Creating Growth with Externalization of R&D Results - The Spin-Along Approach

Global Business and Organizational Excellence, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 44-51, 2009

10 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2009 Last revised: 24 Sep 2009

See all articles by René Rohrbeck

René Rohrbeck

EDHEC Business School

Mario Döhler

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Heinrich Martin Arnold

Deutsche Telekom AG; detecon

Date Written: September 11, 2009

Abstract

After a long period of restructuring and outsourcing, companies are increasingly looking for new growth opportunities. Growth with existing products or by expansion in new markets is limited. Therefore, companies are searching for ways to expand their activities in new businesses. A frequently used tool of multinational enterprises is corporate venturing. Within corporate venturing, a further differentiation can be made between internal venturing and external venturing. Internal venturing promotes business ideas generated within the organization, whereas external venturing integrates business ideas developed outside the company.

This article presents a special case of corporate venturing: the spin-along approach of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories. It can be seen as a combination of internal and external venturing. In the spin-along approach, employees of the corporate research and development (R&D) department are encouraged to take their technology or business idea external by founding a separate company. Successful companies might later be bought and integrated back into Deutsche Telekom.

Keywords: Corporate venturing, spin-along, venture leader, spin-out, spin-in, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories.

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JEL Classification: M1, M10, M16, O3, O31, M13

Suggested Citation

Rohrbeck, René and Döhler, Mario and Arnold, Heinrich Martin, Creating Growth with Externalization of R&D Results - The Spin-Along Approach (September 11, 2009). Global Business and Organizational Excellence, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 44-51, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1472133

René Rohrbeck (Contact Author)

EDHEC Business School ( email )

France

HOME PAGE: http://edhec.edu

Mario Döhler

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Heinrich Martin Arnold

Deutsche Telekom AG ( email )

T-Online-Allee 1
Darmstadt, 64295
United States

detecon ( email )

Oberkasseler Str. 2
Bonn, 53227
Germany

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