Build on regulatory focus theory, I posit that whether managerial future focus indeed benefits performance of corporate external venturing contingent on managers’ optimistic or cautious attitude toward future scenarios. The 6-year longitudinal analysis of information industry analysis indicates that although being more future-focused enable firm decision-makers perform better in risky external venturing pursuits, an optimistic opportunity-focused future envision not only renders firm underperformed in external venturing, but also hinders the positive effect of high intensity of future focus on the performance of risky corporate venturing. Luckily, when decision-makers have a cautious risk-emphasized future envision of future scenarios, this risk-emphasized future envision on one...[ Read more ]

Build on regulatory focus theory, I posit that whether managerial future focus indeed benefits performance of corporate external venturing contingent on managers’ optimistic or cautious attitude toward future scenarios. The 6-year longitudinal analysis of information industry analysis indicates that although being more future-focused enable firm decision-makers perform better in risky external venturing pursuits, an optimistic opportunity-focused future envision not only renders firm underperformed in external venturing, but also hinders the positive effect of high intensity of future focus on the performance of risky corporate venturing. Luckily, when decision-makers have a cautious risk-emphasized future envision of future scenarios, this risk-emphasized future envision on one hand enhances the performance of firm’s risky external venturing activity, on the other hand also strengthens the positive effect of high intensity of future focus on risky external venturing. Overall these findings extend future focus literature by illuminating that not only the intensity of attention to future matters, more importantly, the contents of envisioned future also matter for the performance of corporate entrepreneurship in risky external venturing.