The paper “ H& M Company’ s Unique Business Formula” is an affecting variant of the case study on business. Over the years, large firms have tried to understand the importance of investing in start-ups (Covin & Morgan 2007). The increasing interest has been fueled by the ever-changing business environment. Owing to the dynamic changes in both external and internal-external environments of a firm, it has become continuously significant to adapt structurally and strategically. Da Gbadji and Gailly (2009, p. 3) stated that in the process, corporate venturing has been found to a suitable strategy not only just for innovativeness but also for creating entrepreneurial spirit.
Despite the increasing need to adopt corporate venturing to increase competitive advantage, selecting the type of corporate venturing mode has been a problem for most managers (Lantza, Sahut & Teulon 2011, p. 371). However, H& M has shown its prowess in strategic issues by selecting one of the best modes of corporate venture which has steered it to massive growth. H& M uses enabling investments to increase its competitive advantage in the world fashion industry. Therefore, this assessment will focus on enabling investments as a mode of corporate venturing (VC). This firm normally creates investment majorly for the strategic purpose; however, the company does not link the venture strongly with its operations.
Lerner (2013) argued that the hypothesis here holds that a flourishing investment or venture will make a firm’ s own businesses and undertakings to gain but the tight operational connection between the firm and start is considered unnecessary in getting the benefit. Many people normally do not understand how this works and consider it not actually true. However, from H& M’ s practice, this is done through the concept of complimentary.
H& M uses this concept because they believe the successful marketing of one product makes customers want another (Siegle 2013). H& M often capitalizes on this concept by applying its venture capital investments so as to spur the growth of the environment it operates in which contain customers, suppliers, and third-party developers which produce products that raise demand for the offerings of the company.
Reference
Anokhin, S., Örtqvist, D., Thorgren, S & Wincent, J 2011, Corporate Venturing Deal Syndication and Innovation: The Information Exchange Paradox, Long Range Planning, Vol. 44, pp.135-151.
Burgelman, R.A & Valikangas, L 2005, Managing internal corporate venturing cycles, Sloan
Management Review Vol.46, No.4, pp.26–34.
Benson, D & Ziedonis, R 2010, Corporate Venture Capital and the Return to Acquiring
Portfolio Companies, Journal of Financial Economics Vol.98, pp.478-499.
Carreon, B 2011, Marni for H&M; Collaboration For Spring 2012, Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/bluecarreon/2011/11/29/marni-for-hm-collaboration-for- spring-2012/#1091a9636a43
Campbell, A, Birkinshaw, J, Morrison, A & Batenburg, R. B 2003, The future of corporate
venturing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol.45, No.1, pp.30 – 37.
Chesbrough. H 2002, Making Sense of Corporate Venture Capital, Harvard Business Review
Press. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2002/03/making-sense-of-corporate-venture-capital
Covin, J.G & Morgan,M.P 2007, Strategic use of corporate venturing, Entrepreneurship:
Theory & Practice, vol. 31, No. 2, p. 183-207.
Dana, L 2014, H&M Plans to Pay Garment Workers Fair Wages. Here's Why That's Probably
BS, Mother Jones.
Da Gbadji, L.A.G & Gailly, B 2009, Corporate venture capital among large corporations: Does
the industrial sector matter? Working paper, European Summer School, Benevento, pp. 1-23.
De Kalbermatten, M 2013, Corporate Venture Capital in Europe: Objectives, Characteristics
and Performance, Saarbrücken, Germany:, AV Akademikerverlag.
Dushnitsky, G & Lenox, M.J 2005, When do incumbents learn from entrepreneurial ventures?
Corporate venture capital and investing firm innovation rates, Research Policy Vol.34, No.5, pp 615–639.
Dushnitsky, G & Shapira, Z.B 2010, Entrepreneurial Finance Meets Corporate Reality:
Comparing Investment Practices and Performing of Corporate and Independent Venture Capitalists, Strategic Management Journal Vol.31, pp.990-1017.
Ernst, H., Witt, P & Brachtendorf, G 2005, Corporate venture capital as a strategy for external
innovation, R&D Management, Vol.35, pp. 233–242.
Gompers, P., Kovner, A & Lerner, J 2009, Specialization and Success: Evidence from Venture
Capital, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy Vo.18, pp.817-845.
Hansegard, J & Burkitt, L 2011, Feeling Success in China, H&M Targets Smaller Cities, The
Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204826704577074052812729344
Hasan, R & Alim, M.A 2010, Factors Affecting Supply Chain Management Efficiency in Cross
Border Outsourcing: A case study of H&M and its Outsourcing Operations in Bangladesh, University of Gothenburg.
Hellstrom, J 2007, H&M sees China growth, stable global margins, Viewed 4th April 2016 from
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/04/11/idUSSHA20355020070411
Hill, S.A & Birkinshaw, J 2008, Strategy–organization configurations in corporate venture units:
Impact on performance and survival, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol.23, pp.423–444.
H&M 2016, H&M Official Website, Viewed 4th April 2016
http://www.hm.com/entrance.ahtml?orguri=%2F
Ivanov, V & Xie, F 2010, Do Corporate Venture Capitalists Add Value to Start-up Firms?
Evidence from IPOs and Acquisitions of VC-Backed Companies, Financial Management Vol.39, pp. 129-152.
Lantza, J.S, Sahut, J.M & Teulon, F 2011, What is the Real Role of Corporate Venture Capital?
International Journal of Business, Vol.16, No.4, pp.368-382.
Lerner, J 2013, Corporate Venturing, Harvard Business Review Press.
Lindsey, L 2008, Blurring Firm Boundaries: The Role of Venture Capital in Strategic Alliances,
Journal of Finance Vol.63, pp.1137-1168.
MacMillan, I., Roberts, E., Livada, V & Wang, A 2008a, Corporate Venture Capital (CVC)
Seeking Innovation and Strategic Growth: Recent patterns in CVC mission, structure, and investment, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Maine, E 2008, Radical innovation through internal corporate venturing: Degussa’s
commercialization of nanomaterials, R&D Management, Vol.38, No.4, pp. 359–371.
McMillan, I, Roberts, E, Livada, V, Wang, A 2008b, Corporate venture capital: Seeking
innovation and corporate growth, National Institute for Standards and Technology, US Department of Commerce.
Staffordshire University n.d, International Supply Chain Mgmt H&M Case Study, Viewed 4th
April 2016 from http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/business/resits/postgrad/InternationalSupplyChainMgmtHandMCaseStudy.pdf
Siegle, L 2013, H&M: how does the fashion retailer's sustainability report stack up? The
Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/h-and-m-sustainability-report
Van Dyck, W & Aelbrecht, T 2011, Going beyond the pill: Business transformation through
corporate venturing at Janssen Pharmaceutica, in P. Silberzahn & W. Van Dyck (Eds.),
The Balancing Act of Innovation, pp. 233–249.
von Krogh, G., Battistini, B., Pachidou, F & Baschera, P 2012, The changing face of corporate
venturing in biotechnology, Nature Biotechnology, Vol.30, No.10, pp.911–915.