Corporate venturing: the origins of Unilever's pregnancy test

Geoffrey Jones and Alison Kraft

Business History, 2004, vol. 46, issue 1, 100-122

Abstract: Large established corporations face many challenges to develop and sustain dynamic capabilities in innovation and the creation of new businesses because of constraints arising from technological and resource lock-ins, and routine and cultural rigidities. From the 1960s large corporations became increasingly aware of such problems. Heavy research spending was not translated into successful new business creation. The formation of autonomous entrepreneurial units within large corporations was one response. The origins of Unilever's home pregnancy test, Clearblue, which was launched in 1985, is used as a case study to examine the viability of one version of this strategy. Unilever was able to translate its extensive knowledge base in immunology into a successful branded product in medical diagnostics by creating a separate corporate entity, Unipath, with a distinctive culture, shielded from the mainstream Unilever organisation, yet able to draw on corporate capabilities in marketing, and financial resources. Yet the very distinctiveness of Unipath orphaned it within Unilever, and the business was divested in 2001.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1080/00076790412331270139

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