Academic literature on the topic 'Entrepreneurial finance and venture capital'

Venture capital as a source of finance and non-financial services has gained popularity among start-up and existing businesses worldwide in recent years. Venture capital has been synonymous with high technology start-ups in the United States and of late has emerged as a recognizable source of finance in South Africa. South Africa has a healthy VC industry and growing number of SMEs. The SMEs in the country however have a challenge when it comes to accessing financial resources for starting businesses and for expansion purposes despite the existence of VC companies. It would have been the popular belief that the emergence of VC companies in the country would have increased the alternatives to the financing sources for SMEs but this seems to not have been the case. The VC companies are still not popular among the small business sector and their services are still not accessible as well. The aim of the study was to explore the state of venture capital market in South Africa and find out how it can accelerate entrepreneurial development. The researcher selected VC companies who are associated to the South Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) and SMEs based Johannesburg area to take part in the study. The target sample was 70 venture capital firms and 200 SMEs from the Johannesburg area. The response rate from the VC companies was 53% and it was 67% from SMEs. The results obtained from the study indicated that there was a need for VC companies to impart more information concerning their services to SMEs. The SMEs generally did not have much knowledge of venture capital, how and where ton access it hence the low accessibility of this finance source to South African SMEs. The empirical study revealed that only 17% of SMEs in the study had knowledge of VC financing and only 6% of the SMEs had approached VC companies in the past. It was also discovered that 85% of the VC companies believed that the conveyance of information relating to their services contributed to the challenges SMEs faced in accessing VC sector. Of the SMEs taking part in the study 45% strongly believed that the development of the VC sector will drive SME growth and survival in South Africa.

Le financement institutionnel du capital initial, l’investissement providentiel le financement collectif des entreprises entrepreneuriales : un cadre conceptuel et quelques exemples » est une thèse de doctorat qui décrit un cadre conceptuel global des différentes facettes financières de l'entrepreneuriat et propose une étude empirique approfondie de certains éléments. Le nouvel apport de ce travail consiste à identifier les complexités croissantes du marché du financement en fonds propres de l’entreprenariat en développant un cadre conceptuel qui met l'accent aussi bien sur l'interaction croissante des acteurs du marché que sur de nouvelles recherches empiriques. Les thèmes choisis utilisent un ensemble de données uniques qui vont au-delà des études de recherches existantes et sont les premiers dans leur domaine à explorer de nouvellespistes<br>Institutional Seed Financing, Angel Financing, and Crowdfunding of EntrepreneurialVentures : a conceptual framework and selected examples is a doctoral dissertation that outlines an overall conceptual framework for the financial facets of entrepreneurship and proposes an empirical in-depth exploration of designated components. The novel contribution of this work lies in identifying the increasing complexities of the entrepreneurial equity finance market by developing this conceptual framework that emphasizes the growing interaction of the market players as well as investigating additional empirical topics. The selected topics use unique datasets that go beyond existing research studies and are the first in their fields to explore new avenues

The determinants of success in venture capital financing are explored in this manuscript. 1247 venture capital funds formed over a twenty-year time period are empirically analyzed with results that support theoretical research from extant finance and economics literature. Venture capitalists' choices of portfolio size, distance from portfolio firms, location, and to some extent, level of diversification in their investment portfolio, are all significant factors in explaining the success rates of venture capital funds. These results are robust even when controlling for other characteristics of venture funds and entrepreneurial firms, such as the stage of development and industry of the portfolio firms, which may affect success rates of venture capitalist portfolios.

This thesis aims to better understand the process of the funding of young innovative<p>ventures, and how a deeper understanding of this process can help public policy to better<p>stimulate entrepreneurial firms—especially in high-technology industries. I interpret<p>entrepreneurial finance broadly to mean financing issues facing young innovative<p>ventures. It includes three essays which deal with a set of economic, institutional, and<p>public policy issues to examine entrepreneurial finance.<br>Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thesis advisor: Thomas Chemmanur<br>My dissertation consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, I analyze the impact of firms' innovation success on their corporate financial policies. I hypothesize that innovation success reduces the information asymmetry facing firms and, through the information channel, affects their capital structure and dividend policies. I measure innovation success using the quantity and quality of patents. I show that firms with higher innovation success face lower information asymmetry, measured using analyst coverage, dispersion, and forecast error. Further, I show that firms with higher innovation success have lower leverage ratios; have a greater propensity to issue equity rather than debt; and have lower dividend payout ratios. I establish causality using instrumental variable analyses with patent examiner leniency as an instrument for patent grants. In the second chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur, Xuan Tian, and Qianqian Yu, we analyze the impact of trademarks in entrepreneurial firms' success. We hypothesize that trademarks play two economically important roles for entrepreneurial firms: a “protective” role, leading to better product market performance; and an “informational” role, signaling higher firm quality to investors. We develop testable hypotheses based on the above two roles of trademarks, relating the trademarks held by private firms to the characteristics of venture capital (VC) investment in them, their probability of successful exit, their valuations at their initial public offering (IPO) and in the immediate secondary market; institutional investor IPO participation; post-IPO information asymmetry; and post-IPO operating performance. We test these hypotheses using a large and unique dataset of trademarks held by VC-backed private firms. We establish causality using an instrumental variable (IV) analysis using trademark examiner leniency as the instrument. For private firms, we find that the number of trademarks held by the firm is positively related to the total amount invested by VCs and negatively related to the extent of staging by VCs. We show that the number of trademarks held by a firm increases its probability of successful exit (IPOs or acquisitions). Further, for the subsample of VC-backed firms going public, we show that the number of trademarks held by the firm leads to higher IPO and immediate secondary market firm valuations; greater IPO participation by institutional investors; a lower extent of information asymmetry in the equity market post-IPO; and better post-IPO operating performance. In the third chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Jinfei Sheng, we develop testable hypotheses and empirically analyze the effects of outside investors having access to soft information such as online employee ratings from the Glassdoor website on firms' financing and investment policies. We find that higher online employee ratings are associated with larger equity issue announcement effects; a greater propensity to have positive announcement effects and to issue equity rather than debt to raise external financing; higher investment expenditures; greater equity issue participation by institutional investors; and better long-run post-issue operating performance. We establish causality using a difference-in-differences methodology relying on the staggered adoption of anti-SLAPP laws across U.S. states<br>Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020<br>Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management<br>Discipline: Finance

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Chemmanur<br>My dissertation is comprised of three chapters. In the first chapter, I analyze the effect of top management changes on subsequent corporate innovation in venture capital-backed private firms using a hand-collected dataset. I find that top management changes are associated with significantly more and higher quality corporate innovation (as measured by their patenting activity). I show that top management changes are likely to be venture-driven and that the effect of top management changes on corporate innovation is stronger for firms where venture capitalists have greater power. An instrumental variable analysis using an exogenous shock to the supply of outside managers available for hire implies a causal effect of top management changes on corporate innovation. I establish that one mechanism through which top management changes enhance corporate innovation is through new management teams hiring more inventors for a given investment size. I also show that both top management changes and corporate innovation have a positive impact on firms' successful exits. In the second chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Karthik Krishnan, we hypothesize that VC-backing garners greater “investor attention” (Merton (1987)) for IPOs, allowing IPO underwriters to perform two information-related roles more efficiently during the book-building and road-show process: information dissemination, where the lead underwriter disseminates noisy information about various aspects of the IPO firm to institutional investors; and information extraction, where the lead underwriter extracts information useful in pricing the IPO firm equity from institutional investors. Using pre-IPO media coverage as a proxy, we show empirically that VC-backed firm IPOs indeed obtain greater investor attention, causally yielding them more favorable IPO characteristics such as higher IPO and secondary market valuations. In the third chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur, Lei Kong, and Karthik Krishnan, using panel data on top management characteristics and a management quality factor constructed using common factor analysis on individual management quality proxies, we analyze the relation between the human capital or “quality” of firm management and its innovation inputs and outputs. We control for the endogenous matching between firm and management quality using a plausibly exogenous shock to the supply of new managers as an instrument, thereby finding a causal relationship between management quality and innovation activities. We show that higher management quality firms achieve greater innovation output by hiring more and higher quality inventors<br>Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017<br>Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management<br>Discipline: Finance

There has been a continuous interest in academia with regard to the venture capital (VC) as themain flourishing aid to new business. Nowadays, academia and the public consider it ‘hot‘ to argue and invest in business that define their activities with sustainable goals, and callthemselves ‘green’, ‘clean’ or ‘eco’. Furthermore, circles of discussions about sustainability, triple bottom line, green, clean, eco, and other terms related with positive impact towards society environment alongside financial returns have created uncertainty with respect to what defines an entity as green and how this can be used as a competitive advantage in the attractiveness of the business in the very first steps of its existence. However, green startups are considered a strong tool for the emergence of the environmentally friendly solutions needed in order to avoid dangerous and irreversible climate change. Furthermore, venture capitalists (VCs) are a key provider of financial capital for emerging firms. Therefore, given the complex nature of the VC investment decision, it is paramount to understand the VCs perspective on what are the factors andcharacteristics that attract and repel investors toward green startups. By undertaking this investigation, we seek to create an understanding of the evaluation criteria, as well as, characteristics and challenges related to VC investments in green startups. Therefore, contributing to the fields of environmental entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance, by identifying what VCs take in consideration when evaluating green startups. To develop this understanding of the VCs perspective on green startups we first developed an in-depth literature review of the extant research, then we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with practitioners from the mainstream and the greenVC industry operating in Sweden. Furthermore, we implemented an interpretative approach which enabled us to analyze the individual perspectives of VC depending on the context in which they operate. This study provided interesting results that complement the existing literature and provide useful insights on the current state of green VC. Combining the findings of our study with the theories discussed in our comprehensive literature review on green entrepreneurs, green startups and venture capital, we provide an understanding of the evaluation criteria and investment thesis relevant to green startups as well as, insight on characteristics, challenges and opportunities related to investments in green startups. Therefore, this study generates new knowledge in this scarcely studied area of research and provide interesting insights for future research. To the end of this continuum, both actors involved - VCs and green entrepreneurs - will benefit from the findings which provide: green entrepreneurs with the tools to develop green startups with more potential to attract investors; and VCs with an understanding of the nature, challenges and opportunities of green startups´ investments.

My dissertation is focused on developing a better understanding of the technology and innovation strategies of corporations and their impacts on firm performance. I am particularly interested in corporate venture capital (CVC), which serves as a strategy for accessing external technology for corporate investors and as an alternative source of financing and complementary assets for start-ups. I have investigated the conditions under which corporate investors and start-ups achieve the strategic goals by establishing CVC ties, and on estimating the technological and financial gains created by the CVC ties. Specifically, I have concentrated on when and where CVC ties are established in order to maximize economic value. The former relates to a timing issue, whereas the latter is a space issue of CVC investments. In the first essay, I examine corporate investors' decisions to establish CVC ties and their subsequent strategic actions. Consistent with the real options perspective on CVC investments, I find that CVC investments can help corporate investors effectively search for and select future acquisition or licensing partners by reducing asymmetric information and uncertainty that may characterize markets for technology. Specifically, CVC investments facilitate the external acquisition of technology by substituting for a corporate investor's absorptive capacity, as reflected by its upstream research capabilities. CVC investments instead complement the portfolio of internally generated new products, since they allow highly productive corporate investors to shift their focus onto exploratory initiatives with the objective of selecting future technology and partners. Finally, CVC investments facilitate exploratory investments in distant technological areas that are subsequently integrated through licensing or acquisitions. These findings contribute to emerging research on the organization and financing patterns of external R&D activities. In the second essay, I investigate the nature of the relationship between technological spillovers and capital gains created by CVC investments for corporate investors. Using a simple equilibrium model and data from the global bio-pharmaceutical industry between 1986 and 2007, I find that these technological spillovers and capital gains are complements. This complementarity is enhanced when CVC investments are made in post-IPO and technologically diversified start-ups. Beyond providing a broad benchmark for heterogeneous returns on CVC investments, this study has important implications for corporate investors and start-ups. In particular, to the extent that capital gain is greatly determined by changes in the market values of start-ups, it implies that CVC investments can create value for start-ups as well as corporate investors. These mutual benefits can be greatly determined by when (e.g., post-IPO start-ups) and where (e.g., technologically diversified start-ups) CVC investments are made. In the third essay, I analyze the contextual factors that impact the probability of start-ups' obtaining financing through independent venture capitalists and corporate investors. The systematic empirical evidence based on a three-stage game theoretic model suggests that start-ups that possess better evaluated technology tend to be financed through independent venture capitalists, rather than corporate investors. In contrast, start-ups tend to be financed through corporate investors, rather than independent venture capitalists, when their intellectual properties are effectively protected and their research pipelines contain multiple products. These findings provide a theoretical basis to explain why several types of investors co-exist in the entrepreneurial financing market. Moreover, the existence of such determinants indicates that, although investors traditionally have been viewed as the powerful partner that dominates the investment decision, start-ups are also active decision makers in investment ties.

The purpose of this research is to examine the potential influence crowdfunding could have on the early-stage financing ecosystem in South Africa. Particularly, how it could affect entrepreneurial deal flow as well as inform the venture capital decision-making process. The primary aim of this research is to explore the due diligence practices and perceptions of venture capital fund managers, angel investors and entrepreneurs to ascertain the extent to which crowdfunding can be incorporated into the South African entrepreneurial ecosystem and inform the investment process. The researcher, therefore, intends that this research enhance venture capital investment decision-making capabilities while adding to the existing body of knowledge on early-stage investing. Ultimately, it is hoped that the results of this in-depth study will accelerate the development of the venture capital industry in South Africa and unlock early-stage seed capital whilst promoting entrepreneurial activity and possibly providing insight and guidance to entrepreneurs faced with the challenging task of accessing financing. The researcher anticipates that the finding of this research will likely be of interest to players in the VC and early-stage new venture financing industry, including fund managers, investors, entrepreneurs and crowdfunding providers. The findings might impact the investment process, which has direct implications for capital providers, fund managers and fund seekers. Furthermore, this research might be of interest to researchers and those in academia concerned with this field, who might then conduct similar studies or decide to expand the research in new directions. By investigating crowdfunding's potential within the VC investment decision-making process, it is anticipated that the findings might be fed back into the marketplace and inform future VC investments in South Africa.