Christiana Weber

Exploring the Antecedents of Social Liabilities in CVC Triads — A Dynamic Social Network Perspective

This study addresses the emergence of social liabilities by taking a social network perspective on a hitherto unexplored intra and interorganizational network configuration: the corporate venture capital (CVC) triad (CVC unit, corporate business unit, and portfolio company). We investigate social capital and social liability resulting from network formation and trans-formation and assess their impact on interorganizational knowledge transfer and creation. Examining 12 CVC triads in Germany, we identify new antecedents of social liability, show that social capital can initially facilitate knowledge transfer and creation, and that structural and personal lock-ins may eventually turn that capital into a liability. We make key theoretical contributions to social networks and CVC literature.

Corporate Venture Capital Organizations in Germany

This paper analyses the goals, the organizational structures and processes, and the investment criteria that underlie venture strategies in Germany today, using a sample of 20 corporate venture capital organizations (CVCs). The performance of these CVCs is examined and the data are compared with those generated by studies on German independent venture capital organizations (VCs) as well as with European and US CVCs. The study concludes that German CVCs that focus either on financial or on strategic objectives are more successful than those with a mixed approach. Further, CVCs with a strong financial focus seem to be financially--and sometimes also strategically--more successful than CVCs with a strong strategic focus.

Corporate Venture Capitalists with a 'Bird's-Eye View' - A Dynamic Social Network Perspective

I empirically analyze the formation and transformation of corporate venture capitalists’ (CVC) social networks and social capital. I investigate the resulting structural and relational changes illuminating the process of interorganizational knowledge transfer and innovation generation of CVC programs. I find that CVC networks and the resulting social capital can ease knowledge transfer and innovation, but may over time also hinder it, thus turning social capital into a liability. Theoretically, I expand existing literature by investigating a so far unexplored intra-/interorganizational knowledge broker configuration, and I identify additional roles of the CVC manager as mediator and interventionist with a privileged bird’s-eye view.

Die Rolle der Zeit im Prozeß organisationalen Lernens

Vor dem Hintergrund der sich fur Organisationen immer schneller verandernden Rahmen- und Wettbewerbsbedingungen, stellt die Zeit in organisationalen Veranderungsund Anpassungs-, d.h. Lernprozessen einen Faktor mit zunehmender Bedeutung dar. Gleichzeitig finden sich in der Literatur kaum Aussagen zur Zeit in organisationalen Lernprozessen, auch werden eindeutige Definitionen von Zeit vermieden. Dieser Beitrag arbeitet sechs wesentliche Zeitdimensionen im organisationalen Lernprozes heraus und verdeutlicht deren Relevanz sowie Interaktion am Beispiel der Treuhandanstalt. Das Hauptergebnis dieses Beitrags ist, das organisationale Lernprozesse hinsichtlich der fur sie benotigten Zeit variieren konnen und das es dem Management m. E. moglich ist diese Lernprozesse sowohl zu beschleunigen als auch zu verlangsamen. Die Voraussetzungen dazu konnen vom Management z.T. bewust herbeigefuhrt bzw. gefordert werden.

Diverging Life Worlds in Corporate Cooperation – What it Takes for Cross-Boundary Knowledge Transfer

In this article the creation and transfer of knowledge across sociocultural boundaries that separate different life worlds and systems of meaning are treated from a social-constructivist perspective. We concentrate on the constructivist discourse (Schultz & Stabell, 2004, p. 555), in which knowledge is not an entity independent of an observer but rather something rooted exclusively in and shaped by interaction. In other words, it is developed and perpetuated through interdependent processes of attribution and validation. “Knowledge is continuously shaping and being shaped by the social practices of individuals in communities. Thus knowledge is both the outcome of situated action as well as the input to it” (p. 558). As far as we can see, however, social-constructivist approaches to knowledge transfer (Boland and Tenkasi, 1995; Brown & Duguid, 1998, 2001) are not embedded in social theory. The goal of our study is therefore to help provide that framework at the theoretical level. In practical terms, our intent is to sharpen awareness of the relevance that supraindividual factors have in cross-boundary knowledge transfer.

Reciprocity as Means of Interorganizational Governance – A Multi-Case Analysis of Exchange Systems

Exchange is regarded as the fundamental activity in every economic context. Seeking a theoretical conceptualization of interorganizational exchange, we conduct interpretative analysis of venture capital organizations in Germany and their portfolio companies to develop an exchange-related perspective centered on reciprocity in interorganizational relations. We identify two types of exchange—economic exchange reciprocity and social obligation reciprocity—which differ considerably in their exchange cultures, modes, structures, and resources. The theoretical perspective focuses on making the rediscovered concept of reciprocity useful in other organizational and interorganizational relations.