| dc.description.abstract | We know from previous research that corporate venture capital (CVC) investments
are used by companies as a strategic tool to obtain novel technologies to improve the
innovativeness of the corporation. Using a theory building approach, with a mixed
method, analyzing a sample of five oil majors, this thesis extends that notion by
bringing sustainability to the table and investigating the role that sustainability plays
in oil major CVCs. Our findings show that for oil major CVCs, sustainability plays an
important role in the screening process and investment decision of ventures.
Our research show that oil major CVCs are moving towards making more sustainable
investments. Furthermore, we find that sustainability is considered early in the
screening process, and that it is used as a tool to access new sustainable solutions.
Moreover, our findings propose that oil major CVCs feel both internal and external
pressure to change their investment behavior. Lastly, our research proposes that the
industry is experiencing a change, with sustainable ventures reaching new heights in
number of deals and deal size.
Our findings contribute to research in several ways. Firstly, it contributes to CVC
research by deploying it in a context novel to CVC research: the oil and gas industry.
This is a particularly interesting industry, due to the recent pressure on oil majors to
find new solutions to become more sustainable. Further, the addition of sustainability
to the corporate objectives for undertaking CVC investments is novel and contributes
to the CVC research. Moreover, we contribute to strategic corporate social
responsibility (CSR) research by exploring how oil majors strategically use CVC to
invest in sustainable ventures. Lastly, we extend the research on CSR through the
lenses of stakeholder theory, by proposing that both internal and external stakeholders
are pressuring the oil majors to change. | en_US |
