How venture capitalists respond to unmet expectations: The role of social environment

In this paper, we seek to explain venture capitalists' reactions to disappointments caused by entrepreneurs. Our basic assumption is that venture capitalists' social environment, defined as exposure to venture capital and business communities, will influence their responses to problematic situations. The results of our study suggest that venture capitalists with strong ties to their colleagues and with managerial experience are more inclined to use active and constructive approaches than venture capitalists with a lesser exposure to the venture capital and business communities.     

Venture capital investing by information technology companies: Did it pay?

While corporate venture capital programs offer prospects for direct financial returns and strategic benefits, there is little evidence regarding whether they deliver economically significant value to sponsoring firms. We take an initial step in addressing this question by evaluating direct returns of programs of U.S. information technology companies during 1990–2002. Direct gains (losses) were widely dispersed and bimodally distributed, based on IRR and net cash flow metrics. Timing of initiation within the venture capital cycle; program scale; and annual investment, write-down, and harvest behavior were associated with differences in returns. We also explore how program characteristics may relate to their attractiveness as platforms from which to pursue strategic benefits.     

Venture capital as an innovation ecosystem engineer in an emerging market

How can venture capital (VC) firms transform a weak innovation ecosystem into a productive and robust one? While the literature has found VC firms’ catalyst role in innovation in developed markets, we know little about whether and how they affect innovation in an emerging market, where formal institutions (e.g., regulations and markets) and informal institutions (e.g., professional networks) to enable VC firms’ catalyst role are relatively lacking. First, we argue that VC firms play a different and more proactive role in these markets as an “ecosystem engineer” through governing the resource flow and selecting deviation, which drive regional innovation performance. Second, such effects are further positively moderated by the presence of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a region. Lastly, over time, while the direct effects of VC firms persist and increase, the moderating effects of MNE presence decline. Empirically, we examined a Chinese provincial-level panel data of VC activities (1999–2009) and patent applications (2000–2010) and found supportive evidence. Implications are discussed.     

Reconsidering the venture capitalists' “value added” proposition: An interorganizational learning perspective

This study examines the interorganizational relationships among venture capitalists (VCs) and new venture teams (NVTs) for their contribution to long-term improvement in the performance of a venture. Research in (1) learning assistance, (2) NVT dismissal and (3) procedural justice provide important insights into the unique interorganizational relationship that exists among VCs and the NVTs they fund. We found the following: (1) no statistically significant support for strategic information, (2) a negative association for dismissals and (3) positive support for procedurally just interventions. These longitudinal findings suggest important future research on interorganizational relationships.     

风险投资国际化影响因素研究综述

风险投资长期以来被视为是一项高度本土化的行为,但是近年来越来越多的风投机构开始走出国门进行远距离的跨境投资。这一现象引起了学者们的极大兴趣,许多学者开始致力于考察跨境风险投资的动因,即为什么本土化特征如此明显的风险资本开始热衷于进行跨越国境的远距离投资。尽管相关研究近几年才刚刚开始,但已迅速成为学术研究的热点。文章从国家环境因素、社会网络和风投机构主体因素三个层次,对风险投资国际化影响因素的最新文献进行了梳理和评述,并在此基础上对未来研究进行了展望。     

Structuring deals and governance after the IPO: Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in high tech start-ups

In an effort to better understand the effects of venture capital investment on selected firm governance and financing structures, we examined the post-IPO experiences of 190 biotechnology and healthcare firms (see appendix). Our study revealed that in virtually all cases, the involvement of venture capitalists reduced the role of the founder-entrepreneur in strategic decision making. This was illustrated by the larger proportion of outside directors when venture capitalists invested and the smaller proportion of entrepreneurs who remained officers or in board positions after the IPO. We also found that venture capitalists rarely invested alone, and preferred to structure deals in which venture capital partners share both risks and rewards.     

Ago\ra Partnerships Nicaragua: A micro venture capital fund

Agora Partnerships is a micro venture capital fund founded by Benjamin Powell in the US and Ricardo T. Teran in Nicaragua. Agora started operations in 2005 with the goal of identifying and supporting entrepreneurs and business plans with high potential for success. The fund faces some unique challenges. First, the size of the businesses that is investing in does not allow for a traditional “management fee” structure. Secondly, traditional investment exits are nearly impossible in Nicaragua. This teaching case includes analysis on sources of investment capital, deal structures, and expected returns. The unresolved dilemma remains how to structure an investment proposal attractive to both investors and entrepreneurs. The case also allows discussing how to adapt the venture capital model to an emerging country like Nicaragua.     

风险投资系统结构分析

随着深交所中小企业板块的设立,我国风险投资将会得到快速的发展。通过对风险投资系统结构的分析,揭示了风险投资系统结构由风险投资要素子系统、风险投资主体子系统、风险投资客体子系统的组成。     

An entrepreneur's choice of venture capitalist or angel-financing: A behavioral game-theoretic approach

We develop a game-theoretic model that analyzes the effects of economic and behavioral characteristics on an entrepreneur's choice of financier (venture capitalist or angel). After the entrepreneur has chosen his financier, the dyad faces double-sided moral hazard problems in the form of ex ante effort-shirking, and ex post project-expropriation. In making his choice of financier, the entrepreneur trades-off the following factors. The venture capitalist has higher value-creating abilities than the angel. However, the entrepreneur anticipates a closer, more empathetic and trusting relationship with the angel. Entrepreneur/angel empathy and trust mitigates the double-sided shirking and expropriation threats. Our model contributes to two strands of venture capitalist research; the entrepreneur's choice of financier in the face of double-sided moral hazard problems, and the effect of behavioral factors, such as empathy and trust, on the creation of ‘relational rents’.     

New venture internationalization: The role of venture capital types and reputation

This study examines how different types of venture capital relate to new venture internationalization. Using a sample of 646 U.S. new ventures that executed IPOs between 1995 and 2010, we find that ventures with foreign or corporate venture capital have higher levels of international intensity. We also investigate the moderating role of VC reputation on the relationship between foreign venture capital and international intensity and corporate venture capital and international intensity. Our results suggest that VC reputation weakens the positive relationship between corporate VC and international intensity.     

Governance and resource interaction in networks. The role of venture capital in a biotech start-up

This paper examines venture capital (VC) governance in innovation processes. The VC literature often presents the relationship between a VC firm and a start-up as dyadic and analyzes it with agency theory. In contrast, this paper deploys the resource interaction framework presented in Håkansson and Waluszewski (2002) to governance and innovation in networks. The paper reports an in-depth case study of Pyrosequencing, a Swedish biotech firm financed with VC. The results from this study reveal how the relationship between a VC and a start-up company is embedded in a wider network and how the governance of the VC spreads in the surrounding network and influences a start-up's possibilities to develop organizational and technical resource interfaces to critical counterparts such as suppliers and customers.     

Entry,Growth and Patenting in Industrial Clusters: A Study of the Aerospace Industry in the UK

This paper studies how firm performance is influenced by the strength of the industrial cluster (or industrial district) in which it is located. The paper presents estimates of firm-level employment and patent growth models for a range of '5-digit' aerospace industries in the UK. In these models, employment in the firm's own sector and employment in other sectors is taken as a measure of the strength of the cluster. Strong positive clustering effects are found in many sectors, but nevertheless some clustering effects are negative. Entry into clusters of this industry is also examined and some sectors are found to attract new entry while others are only attracted.     

中国上市公司资本结构调整行为研究:一个财务弹性的视角

本文提出了公司财务弹性的计量方法,考查了中国上市公司的财务弹性情况,进而根据财务弹性的大小对样本公司进行分类,重点研究了不同财务弹性上市公司的资本结构调整行为差异,研究发现:高财务弹性公司的新增融资取向更有利于财务弹性的提高,其资本结构调整方向与目标方向更为一致,低财务弹性公司存在更严重的资本结构调整过度问题.     

Duration analysis of venture capital staging: A real options perspective

This study takes a real options perspective towards venture capital staging and views the staging decision as a choice between holding the current option to invest and investing now to obtain the option to invest subsequently. It proposes that this staging decision depends on the factors that influence the value of these two options, such as competition and various sources of uncertainty. The empirical results suggest that market uncertainty encourages venture capital firms to delay investing at each round of financing, whereas competition, project-specific uncertainty and agency concerns prompt venture capital firms to invest sooner. This study has useful implications for theory and practice.     

Corporate governance in publicly traded small firms: A study of Canadian venture exchange companies

Most evidence regarding the determinants and effects of corporate governance practices is based on large firms. Herein, we explore these issues in the context of small publicly traded Canadian companies. We exploit the fact that such firms were not subject to corporate governance guidelines prior to 2005 and thus analyze the determinants of voluntary governance practice choices, as well as the effects of those practices on firm performance. Using a unique data set, we construct a corporate governance index for each firm. We measure performance by two variables: quality of accounting earnings and financial performance. The results indicate that corporate governance does matter for smaller traded Canadian firms. We find that both accounting and financial performance are positively related to corporate governance; however, their underlying mechanisms may differ somewhat. Given this result, it would be natural to expect all firms to choose higher levels of governance. However, our results also suggest small firms face resource constraints that limit their choices. We conclude that good governance is an important driver of small firm performance that cannot be neglected by the owners and managers of these firms.     

Innovation and survival of exporters: A contingency perspective

We challenge the traditional view that innovations always help exporters prosper in competitive international market, by developing and testing the premise that the relationship between innovation and export performance is contingent on some important firm-specific idiosyncrasies. With a large dataset of Chinese firms, the empirical results demonstrate that innovation could be detrimental to exporter survival. Such negative effect is more pronounced for firms that have weak profitability and high outstanding receivables, and also for those without foreign ownership. Nonetheless, we also observe a positive relationship between innovation and survival in highly profitable exporters. By identifying the negative rather than conventionally assumed positive effect of innovation, and the conditions under which innovation facilitates or impedes exporter survival, this paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between innovation and export in the context of emerging markets. Our findings have important implications for how managers develop innovation strategy to compete in the export market.     

浅议施工企业财务杠杆效应

财务杠杆效应对于建筑施工企业发展起到至关重要的作用,旨在研究财务杠杆效应如何在建筑施工行业发挥作用。结合施工企业的特点,采用实证研究的方法,在建筑施工行业的大背景下,创新性研究如何控制施工企业财务风险的同时,充分利用财务杠杆效应。这对于目前建筑施工有效运用资金有着重要意义。     

风险投资问题研究

作为高新技术的推进器 ,风险投资在我国的发展相当迅速。然而 ,在发展过程中暴露出了一系列的问题。如何认识和解决这些问题 ,不仅关系到风险投资在我国的进一步发展 ,也直接关系到我国高新技术和产业的发展 ,进而影响中国经济的快速发展。     

Signaling in science-based IPOs: The combined effect of affiliation with prestigious universities,underwriters, and venture capitalists

This paper studies the combined effect of affiliation with prestigious universities, underwriters, and venture capitalists on the valuation of biotech ventures at IPO and their post-IPO performance. We argue that affiliation to a prestigious university provides the affiliated firm with a quality signal in the scientific domain. The pure quality signaling effect of the affiliation is isolated from the substantive benefits it provides by performing a difference-in-difference approach based on the scientific reputation of scientists in firms' upper echelons. The signal is stronger the weaker is the scientific reputation of scientists of the focal IPO-firm and is additive to those provided by prestigious venture capitalists and underwriters. Results for a sample of 254 European biotech ventures that went through an IPO between 1990 and 2009 confirm our predictions.     

The role of top management team human capital in venture capital markets: Evidence from first-time funds

This paper examines whether the human capital of first-time venture capital fund management teams can predict fund performance and finds that it can. I find that fund management teams with more task-specific human capital, as measured by more managers having past experience as venture capitalists and by more managers having past experience as executives at start-up companies, manage funds with greater fractions of portfolio company exits. I also find that fund management teams with more industry-specific human capital in strategy and management consulting and, to a lesser extent, engineering and non-venture finance manage funds with greater fractions of portfolio company exits. Perhaps counter-intuitively, I find that fund management teams that have more general human capital in business administration, as measured by more managers having MBAs, manage funds with lower fractions of portfolio company exits. Overall, measures of task- and industry-specific human capital are stronger predictors of fund performance than are measures of general human capital.