven multinational companies headquartered outside Germany, we find initial support for these collaboration types in an international context. Results indicate that a company's general approach to innovation is associated with its SCE maturity level: companies with dedicated entrepreneurship units are more likely to have a higher level of SCE focus. Furthermore, the likelihood of working on radical innovations for sustainability seems to increase as soon as venture experts collaborate with sustainability managers, which, in turn, increases the chances of initiating sustainability transitions.
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing strategies commonly require large basket sizes to reach profitable growth. Thus, mass-market brands which offer low-price consumer packaged goods (CPG) face particular challenges when pursuing a D2C strategy. Creating a strong value proposition in the light of existing e-commerce platforms is far from trivial. Sustainable corporate incubation offers iterative routes to tackle D2C barriers for such brands. Based on a case study at Henkel, the largest CPG manufacturer in Germany, an explorative incubation approach to identify new ways of D2C business is proposed.