IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-02313273.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The patterns of venture capital investment in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Fabio Bertoni

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Massimo G. Colombo
  • Anita Quas

Abstract

We study the investment strategies of different types of Venture Capital investors (VCs) using a unique dataset that includes 1,663 VC first investments made by 846 investors in 737 young high-tech entrepreneurial ventures located in seven European countries between 1994 and 2004. Using a transformed Balassa index, we analyze the relative investment specialization of independent VCs, corporate VCs, bank-affiliated VCs and governmental VCs along several dimensions that characterize investments (e.g., syndication, duration and exit mode) and investee companies (e.g., industry of operation, age, size, development stage, location and distance from investor's premises at the time of the investment). Our findings indicate that VC types in Europe differ markedly in their patterns of investment specialization, especially governmental VC on the one side and private VC on the other. We compare our findings with evidence from the USA and find some interesting differences, notably regarding independent and governmental VCs.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabio Bertoni & Massimo G. Colombo & Anita Quas, 2015. "The patterns of venture capital investment in Europe," Post-Print hal-02313273, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02313273
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yan Alperovych & Georges Hübner, 2013. "Incremental impact of venture capital financing," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 651-666, October.
    2. Terttu Luukkonen & Matthias Deschryvere & Fabio Bertoni, 2013. "The value added by government venture capital funds compared with independent venture capital funds," Post-Print hal-02312981, HAL.
    3. Dimov, Dimo & Shepherd, Dean A. & Sutcliffe, Kathleen M., 2007. "Requisite expertise, firm reputation, and status in venture capital investment allocation decisions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 481-502, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Thomas Hellmann & Laura Lindsey & Manju Puri, 2008. "Building Relationships Early: Banks in Venture Capital," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 513-541, April.
    6. Fabio Bertoni & Massimo Colombo & Luca Grilli, 2013. "Venture capital investor type and the growth mode of new technology-based firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 527-552, April.
    7. Ulrich Hege & Frédéric Palomino & Armin Schwienbacher, 2009. "Venture Capital Performance: The Disparity Between Europe and the United States," Finance, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, vol. 30(1), pages 7-50.
    8. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, volume 2, number 2-b.
    9. Mayer, Colin & Schoors, Koen & Yafeh, Yishay, 2005. "Sources of funds and investment activities of venture capital funds: evidence from Germany, Israel, Japan and the United Kingdom," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 586-608, June.
    10. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2013. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, volume 2, number 2-a.
    11. Robert E. Carpenter & Bruce C. Petersen, 2002. "Capital Market Imperfections, High-Tech Investment, and New Equity Financing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 54-72, February.
    12. Dimo Dimov & Eric Gedajlovic, 2010. "A Property Rights Perspective on Venture Capital Investment Decisions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7), pages 1248-1271, November.
    13. 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.
    14. Michel Ferrary, 2010. "Syndication of Venture Capital Investment: The Art of Resource Pooling," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(5), pages 885-908, September.
    15. Gompers, Paul A, 1995. "Optimal Investment, Monitoring, and the Staging of Venture Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1461-1489, December.
    16. Lerner, Josh, 1999. "The Government as Venture Capitalist: The Long-Run Impact of the SBIR Program," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(3), pages 285-318, July.
    17. Cumming, Douglas J. & Grilli, Luca & Murtinu, Samuele, 2017. "Governmental and independent venture capital investments in Europe: A firm-level performance analysis," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 439-459.
    18. Richard C. Levin & Alvin K. Klevorick & Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 1987. "Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(3, Specia), pages 783-832.
    19. Giot, Pierre & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2007. "IPOs, trade sales and liquidations: Modelling venture capital exits using survival analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 679-702, March.
    20. Gupta, Anil K. & Sapienza, Harry J., 1992. "Determinants of venture capital firms' preferences regarding the industry diversity and geographic scope of their investments," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 347-362, September.
    21. 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.
    22. Douglas Cumming & Sofia Johan, 2007. "Advice and monitoring in venture finance," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 21(1), pages 3-43, March.
    23. Bertoni, Fabio & Tykvová, Tereza, 2015. "Does governmental venture capital spur invention and innovation? Evidence from young European biotech companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 925-935.
    24. Schertler, Andrea & Tykvová, Tereza, 2011. "Venture capital and internationalization," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 423-439, August.
    25. Fabio Bertoni & Alexander Groh, 2014. "Cross-Border Investments and Venture Capital Exits in Europe," Post-Print hal-02313142, HAL.
    26. 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.
    27. Douglas Cumming, 2006. "Adverse Selection and Capital Structure: Evidence from Venture Capital," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(2), pages 155-183, March.
    28. Josh Lerner, 2002. "When Bureaucrats Meet Entrepreneurs: The Design of Effective "Public Venture Capital" Programmes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(477), pages 73-84, February.
    29. Erik Lehmann, 2006. "Does Venture Capital Syndication Spur Employment Growth and Shareholder Value? Evidence from German IPO Data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 455-464, June.
    30. Luca Grilli & Samuele Murtinu, 2015. "New technology-based firms in Europe: market penetration, public venture capital, and timing of investment," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 24(5), pages 1109-1148.
    31. Torben Schubert & Hariolf Grupp, 2009. "Tests and confidence intervals for a class of scientometric, technological and economic specialization ratios," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(8), pages 941-950.
    32. Cumming, Douglas, 2007. "Government policy towards entrepreneurial finance: Innovation investment funds," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 193-235, March.
    33. David Audretsch & Erik Lehmann, 2006. "Do locational spillovers pay? empirical evidence from German IPO data," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 71-81.
    34. Laura Bottazzi & Marco Da Rin, 2002. "Venture capital in Europe and the financing of innovative companies [‘Robust financial contracting and the role of venture capitalists’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 17(34), pages 229-270.
    35. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2001. "The Geography of Investment: Informed Trading and Asset Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 811-841, August.
    36. Sahlman, William A., 1990. "The structure and governance of venture-capital organizations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 473-521, October.
    37. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 1999. "Bank-based and market-based financial systems - cross-country comparisons," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2143, The World Bank.
    38. Gary Dushnitsky & Michael J. Lenox, 2005. "When do firms undertake R&D by investing in new ventures?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(10), pages 947-965, October.
    39. Grupp, Hariolf, 1994. "The measurement of technical performance of innovations by technometrics and its impact on established technology indicators," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 175-193, March.
    40. John Armour & Douglas Cumming, 2006. "The legislative road to Silicon Valley," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(4), pages 596-635, October.
    41. Garry D. Bruton & Vance H. Fried & Sophie Manigart, 2005. "Institutional Influences on the Worldwide Expansion of Venture Capital," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 29(6), pages 737-760, November.
    42. 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.
    43. Leleux, Benoit & Surlemont, Bernard, 2003. "Public versus private venture capital: seeding or crowding out? A pan-European analysis," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 81-104, January.
    44. David Devigne & Tom Vanacker & Sophie Manigart & Ine Paeleman, 2013. "The role of domestic and cross-border venture capital investors in the growth of portfolio companies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 553-573, April.
    45. Bent Dalum & Keld Laursen & Gert Villumsen, 1998. "Structural Change in OECD Export Specialisation Patterns: de-specialisation and 'stickiness'," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 423-443.
    46. Paul Gompers, 2002. "Corporations and the financing of innovation: The corporate venturing experience," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 87(Q4), pages 1-17.
    47. Thomas Vollrath, 1991. "A theoretical evaluation of alternative trade intensity measures of revealed comparative advantage," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 127(2), pages 265-280, June.
    48. Massimo G. Colombo & Luca Grilli & Lucia Piscitello & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra (ed.), 2011. "Science and Innovation Policy for the New Knowledge Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13746.
    49. Massimo G. Colombo & Evila Piva & Cristina Rossi‐Lamastra, 2014. "The Sensitivity of High‐Tech Entrepreneurial Ventures' Employment to a Sales Contraction in a Negative Growth Scenario: The Moderating Role of Venture Capital Financing," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 73-87, March.
    50. Gordon Murray, 1999. "Early-stage venture capital funds, scale economies and public support," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(4), pages 351-384, October.
    51. Armin Schwienbacher, 2008. "Venture capital investment practices in Europe and the United States," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 22(3), pages 195-217, September.
    52. Croce, Annalisa & Martí, José & Murtinu, Samuele, 2013. "The impact of venture capital on the productivity growth of European entrepreneurial firms: ‘Screening’ or ‘value added’ effect?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 489-510.
    53. Vladimir I. Ivanov & Fei Xie, 2010. "Do Corporate Venture Capitalists Add Value to Start‐Up Firms? Evidence from IPOs and Acquisitions of VC‐Backed Companies," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 129-152, March.
    54. Fabio Bertoni & Annalisa Croce, 2011. "Policy Reforms for Venture Capital in Europe," Chapters, in: Massimo G. Colombo & Luca Grilli & Lucia Piscitello & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra (ed.), Science and Innovation Policy for the New Knowledge Economy, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    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. Thomas Standaert & Sophie Manigart, 2018. "Government as fund-of-fund and VC fund sponsors: effect on employment in portfolio companies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 357-373, February.
    2. Guerini, Massimiliano & Quas, Anita, 2016. "Governmental venture capital in Europe: Screening and certification," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 175-195.
    3. 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.
    4. Massimo G. Colombo & Samuele Murtinu, 2017. "Venture Capital Investments in Europe and Portfolio Firms' Economic Performance: Independent Versus Corporate Investors," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 35-66, February.
    5. Fabio Bertoni & Massimo G. Colombo & Anita Quas, 2019. "The Role of Governmental Venture Capital in the Venture Capital Ecosystem: An Organizational Ecology Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(3), pages 611-628, May.
    6. Valérie Revest & Alessandro Sapio, 2012. "Financing technology-based small firms in Europe: what do we know?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 179-205, July.
    7. Colombo, Massimo G. & D’Adda, Diego & Pirelli, Lorenzo H., 2016. "The participation of new technology-based firms in EU-funded R&D partnerships: The role of venture capital," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 361-375.
    8. Laura Abrardi & Annalisa Croce & Elisa Ughetto, 2019. "The dynamics of switching between governmental and independent venture capitalists: theory and evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 165-188, June.
    9. 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.
    10. Bertoni, Fabio & Tykvová, Tereza, 2015. "Does governmental venture capital spur invention and innovation? Evidence from young European biotech companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 925-935.
    11. Massimiliano Guerini & Francesca Tenca, 2018. "The geography of technology-intensive start-ups and venture capital: European evidence," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(3), pages 361-386, September.
    12. Johannes Wallmeroth & Peter Wirtz & Alexander Peter Groh, 2017. "Institutional Seed Financing, Angel Financing, and Crowdfunding of Entrepreneurial Ventures: A Literature Review," Working Papers hal-01527999, HAL.
    13. Massimo G. Colombo & Kourosh Shafi, 2016. "The impact of patenting on the size of high-tech firms: the role of venture capital and product market regulation," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 43(1), pages 85-103, March.
    14. Annalisa Croce & Jose Martí & Carmelo Reverte, 2019. "The role of private versus governmental venture capital in fostering job creation during the crisis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 879-900, December.
    15. 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.
    16. Alperovych, Yan & Groh, Alexander & Quas, Anita, 2020. "Bridging the equity gap for young innovative companies: The design of effective government venture capital fund programs," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(10).
    17. Munari, Federico & Toschi, Laura, 2015. "Assessing the impact of public venture capital programmes in the United Kingdom: Do regional characteristics matter?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 205-226.
    18. Wang, Lanfang & Wang, Susheng, 2012. "Economic freedom and cross-border venture capital performance," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 26-50.
    19. Garry A. Gabison, 2015. "Venture Capital Principles in the European ICT Ecosystem: How can they help ICT innovation?," JRC Research Reports JRC98783, Joint Research Centre.
    20. Massimo Colombo & Kourosh Shafi, 2016. "The impact of patenting on the size of high-tech firms: the role of venture capital and product market regulation," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 43(1), pages 85-103, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Venture Capital; Europe; Relative specialization index; Young high-tech companies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    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:hal:journl:hal-02313273. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.