This project investigates how new business ventures are imagined and shaped within corporate venture units (CVUs). Whereas there is general agreement that these CVUs are exploratory spaces designed to develop new ideas and growth options, surprisingly little is known about how these new ventures are shaped. And while it is understood that corporate entrepreneurs engage in experimentation, there is limited insight into what role imagination plays in these activities. The overall aim of this project is hence to advance new knowledge on how entrepreneurs in CVUs develop new ventures through entrepreneurial imagination of possible futures and shape them by practical experimentation – imagination in action. We focus on the interplay of future-oriented imaginaries with present-oriented activities and on the dynamics by which collective imagination develops. We will further explore how these processes evolve over time as the new venture becomes better understood, more complete, and refined. Drawing on literature in philosophy, innovation management, and entrepreneurship, the project aims at contributing to theory through examining temporality and interpersonal and intersubjective dynamics and to a more detailed understanding of entrepreneurial activities within CVUs. Using qualitative research methods, the study will generate detailed insights from members of early-stage new ventures over their duration within the CVU.