This publication-based dissertation, comprising four unique research papers published in peer-reviewed journals, contributes to innovation management theory and explores how organizations can maximize the value of innovations in the new digital normal. It draws insights from 31 cases, 86 semi-structured interviews, and 804 survey participants (excluding pilot studies), employing a diverse range of qualita-tive and quantitative methodologies. The dissertation investigates how organizations can create and cap-ture value from innovations, focusing on contingent and contextual dimensions, capabilities, and leader-ship styles. As a result, it makes four key theoretical contributions. First, it proposes that innovation performance is equifinal but contingent on the configurational approach for each organization (e.g., combinatorial recipe). Alignment between innovation approaches and performance strategies is essen-tial to gain a competitive advantage. Second, it underscores the vital role of middle managers as the crucial link between top management and employees. This middle-up-down management approach combines distinct leadership and communication capabilities to integrate innovations (e.g., innovative work behaviors, digital technologies) into daily working routines, thus facilitating innovation routiniza-tion (e.g., effective innovation implementation). Third, organizations that possess adequate higher-order business model and process efficiency dynamic capabilities evaluate various dimensions (e.g., value, individual, technological, organizational) in their internal and external contextual periphery to deter-mine their action potential. This enables them to assess, reconfigure, and integrate value creation oppor-tunities into their operational capabilities (e.g., business model, processes), leading to improved per-formance when digitally transforming. Fourth, this dissertation conceptualizes the multidimensional (e.g., individual, team, organizational) digital leadership phenomenon, grounding it in the domain of (strategic) leadership theories. Digital leaders constantly oscillate between leading themselves and oth-ers and leading their organizations to create innovative work environments that foster performance. The combined findings of the dissertation call for novel market approaches and adjusted forms of leadership for organizations to thrive in the new digital business landscape. Avenues for further research to enrich the current academic discourse are also presented. If organizations are to enhance their performance (e.g., increase the likelihood of capturing value from their innovations, or deriving a competitive ad-vantage), understanding the underlying mechanisms outlined in this dissertation should help organiza-tions in this endeavor.

The venture capital (VC) landscape is a crucial driver of economic growth and innovation, comprising a diverse range of capital investors. This dissertation highlights the heterogeneity, performance, and massive and rapid scaling efforts in this sector, focusing on the two dominant actors: Independent Venture Capital (IVC) and Corporate Venture Capital (CVC). The first study examines the contrasting lifespans of CVCs and IVCs, highlighting the early termination patterns of CVCs. The second study delves into the diverse nature of CVCs and analyzes their influence on the efficiency of portfolio firms. The third study probes the hypercompetitive environment in the VC landscape. It examines its implications and funds' strategies to provide quality signals to investors and startups in a hypercompetitive market. The fourth study looks deeper at the beneficiaries of VC funding: digital startups. Specifically, it delves into massive and rapid business scaling dynamics, shedding light on the key drivers behind this growth trajectory and its tensions. In sum, this dissertation advances the prevailing knowledge on venture capital and digital entrepreneurship, offering a deeper exploration of the heterogeneity of the VC landscape with a spotlight on CVCs. Additionally, it provides frontier research into hypercompetition and the underlying dynamics of massive and rapid business scaling.

The publication-based dissertation investigates how to leverage corporate venturing units for the continuous stra- tegic renewal of established companies. It includes four self-contained research papers, from which three are de- veloped for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals, and one for publication as an academic teaching case study. The first paper uses the methodology of a systematic literature review to integrate different research streams of organizational ambidexterity, dynamic capabilities, and corporate venturing. As a result, it provides an inte- grated framework and identifies interlinked-ambidextrous corporate venturing units as a promising research av- enue for strategic corporate venturing. The second paper applies a multiple-case study approach to differentiate contemporary corporate venturing units from a strategic renewal perspective. As a result, it can provide a novel typology and suggest a first organizational framework for strategic corporate venturing. The third paper investi- gates the identified interlinked-ambidextrous corporate venturing units deeper through additional qualitative data collection and analysis. This results in a proposed organizational model of strategic corporate venturing with spe- cific organizational antecedents alongside process activities, dynamic capabilities and organizational interlinks as possible enablers, and ambidextrous orientation as a possible mediator to develop organizationally consequential new business. The fourth paper helps to apply these findings by describing the strategic renewal challenge of the digital scale-up Freeletics and leading through the organizational set-up of a suitable strategic corporate venturing project in the teaching note. To integrate all papers within one dissertation, they are framed with an introductory and concluding section. The introduction describes the overall need and motivation for the research and intro- duces the key theoretical concepts as well as the four research papers and their publication status. The concluding section provides theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations and future research opportunities across all included papers. Altogether, the dissertation enhances existing corporate venturing theory to better lev- erage the concept for strategic renewal and provides new insights into the establishing and application of dynamic capabilities and organizational ambidexterity in dedicated corporate venturing units.

This publication-based dissertation concerns the syndication and value creation activities of heterogenous corporate venture capital funds over six chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction to venture capital heterogeneity and syndication and provides an overview of the four research papers included in the dissertation. The second chapter is a systematic literature review of recent research on heterogeneous venture capital syndication. Therein the underlying motivation, dynamics and results of fund- and affiliation-heterogenous syndicates are clearly identified, integrated and promising avenues for further research are specified. The third chapter is a research paper on the value creation activities of investment syndicates among independent and corporate venture capital funds. Building on a cross-industry sample of 35 interviews this inductive study identifies the determinants of value creation, integrating them in a matrix comprising shareholder relationships, corporate setup, venture lifecycle and deal terms. Chapter four is a research paper that empirically observes how corporate venture capital units leverage the resources of their incumbent parents to generate value for their portfolio firms. Based on case studies of 11 corporate venture capital units the paper reveals the mechanism behind corporate venture capital value creation holistically and identifies eight design elements that result in a typology of four distinctive archetypes. The last research paper is chapter five and concerns the distinct impact structurally heterogeneous corporate venture capital funds have on portfolio firms operating efficiency. Employing the longitudinal, European Union sponsored VICO dataset the paper finds differences in CVC structure, autonomy and objectives to have implications on firm efficiency. The present dissertation is concluded in the sixth chapter, highlighting contributions, limitations and promising avenues for further research.

This publication-based dissertation examines the phenomenon of incumbent adaptation to changing environments with a dynamic capabilities perspective. Its core consists of four research papers that are self-contained and have been developed to be published in double-blind peer-reviewed academic journals. This intellectual body is framed with an introduction (Section 1) that introduces the current state of research on dynamic capabilities, summarizes the four research papers, and presents the current publication status of the work; the concluding Section 6 presents the overall contributions, limitations, and avenues for future research. The first research paper (Section 2) is a systematic literature review of empirical studies that identify idiosyncratic dynamic capabilities in practice. Its main finding is a taxonomy of dynamic capabilities that introduces 19 dynamic subcapabilities and connects them to existing conceptual literature. The second research paper (Section 3) is a longitudinal single case study of Axel Springer, a leading media corporation that has exercised dynamic capabilities to convert from a print publisher to an internet company. The study finds iterations, overlaps, and interconnections between sensing, seizing, and transforming. Based on the findings, a generalized conceptual model for dynamic capabilities in incumbent adaptation is constructed. For the third research paper (Section 4) an action research approach is applied to explore how managers’ mental models can engender erroneous resource cognition. The study discovers five cognitive biases that may distort resource cognition. The fourth research paper (Section 5) is a teaching case study building on the strategic challenge for Somedia, a Swiss media firm, to diversify from its declining legacy business by leveraging its resources and capabilities. This publication-based dissertation enhances the understanding of incumbent adaptation and presents applicable implications and recommendations for practitioners.