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Information and Control in Alliances and Ventures

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Author Info
Dessein, Wouter
Abstract

The allocation of control rights in a venture does not matter if partners have congruent preferences. This Paper develops a theory of control as a signal of congruence, and applies it to the structure of alliances between a privately informed ‘entrepreneur’ (technology firm) and an ‘investor’ (large corporation). Investor control increases when the entrepreneur is better informed or when the information that the investor receives during the course of the venture is more noisy. More investor control, however, often results in less investor interference, since the investor puts more trust in the entrepreneur upon receiving more control and, hence, has a tendency to neglect ambiguous information ex post. As a result, the cost of signaling is endogenous and the quality of the post-contracting information constrains the amount of pre-contracting information that can be revealed. Our results are in line with empirical findings on control rights in biotechnology alliances and venture capital contracts.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 3418.

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Date of creation: Jun 2002
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3418

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Related research
Keywords: asymmetric information; authority; biotechnology alliances; control rights; venture capital;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure
L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General

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