Enhancing selective capacity through venture bases

Corporate venturing managers have the rule of thumb that only approximately one out often investments really pay of in financial measures. These low odds for success, of course,put extremely high expectations to the profit yielded from the few investments that becomesuccessful. In other words, the few successful investments carry the costs of many moreinvestment decisions. It would obviously be attractive to improve the ability to `pick thewinners'. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for understanding how firms`involvement in establishing and nurturing the venture base (the idea creation phase)enhances their ability to select ventures.Keywords: Corporate venturing, venture base, selection, network.