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 critical given that most corporations struggle to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Furthermore, scholars' examination of CV is fragmented and involves competing frameworks and typologies, which fails to provide practitioners with a better understanding of how to effectively choose between distinct CV activities. Building upon a systematic review of the literature, the research question addressed in this paper is: Which CV modes and dimensions can be identified in the literature and how can they be categorized comprehensively? To address this, I propose a reconciliation of various CV dimensions by constructing a framework enhanced with practical examples derived from expert interviews. Going beyond the highly dispersed work on CV I strive to (1) identify, organize, and integrate the relevant literature on corporate venturing activities; (2) analyze the dimensions that have been proposed by scholars to categorize and characterize distinct CV activities; and (3) harmonize competing approaches and introduce a coherent and reconciled framework that organizes CV modes along 'inside-in', 'inside-out', and 'outside-in' innovation flows, thus helping practitioners and scholars alike better understand and choose more appropriately between discrete CV modes in relation to specific objectives.

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 investigates the economic and behavioral factors that motivate entrepreneurs to fund their startup operations with ICOs. By conducting indepth interviews with C-level managers or founders of ICO-funded startups, our analysis reveals four dimensions that have an impact on the decision: (1) funding, (2) community building, (3) tokenomics, and (4) personal and ideological drivers. Our findings suggest that the entrepreneur's social identity in conjunction with the enabling mechanisms of the blockchain technology shape entrepreneurial pursuits and funding choice. We contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial finance by increasing understanding of ICOs and to the literature on entrepreneurial decision making by providing qualitative insights into the influence of founder identity on key decisions in startups such as financing.

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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 order to do so, this in-depth single-site case study investigates the SAP Industry 4.0 Startup Program building upon an inductive research design with explorative nature. The authors qualitatively examine a newly established corporate accelerator program of one of the world’s largest enterprise software companies and provide valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars engaged in corporate accelerators. The benefits for startups participating in corporate accelerator programs can be linked to operational go-to-market acceleration in regards to product development, sales acceleration, as well as skill and knowledge development. Moreover, the startups receive benefits linked to strategic business development acceleration in the areas of strategy and business model improvements, pitching, financing, and strategic partner development. At the same time, corporate accelerators overall aim to increase the competitiveness of established companies running such programs by developing a product ecosystem and the brand, infusing startup culture into the organization and developing customer relationships.

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