Tobias Gutmann

• Professor (Assistant) at EBS University of Business and Law

Innovation ecosystems (IE) are increasingly regarded as important vehicles for creating value from complex value propositions and addressing grand challenges through the development of a circular economy (CE). While current research emphasizes that inter‐organizational relationships can facilitate transformation toward a CE, this study enhances our...

This study explores how corporate venture capital (CVC) units can be configured to effectively achieve innovation performance and succeed amidst the tensions they face at the intersection of the corporate and venture domain. Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of 30 dedicated CVC investment arms, we analyze how successful uni...

Corporate accelerators (CAs) are corporate-run programs supporting startup development and growth while generating mutual benefits. Despite the considerable academic attention they have received, gaps in the discourse still persist. These include a lack of consistent understanding of what constitutes a CA within and across (emerging) subtypes and h...

Venture Clienting provides a practical, step-by-step guide to how organizations can drive innovation and unlock value through venture clienting. Venture clienting enables companies to tap into new technologies, business models and ideas and foster a culture of agility and growth. This book presents a set of frameworks, tools and methodologies desi...

Research Summary Our qualitative study of five corporate venture capital (CVC) units reveals that CVC is organized along one of two distinct pathways—order‐taker or free‐bird. Our two‐pathway model deconstructs the heterogeneity within CVC designs and provides detailed insights into the processual nature of CVC search mechanisms. We find evidence t...

In response to mounting pressure for organizations to meet sustainability requirements and improve their environmental footprint, companies are increasingly tasked with adapting their product portfolios to include environmentally sustainable solutions. However, little research has explored how firms develop the capabilities necessary to achieve thi...

Although corporate venture capital (CVC) has been studied as part of open innovation (OI), assumptions about knowledge flows crossing organizational boundaries between “the inside” and “the outside” have limited those explorations. Drawing on an abductive approach to grounded theorizing, this article introduces an intuitive yet novel framework that...

Incubators have become an integral part of the modern entrepreneurial ecosystem, supporting the growth of new ventures based on a broad range of measures. Established businesses use corporate incubators to become ambidextrous organizations while aiming to combine the best of two worlds: the structured, process-driven, and risk-averse corporate worl...

Assembling an R&D budget is a challenging endeavor. It requires involving multiple stakeholders and considering many input factors. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, with practitioners applying various approaches and methods to create the innovation budget during the budgeting process. In this article, we introduce and discuss five state-of-t...

During the last decade, MedTech companies started to invest in building digital healthcare platforms to maintain their competitiveness in the Digital Economy. However, launching a new digital platform business revealed several challenges that MedTech incumbents must overcome, including value impedance. This is caused by digital transformation gaps,...

As organizations struggle to cope with digital transformation in an innovation environment, partnerships between startups and established companies have become increasingly important. Building upon years of practical experience and empirical research, we present advantages, obstacles, and the keys to successful corporate-startup collaboration.

We present an anonymized case of a campervan to illustrate how companies sometimes develop products which do not meet market requirements. Drawing from years of experience and case work, we demonstrate how using technical market segmentation at the beginning of the product development process helps to understand the basic market requirements necess...

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a novel form of funding that has driven billions of dollars into the blockchain ecosystem, potentially challenging traditional funding vehicles such as business angel or venture capital investments. However, little is known of entrepreneurs’ rationales for leveraging this emerging form of financing. This article in...

What are the underlying performance drivers of corporate venture capital (CVC)? This paper provides a holistic overview and a synthesis of past studies of CVC performance for both scholars and practitioners compiling relevant empirical research on factors influencing the performance of CVC. Based on a sample of 36 publications published between 198...

Corporate accelerators have emerged rapidly over the last few years and have become a cross-industrial global phenomenon. Established companies interact with startups through these programmes in a structured approach. Recent academic research shows that programmes exist with diverse characteristics, providing various resources and services such as...

Corporate accelerators are on the rise and established companies from a diverse set of industries and regions have set up such startup support programs to predominantly pursue strategic goals. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the benefits of corporate accelerators from a corporate perspective and that of the participating startups. In...

The report delves into the most recent data on global investments in external startups, made by outside-in corporate venturing units. These units are on the rise and becoming increasingly active. US-based corporate VCs in 2018, for example, made the majority of total investments in external startups for the first time (PitchBook Analyst Note: The G...

Corporate venture capital (CVC) units help their ventures flourish by offering value-adding services. Effective CVC initiatives offer services that help ventures design, implement, and manage activities to create and capture value. Our qualitative multiple case study across 26 CVC units reveals a comprehensive set of value creation and value captur...

The modern landscape of corporate venturing (CV) is emerging and has undergone increasingly rapid evolutions over the past two decades. A growing heterogeneity of CV modes can be observed such as corporate accelerators, corporate incubators, corporate venture capital, and strategic partnerships with startups. Selecting the appropriate mode is criti...

In this paper we qualitatively explore the phenomenon of company builders – a new form of venture incubation that has only recently been established. The paper distinguishes company builders from other incubation models, analyses their organizational structure and maps their new venture creation process. Based on a multiple case study of nine compa...