IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/drxlwp/2014_005.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Competition and Specialization: Evidence from Venture Capital

Author

Listed:
  • Cabolis, Christos

    (ALBA Graduate Business School)

  • Dai, Mian

    (School of Economics LeBow College of Business Drexel University)

  • Serfes, Konstantinos

    (School of Economics LeBow College of Business Drexel University)

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between competition and firm specialization in the venture capital (VC) market. Staged financing motivates VC firms to fund entrepreneurs in various states of maturity: startup/seed, early, growth, and so forth, and leads to stage specialization. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that competition always promotes specialization, we find an inverted-U relationship, using panel data on VC funding rounds in the U.S. between 1980 and 2006. We develop a matching model with two-sided vertical heterogeneity, bilateral bargaining and moral hazard to demonstrate that the non-monotonicity is driven by the expected utility VC firms offer to entrepreneurs, via equity stakes, where higher quality entrepreneurs (with more promising business plans) receive greater utility. Competition shifts and rotates the utility schedule, which gives rise to two opposing forces on the returns to specialization as competition intensifies. We then search for validation of the mechanism we propose and we find consistent empirical evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Cabolis, Christos & Dai, Mian & Serfes, Konstantinos, 2014. "Competition and Specialization: Evidence from Venture Capital," School of Economics Working Paper Series 2014-5, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University, revised 05 Oct 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:drxlwp:2014_005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxRDnd8cEKndM2ROckdrTkhfXzQ/view?usp=share_link&resourcekey=0-J4ypPTQiABD9DnHP1C8cOg
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sampsa Samila & Olav Sorenson, 2011. "Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 338-349, February.
    2. Patrick Legros & Andrew F. Newman, 2007. "Beauty Is a Beast, Frog Is a Prince: Assortative Matching with Nontransferabilities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1073-1102, July.
    3. Juan Santalo & Manuel Becerra, 2008. "Competition from Specialized Firms and the Diversification–Performance Linkage," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 851-883, April.
    4. Lerner, Josh, 1995. "Venture Capitalists and the Oversight of Private Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 301-318, March.
    5. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, 2003. "Financial Contracting Theory Meets the Real World: An Empirical Analysis of Venture Capital Contracts," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 281-315.
    6. Paolo Fulghieri, 2009. "Size and Focus of a Venture Capitalist's Portfolio," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(11), pages 4643-4680, November.
    7. Suting Hong, 2013. "Competition, syndication, and entry in the venture capital market," Working Papers 13-49, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    8. Yael V. Hochberg & Alexander Ljungqvist & Yang Lu, 2010. "Networking as a Barrier to Entry and the Competitive Supply of Venture Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(3), pages 829-859, June.
    9. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    10. Teulings, Coen N, 1995. "The Wage Distribution in a Model of the Assignment of Skills to Jobs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(2), pages 280-315, April.
    11. Inderst, Roman & Muller, Holger M., 2004. "The effect of capital market characteristics on the value of start-up firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 319-356, May.
    12. Grossman, Gene M & Shapiro, Carl, 1982. "A Theory of Factor Mobility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 1054-1069, October.
    13. Christopher B. Barry, 1994. "New Directions in Research on Venture Capital Finance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), Fall.
    14. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Strömberg, 2004. "Characteristics, Contracts, and Actions: Evidence from Venture Capitalist Analyses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(5), pages 2177-2210, October.
    15. Paul Gompers & Anna Kovner & Josh Lerner, 2009. "Specialization and Success: Evidence from Venture Capital," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 817-844, September.
    16. Sattinger, Michael, 1993. "Assignment Models of the Distribution of Earnings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 831-880, June.
    17. Gompers, Paul & Lerner, Josh, 2000. "Money chasing deals? The impact of fund inflows on private equity valuation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 281-325, February.
    18. David H. Hsu, 2004. "What Do Entrepreneurs Pay for Venture Capital Affiliation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(4), pages 1805-1844, August.
    19. Jean-Etienne de Bettignies, 2008. "Financing the Entrepreneurial Venture," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(1), pages 151-166, January.
    20. Lang, Larry H P & Stulz, Rene M, 1994. "Tobin's q, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1248-1280, December.
    21. Garicano, Luis & Hubbard, Thomas N, 2007. "Managerial Leverage Is Limited by the Extent of the Market: Hierarchies, Specialization, and the Utilization of Lawyers' Human Capital," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-43, February.
    22. Sahlman, William A., 1990. "The structure and governance of venture-capital organizations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 473-521, October.
    23. Kim, Sunwoong, 1989. "Labor Specialization and the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(3), pages 692-705, June.
    24. Morten Sørensen, 2007. "How Smart Is Smart Money? A Two‐Sided Matching Model of Venture Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2725-2762, December.
    25. George J. Stigler, 1951. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59, pages 185-185.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    2. Suting Hong & Konstantinos Serfes & Veikko Thiele, 2020. "Competition in the venture capital market and the success of startup companies: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 741-791, October.
    3. Christos Cabolis & Mian Dai & Konstantinos Serfes, 2023. "Competition and Specialization in the VC Market: A Non-monotonic Relationship," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 62(3), pages 241-269, May.
    4. Andrew Metrick & Ayako Yasuda, 2011. "Venture Capital and Other Private Equity: a Survey," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(4), pages 619-654, September.
    5. Thomas Hartmann†Wendels & Georg Keienburg & Soenke Sievers, 2011. "Adverse Selection, Investor Experience and Security Choice in Venture Capital Finance: Evidence from Germany," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(3), pages 464-499, June.
    6. Yrjö Koskinen & Michael J. Rebello & Jun Wang, 2014. "Private Information and Bargaining Power in Venture Capital Financing," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 743-775, December.
    7. Jia, Ning & Wang, Dan, 2017. "Skin in the game: General partner capital commitment, investment behavior and venture capital fund performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 110-130.
    8. Grilli, Luca & Murtinu, Samuele, 2014. "Government, venture capital and the growth of European high-tech entrepreneurial firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1523-1543.
    9. Bhanot, Karan & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan, 2022. "Pay for performance, partnership success, and the internal organization of venture capital firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    10. Bottazzi, Laura & Da Rin, Marco & Hellmann, Thomas, 2008. "Who are the active investors?: Evidence from venture capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 488-512, September.
    11. Caselli, Stefano & Garcia-Appendini, Emilia & Ippolito, Filippo, 2013. "Contracts and returns in private equity investments," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 201-217.
    12. Hsu, Hung-Chia Scott, 2013. "Technology timing of IPOs and venture capital incubation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 36-55.
    13. Wang, Lanfang & Wang, Susheng, 2017. "Buybacks as an efficient strategy for venture capital in emerging markets," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 107-123.
    14. Ramana Nanda & Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, 2017. "Coordination Frictions in Venture Capital Syndicates," Harvard Business School Working Papers 17-089, Harvard Business School, revised Dec 2018.
    15. Bengtsson, Ola & Hsu, David H., 2015. "Ethnic matching in the U.S. venture capital market," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 338-354.
    16. Pontus Braunerhjelm & Simon Parker, 2010. "Josh Lerner: recipient of the 2010 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 245-254, October.
    17. Jens Burchardt & Ulrich Hommel & Dzidziso Samuel Kamuriwo & Carolina Billitteri, 2016. "Venture Capital Contracting in Theory and Practice: Implications for Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(1), pages 25-48, January.
    18. Annalisa Croce & Luca Grilli & Samuele Murtinu, 2014. "Venture capital enters academia: an analysis of university-managed funds," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(5), pages 688-715, October.
    19. Richard R. Townsend, 2015. "Propagation of Financial Shocks: The Case of Venture Capital," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(11), pages 2782-2802, November.
    20. Nahata, Rajarishi, 2008. "Venture capital reputation and investment performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 127-151, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Venture capital market; Stage specialization; Competition; Endogenous matching;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:drxlwp:2014_005. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Richard C. Barnett (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbdreus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.