Sharma's study finds that venture managers resolve such uncertainties by forming interlocking linkages between the venture and its host firm, and between the venture and the external environment. So venture managers need to persuade these people that the venture concept is compatible with what the firm is all about. Established firms depend on reducing variation to stay at the top of their games. Besides securing the support of key individuals in the organization, venture managers in large companies must also make connections with the operating businesses, which typically house most of the functional capabilities of the firm. Thus it is crucial for these managers to form operating linkages, informal conduits to the businesses, their personnel, and their resident capabilities.
All large firms rely on bureaucratic systems to reduce variation and accomplish necessary tasks.
So they typically seek out staff people who know the system and who become part of an informal network of such bureaucratic linkages. Finally, even as they are forming linkages with various internal constituencies, venture managers must be able to reinforce these connections by linking their ventures to the external environment. By showing that a new product meets the externally based tests of technical feasibility and viability in the marketplace, venture managers resolve key uncertainties for powerful internal players. The latter perform the critical task of systematically updating and refining basic assumptions driving the venture. Sharma's findings suggest that venture managers create the system of interlocking linkages on which their ventures depend by means of particular skills and strategies.