IESE Insight - Entrepreneurship

The CDO: Driving Digital Transformation

Tumbas, Sanja; Berente, Nicholas; vom Brocke, Jan If your company doesn't have a Chief Digital Officer now, it may very soon. But even as the CDO title is catching on, the job is evolving. IESE's Sanja Tumbas analyzes the new role of these institutional entrepreneurs.

Corporate Venturing: A David-and-Goliath Collaboration

Prats, Mª Julia; Siota, Josemaria; Canonici, Tommaso; Contijoch, Xavier It's increasingly commonplace for large companies and startups to collaborate to achieve growth through innovation. So, how can businesses best take these projects through to fruition?

Can Elephants Learn to Dance? Unlocking Organizational Agility in Large Companies

Prats, Mª Julia; Siota, Josemaria; Gillespie, David; Singleton, Nicholas Large companies are investing more than ever in innovation. But too often they fail to adopt the inventions their own innovation units produce. A 2018 white paper surveys executives across 11 industries to better understand why incumbent companies are struggling to be agile around innovation.

Who Are Spain's Business Angels and What Do They Like?

Roure, Juan; de San José Riestra, Amparo More professional and experienced -- this is the latest profile of Spain's business angels, according to the 2018 report by AEBAN, the Spanish Association of Business Angels. What remains elusive is the presence of women and interest in the social impact of investments.

How to Hook Knowledge When Angling for Innovation

Moreira, Solon How do you venture outside your firm's boundaries, perhaps even allying with rivals, without giving away your own competitive advantage? Licensing knowledge through strategic alliances is one way to do it. But the author sees at least three necessary preconditions for making such arrangements work.

Does My Partnership Need a Joint Steering Committee?

Reuer, Jeffrey J.; Devarakonda, Shivaram V. Non-equity alliances have become important vehicles to collaborate with external partners, particularly in the biopharmaceutical industry. In this article, the authors discuss their research on the use of joint steering committees to guide such collaborations. These committees provide benefits for companies that might otherwise run up against high levels of uncertainty and put proprietary knowledge at risk.

Venture Capital and Ethnic Integration: Better Together

Samila, Sampsa; Sorenson, Olav Diversity is one thing, integration another, according to an empirical study of the impact of venture capital in the U.S. IESE's Sampsa Samila finds a one standard deviation increase in racial integration increased the positive outcomes associated with VC by at least 30 percent.

Worried About Retirement? Design an Entrepreneurial Pension Plan

Nueno, Pedro If you're 35, old age is set to be harder for you than for your parents. What can you do about it? Design an entrepreneurial pension plan that monetizes your professional experience, says Pedro Nueno.

Leveraging Know-how: Licensing Knowledge and Making it Work for You

Klueter, Thomas Maximilian; Monteiro, Luiz Felipe; Dunlap-Hinkler, D. Firms license technology and other types of knowledge in order to innovate and stay competitive. But not all licensing leads to innovation. IESE's Thomas Klueter looks at how different licensing styles and forms of organizational attention impact innovation outcomes.

Tweaking the Search Fund Model for Optimal Results

Johnson, Rob; Simon, Jan How might entrepreneurs and investors better align their interests in search funds? This is a subject widely discussed among serial investors and searchers. Professors Rob Johnson and Jan Simon analyze a few possible changes to incentive structures that may better motivate entrepreneurs while still rewarding investors.