IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/eufman/v15y2009i1p92-111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Venture Capitalists a Catalyst for Innovation?

Author

Listed:
  • Stefano Caselli
  • Stefano Gatti
  • Francesco Perrini

Abstract

In this paper we test two hypotheses concerning the presence of innovation in venture capital investments and the growth of innovative venture backed firms. To examine these hypotheses we considered sample of 37 Italian venture backed firms that went public on the Italian Stock Exchange between 1995 and 2004 and by a statistical matching procedure we picked 37 twin firms among the non‐venture backed IPOs for the same period. Our evidence shows that innovation is an important factor during the selection phase but once the investment is made, the company does not promote continued innovation and concentrates all efforts to improve other economic and managerial aspects.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefano Caselli & Stefano Gatti & Francesco Perrini, 2009. "Are Venture Capitalists a Catalyst for Innovation?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 15(1), pages 92-111, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:eufman:v:15:y:2009:i:1:p:92-111
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-036X.2008.00445.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-036X.2008.00445.x
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Black, Bernard S. & Gilson, Ronald J., 1998. "Venture capital and the structure of capital markets: banks versus stock markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 243-277, March.
    2. Bergemann, Dirk & Hege, Ulrich, 1998. "Venture capital financing, moral hazard, and learning," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 703-735, August.
    3. Donald B. Rubin, 1977. "Assignment to Treatment Group on the Basis of a Covariate," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 2(1), pages 1-26, March.
    4. Anton, James J & Yao, Dennis A, 1994. "Expropriation and Inventions: Appropriable Rents in the Absence of Property Rights," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 190-209, March.
    5. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 287-343, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Timmons, Jeffry A. & Bygrave, William D., 1986. "Venture capital's role in financing innovation for economic growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 161-176.
    7. Admati, Anat R & Pfleiderer, Paul, 1994. "Robust Financial Contracting and the Role of Venture Capitalists," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(2), pages 371-402, June.
    8. Joshua Lerner, 2002. "Boom and bust in the venture capital industry and the impact on innovation," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 87(Q4), pages 25-39.
    9. Ingolf Dittmann & Ernst Maug & Johannes Kemper, 2004. "How Fundamental are Fundamental Values? Valuation Methods and their Impact on the Performance of German Venture Capitalists," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 10(4), pages 609-638, December.
    10. Kanniainen, Vesa & Keuschnigg, Christian, 2004. "Start-up investment with scarce venture capital support," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1935-1959, August.
    11. Jeng, Leslie A. & Wells, Philippe C., 2000. "The determinants of venture capital funding: evidence across countries," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 241-289, September.
    12. repec:fth:harver:1473 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Steven N. Kaplan & Antoinette Schoar, 2005. "Private Equity Performance: Returns, Persistence, and Capital Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1791-1823, August.
    14. Josh Lerner & Antoinette Schoar, 2005. "Does Legal Enforcement Affect Financial Transactions? The Contractual Channel in Private Equity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 120(1), pages 223-246.
    15. McCann, Joseph E., 1991. "Patterns of growth, competitive technology, and financial strategies in young ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 189-208, May.
    16. 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.
    17. Tyzoon T. Tyebjee & Albert V. Bruno, 1984. "A Model of Venture Capitalist Investment Activity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1051-1066, September.
    18. Belén Villalonga, 2004. "Diversification Discount or Premium? New Evidence from the Business Information Tracking Series," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(2), pages 479-506, April.
    19. Samuel Kortum & Josh Lerner, 1998. "Does Venture Capital Spur Innovation?," NBER Working Papers 6846, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Hillion, Pierre & Vermaelen, Theo, 2004. "Death spiral convertibles," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 381-415, February.
    21. Gifford, Sharon, 1997. "Limited attention and the role of the venture capitalist," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 459-482, November.
    22. Megginson, William L & Weiss, Kathleen A, 1991. "Venture Capitalist Certification in Initial Public Offerings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 879-903, July.
    23. Chan, Yuk-Shee & Siegel, Daniel R & Thakor, Anjan V, 1990. "Learning, Corporate Control and Performance Requirements in Venture Capital Contracts," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(2), pages 365-381, May.
    24. Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner, 2001. "The Venture Capital Revolution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 145-168, Spring.
    25. Thomas Hellmann & Manju Puri, 2002. "Venture Capital and the Professionalization of Start-Up Firms: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 169-197, February.
    26. Kanniainen, Vesa & Keuschnigg, Christian, 2004. "Start-up investment with scarce venture capital support," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1935-1959, August.
    27. Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner & David Scharfstein, 2005. "Entrepreneurial Spawning: Public Corporations and the Genesis of New Ventures, 1986 to 1999," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 577-614, April.
    28. Amit, Raphael & Brander, James & Zott, Christoph, 1998. "Why do venture capital firms exist? theory and canadian evidence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 441-466, November.
    29. Samuel Kortum & Josh Lerner, 2000. "Assessing the Contribution of Venture Capital to Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(4), pages 674-692, Winter.
    30. Tykvová, Tereza, 2003. "The Decision of Venture Capitalists on Timing and Extent of IPOs," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-12, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    31. Joshua S. Gans & David H. Hsu & Scott Stern, 2002. "When Does Start-Up Innovation Spur the Gale of Creative Destruction?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(4), pages 571-586, Winter.
    32. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.),Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    33. Hall, Bronwyn H & Ziedonis, Rosemarie Ham, 2001. "The Patent Paradox Revisited: An Empirical Study of Patenting in the U.S. Semiconductor Industry, 1979-1995," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(1), pages 101-128, Spring.
    34. Laura Bottazzi & Marco Da Rin, 2002. "Venture capital in Europe and the financing of innovative companies," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 17(34), pages 229-270, April.
    35. Bürgel, Oliver & Fier, Andreas & Licht, Georg & Murray, Gordon, 2000. "Internationalisation of high-tech start-ups and fast growth-evidence for UK and Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-35, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    36. Paul A. Gompers & Josh Lerner, 1999. "What Drives Venture Capital Fundraising?," NBER Working Papers 6906, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Gorman, Michael & Sahlman, William A., 1989. "What do venture capitalists do?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 231-248, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    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:bla:eufman:v:15:y:2009:i:1:p:92-111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley Content Delivery). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/efmaaea.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.