Always look at the bright side? Managers’ future focus and corporate external venturing

Build on regulatory focus theory, I posit that manager’s attention to future could extert both facilitating and hindering effects on corporate entrepreneurship. The 6- year longitudinal analysis of information industry analysis evidenced these propostions and showed that although an opportunity-emphasized future focus might encourage firms to pursue more risky external venturings, it harms the performance of these pursuits. Conversely, a risk-emphasized future focus though severely discourages firms’ external venturing pursuit, yet it enhances the performance of these pursuits. These asymmetric, yet co-existing beneficial and harmful effects of manager’s future focus enlighten firms should strategically regulate their managers’ future focus to be more opportunity-focused or more risk- focused at different stage of entrepreneurial pursuits in order to benefit from rather than be harmed by firm’s corporate entrepreneurship.