Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test

G.  Jones; Alison  Kraft

Article | Business History | January 2004

Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test

by G. Jones and Alison Kraft

Abstract

The relative ability of different sizes of firm and organisational designs to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and create new businesses remains a matter of contention. While Chandler among many others has emphasised the pre-eminent role of large corporations as the engines of innovation over the last century, during the 'high tech' boom of the 1990s new business creation was strongly associated with entrepreneurs, start-ups, venture capitalists and angel investors. This article explores the issue of corporate innovation using a case study of new business creation within a large, established, multinational corporation. Large corporations are known to face obstacles to innovation from technological and resource lock-ins, and routine and cultural rigidities. Unilever has, since its creation in 1929, been one of Europe's largest consumer businesses, and is known in Britain for consumer brands such as Persil detergents, Flora margarine, Walls ice cream and Birds Eye fish fingers. This study focuses on this company's development of the successful home pregnancy test, Clearblue, which was launched in Britain in 1985. Clearblue was a radical technological innovation which, equally importantly, departed from Unilever's traditional markets. The focus on Clearblue casts fresh light on the problems of new business creation within large corporations and allows in-depth investigation of one organisational solution to those problems.

Keywords: Business Ventures; Organizational Design; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Brands and Branding; Multinational Firms and Management; Product Development; Product Launch; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Great Britain;

Format: Print

23 pages

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Citation:

Jones, G., and Alison Kraft. "Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test." Business History 46, no. 1 (January 2004): 100–122.

Recent years have seen an increasing interest in the use of history and historical research methods in strategy research. This article discusses how and why history and historical research methods can enrich theoretical explanations of strategy phenomena. The article also introduces the notions of "history-informed strategy research" distinguishing between the dimensions of "history to theory" and "history in theory" and discussing under-utilized methods that may further work on history-informed strategy research. The article discusses how contemporary research contributes to history-informed research within the strategy field, examines key methodological and empirical challenges associated with such research, and develops an agenda for future research.

Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2015 (Revised January 2020)

Horst Dassler, Adidas, and the Commercialization of Sport

Geoffrey Jones, Michael Norris and Sophi Kim

The case focuses on the career of Horst Dassler, the son of the founder of the German-based sports shoe manufacturer Adidas. The origins of the firm were in the interwar years, and it rose to public prominence after it provided spikes for Jesse Owens, the famous African-American sprinter, in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. From the 1950s Horst cultivated relationships with athletes and national associations to expand his sports apparel business and develop sports sponsorship, competing fiercely against competitors such as Puma and Nike. During the 1970s he played a key role in commercializing the international soccer federation FIFA, including creating a television market for soccer, and he subsequently became a key force behind arranging sponsorships and broadcasting rights for the Olympics. The case explores the drivers of success of this major consumer brand and provides the opportunity to discuss the positives and negatives of the globalization and commercialization of sport.

Keywords: corruption; Economic History; business history; entertainment; business; strategy; media; Sports; Digital technology; blockbuster; superstar; film; television; music; publishing; performing arts; nightlife; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; History; Sports; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Sports Industry; Germany; South America; Europe; Asia; North and Central America;

Citation:

Jones, Geoffrey, Michael Norris, and Sophi Kim. "Horst Dassler, Adidas, and the Commercialization of Sport." Harvard Business School Case 316-007, July 2015. (Revised January 2020.) View Details

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The case examines the entrepreneurial career of Rupert Murdoch and the growth of News Corporation from a small Australian newspaper to a global media giant. It shows how he expanded geographically to Europe, the United States, and Asia and from newspapers to the film and television industries. The case identifies the personal role of Murdoch in this growth and the role of his family in its management. The case considers the political impact of News Corporation's newspapers and other media and their alleged role in shaping political opinion.

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Corporate Venturing: The Origins of Unilever's Pregnancy Test

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