A Practical Perspective on Strategic Alignment - the Case of Internal Corporate Ventures

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the existing strategy literature by identifying practical efforts that organisations can make to achieve strategic alignment between their internal corporate ventures and the overall business strategies. The thesis follows an inductive qualitative research approach with a multiple case study of three participating organisations. The empirical data is gathered through in-depth interviews with case representatives. All the selected case corporations have an active internal corporate venture, in the technology sector and are headquartered in Northern Europe. Configuration theory and three related elements; a strategic vision, a pro-entrepreneurship architecture and an organisational reliance on entrepreneurial behaviour, provide the basis for the empirical and analytical parts of this thesis. Several practical efforts are derived from the empirical data and it is shown how the efforts vary in their significance for the achievement of strategic alignment. Specifically, the availability of resources, as well as top-management involvement and diversity among employees are determined to be of high importance. Furthermore, the analysis indicates linkages between the identified efforts. Conclusively, the thesis contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating how configuration theory can be applied to the research on corporate ventures and by identifying practical efforts to achieve strategic alignment.