When corporations get disruptive, the disruptive get corporate: Financing disruptive technologies through corporate venture capital

Disruptive technologies have been the foremost contributors to the digital revolution since the public introduction of the Internet, a process in constant evolution that has impacted the economic systems, the world of business, and the entrepreneurial competitiveness. In these changing scenarios, informal investors in the form of corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) have played a shattering role, exploring ground-breaking opportunities, exploiting organisational assets, and continuously looking for discriminating innovations. This study investigates the role of CVCs in backing digital technologies, analysing their financial strategies in supporting new, pioneering, and disruptive firms. The preliminary results of this research about intensity, continuity, focus on technology, and entrepreneurial behaviour of CVCs provide evidence of a correlation between numbers and amounts of deals, especially in the case of digital and potentially disruptive technologies (DTs). The results highlight CVCs’ different behaviours and financial strategies, which are not always in line with the parent firms’ business model.