12 Corporate Venturing Across the Globe As Figure 3 shows, European companies are the most vocal in communicating their adoption of corporate venturing practices in their annual reports and websites; over 60% of them do so in comparison with about 35% of US and Asian businesses. This raises intriguing questions. Do European companies feel obliged to talk about their commitment to startups, perhaps under pressure from more innovative Amer- ican and Asian competitors and standard setters, who are less compelled to broadcast something the public already knows? Or are the Europeans indeed ahead in embracing these practices to close the innovation gap? While venture capital is much more active in the US and Asia, corporate venturing might be Europe’s best bet to level the playing field. Though we see a significant engagement in Africa, Australia, and South America, the total number of corporations among the Forbes Global 500 in these regions (one, nine, and seven, respectively) is too small for statistical analysis and thus excluded from Figure 3. Figure 3. Forbes 500 Companies’ Engagement with Programs and Activities by Continent* Engagement Rate (%) Continent 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 142 106 90 104 107 116 Programs Activities North America Europe Asia * The numbers above the bars represent the total number of companies engaged.