Which Iron Cage? Endo- and exoisomorphism in Corporate Venture Capital Programs

Through an inductive study of six corporate venture capital programs, we unravel how new organizational units resolve competing forces from two different institutional environments. The data suggest that the organizational structure of units that enter a new environment depends on whether they “focus their isomorphism” internally toward the parent (“endoisomorphism”) or externally toward the industry (“exoisomorphism”). The focus of isomorphism...