Managing the disruptive technologies life cycle by externalising the research: social network and corporate venturing in the Silicon Valley

The capability to generate and develop disruptive technologies drives the market in the high-tech sector. Traditional strategic theory recommends internalisation of R&D to keep a competitive advantage. The Silicon Valley example points out that the most successful high-tech companies such as Cisco Systems, Intel and Sun externalise their research by doing corporate venturing. These companies manage their portfolio of technologies by acquiring small businesses that have developed disruptive technologies. This kind of acquisitive strategy needs specific organisational and managerial practices to embed the large company in the industrial-network structure of the Silicon Valley. Thus, managers of innovation have to get a large social capital to gather information inside business networks.