The venture clienting readiness canvas: How corporations can assess their organizational readiness for new venture collaboration

Venture clienting (VCL) emerged as an increasingly prominent form of collaboration between corporations and new ventures. However, many VCL initiatives stall because corporations are not organizationally prepared to collaborate with new ventures. Using a design science (DS) methodology, this study introduces the Venture Clienting Readiness Canvas, an ex-ante assessment tool that helps corporations evaluate the internal conditions necessary for successful VCL before engagement begins. We derived five readiness domains-strategic alignment, collaboration governance, communication and trust, organizational culture, and collaboration processes-from a systematic literature review. In addition, we refined the canvas through four practitioner workshops with experienced VCL experts as part of a formative evaluation and subsequently assessed the artifact in a summative evaluation involving nine additional VCL practitioners. The results demonstrate that the canvas offers a structured, actionable approach to assessing organizational readiness for VCL. Thus, this study contributes prescriptive design knowledge on how corporations can anticipate the organizational tensions, coordination demands, and organizational change necessities inherent in collaborating with new ventures.