Corporate entrepreneurship enables established organizations to drive innovation, achieve organizational renewal, and maintain competitive advantage. A promising yet underexplored mechanism for corporate entrepreneurship is “venture clienting,” wherein incumbent firms integrate innovative technologies acquired from start-ups. Despite its potential, the design of dedicated venture client units to address challenges arising from these asymmetric buyer-supplier relationships remains insufficiently understood. This study employs an action design research methodology to identify key design requirements for venture client units through a comprehensive review of corporate entrepreneurship literature, 77 interviews with industry experts, and iterative industry workshops. The resulting conceptual design framework, comprising two core dimensions, provides guidance for firms in creating and optimizing venture client units tailored to their strategic objectives and organizational contexts. The findings contribute to the corporate entrepreneurship and open innovation literature by offering actionable insights into asymmetric buyer-supplier dynamics and organizational design. For practitioners, the framework serves as a practical tool to navigate barriers and enhance the effectiveness of venture clienting practices. This research advances the understanding of startup-corporate collaboration, delivering both theoretical contributions and practical implications.
