本研究之主要目的在於探討公司自由現金流量與其過度投資之關聯性，並設法瞭解內外部機制是否有助於減緩公司過度投資之代理問題。此外，本研究亦探究公司自由現金流量與債務控制之關聯性，以及債務控制與公司之其他監督機制間之關聯性。本研究發現，公司自由現金流量愈大時，愈可能有過度投資之現象，且此種現象較集中於自由現金流量為正之公司。此外，相較於高成長公司，低成長公司自由現金流量之代理問題較為嚴重，更傾向於過度投資。而在減緩代理問題之機制上，管理階層及機構投資人之持股並無法有效減緩代理成本，或抑制公司過度投資之現象，但或許可藉由債務控制減緩過度投資之問題。再者，本研究推論過度投資之公司可能會傾向於提前適用資產減損之會計處理，以認列其投資損失。最後，公司代理問題愈嚴重時，並不一定會藉由債務控制方式減緩過度投資。而在降低代理成本的作用上，管理者持股、機構投資人持股與債務控制之間具有明顯的互補關係。 / The main purpose of this study is to examine the association between a firm’s free cash flows and its overinvestment. In addition, I also examine the interrelationships between free cash flow, managerial ownership, institutional investors, and debt .The empirical results suggest that overinvestment is concentrated in firms with higher levels of free cash flows and lower opportunities for growth. Further tests find that a firm’s managerial ownership, institutional investors’ ownership may not effectively mitigate its overinvestment. However, debt appears to control overinvestment. Besides, I infer that firms with overinvestment may choose to adopt the accounting standards for asset impairment earlier to recognize their investment losses. Finally, I find evidence that firms may not be using debt control to mitigate their overinvestment, and a firm’s managerial ownership, institutional investors’ ownership and debt may serve as substitutes in controlling its agency costs.

為因應人類生理或心理上的需求，而產生了形形色色之服務。隨著高科技不斷地發展，人類的未來生活，將會是充滿e化服務的生活環境。在此環境中，並非所有人均能了解各應用服務，更不知該選擇何服務才能滿足自身之多重需求。本研究擬設計一決策機制，當人們有多重需求時，能考慮有形及無形資源之有效利用，並考量不同個體之使用偏好及興趣，提供適合個人的e化服務建議。本研究之應用環境，符合垃圾桶模式中的無政府狀態之三大特性，然而原垃圾桶決策方式卻不適用於個人。因此，本研究之主體，為一智慧代理人，將以垃圾桶模式的決策原理做為基礎，並對其加以修改，分為二階段的決策過程。在第一階段，將使用一考量資源使用效率之task-chosen演算法，並搭配增強式學習中之AH-learning演算法；在第二階段，則是使用BDI代理人的架構。本研究所提出之提供e化服務建議的決策機制，預期將促使應用服務能不斷地創新及進步，並使資源獲得更有效之利用，使得人類擁有高品質的生活環境。 / There are manifold services, in order to fulfill people’s physical and mental needs. Through the continuous development of high technique, people will live in the environment surrounding e-services in the future. In this environment, it is hart for everyone to understand all e-services and choose a service to fulfill selves multiple needs. Therefore, the paper presents a decision mechanism which providing suitable e-service suggestion for everyone when they have multiple needs, considering the using utility of resources include tangible and intangible, and different preferences and interests for different people. This paper’s applying environment satisfies the three general properties of organized anarchies of “Garbage Can Model”. However, the decision method in garbage can model is not suitable to individual. The most important part of the paper is an intelligent agent, based on garbage can model theory but modify it appropriately. This intelligent agent uses two phase decision process. First phase, use a task-chosen algorism considering resource utility and AH-learning in reinforcement learning. Second phase, use the architecture of BDI agent. This paper presents a decision strategy providing e-service suggestion, and expects to promote innovative application services and use resource effectively. Finally, all people will enjoy high quality life.

「知識經濟」時代下，知識汰舊換新速度極快，單打獨鬥不及於團隊合作的成效，因此，不論組織或個人均須講求團隊合作。腦力激盪法(Brainstorming)即是透過團隊合作、協同決策的方式產生具有創意的解決方案。本研究結合智慧型代理人的技術與人類獨特的腦力激盪思考方式，利用智慧型代理人的自主性、溝通能力、適應力與學習能力等特性，讓智慧型代理人能在適當的時候代替腦力激盪會議的與會者出席會議，達成會議目標。為了讓智慧型代理人也能模仿人類進行創意思考，本研究以人類主要用來產生創意構思的三種聯想能力做為代理人之推論機制，並結合增強式學習的概念，設計出能根據以本體論表達之概念(Ontology-Based Concept)進行構思激盪之語意式構思學習代理人( Semantic Ideation Learning Agent，SILA )，並架構一個能讓多個SILA進行知識分享與學習的系統環境-腦力激盪式協同決策系統(Collective Brainstorming Decision System, CBDS)。本研究以傳統的腦力激盪決策模式為基礎，結合現代之網路語意表達與代理人技術，期望讓在網路上代表不同角色、身份的代理人，基於其所擁有之構思知識庫 (Idea Knowledge Base)，透過代理人之間的溝通與知識分享，達成代理人自動化協同決策(Collective Decision)之目標。 / In Knowledge Economy Era, the organization and individual are emphasizing on the teamwork instead of single play because of better effectiveness. Brainstorming is a solution that can help organization to generate creative ideas through teamwork and collaboration. This research combines human’s unique brainstorming thinking and the intelligent agent technique for devising an automated decision agent called Semantic Ideation Learning Agent (SILA) (that can represent a session participant to engage the action of brainstorming). In order to make a SILA thinking like human, our research presents a method of Reinforcement Learning grounded on three capabilities of human’s association (similarity, contiguity, contrast) as the SILA’s inference mechanism. Furthermore, the Collective Brainstorming Decision System was build to provide an environment where SILAs can learn and share their knowledge. The aim of this research is to reach automatic collective decision in a brainstorming session through the collaboration of the agents based on the brainstorming decision model and some modern information techniques including knowledge base, semantic web and intelligent agents.

本研究以Chen-Chie（Chen and Chie, 2007）所設計的代理人基模型，探討所得分配對彩券銷售額的影響。這篇論文考量了兩種彩券參與函數，一種是採用模糊推論的方法來呈現代理人購買彩券的決定，在此方式下，並未將可能中奬的期望效果納入。另一種則是以預期效用理論為主軸，並且加入主觀認知的中獎機率。除了彩券參與度外，根據Chen and Chie (2007)的設計，還考慮到兩個購買彩券經驗的觀點，分別是自我意識選號及個體間的獨立性。模型中代理人參數並未固定，取而代之的，是讓代理人具有自動產生參數的能力，所有行為的參數是以遺傳演算法取得其適應性。當代理人進行遺傳演算（社會學習）時，代理人對策略的學習會依照區間的設定，進一步作區域性社會學習及全域社會學習。本論文彙集了上述設計，提供了四種彩券市場行為模型，配合不同的所得分配進行模擬，並且利用統計檢定比較其統計量的變化，分析所得分配對彩券銷售額的影響。 / This study addresses the impact of income distribution on lottery sales using an agent-based modeling approach, specifically, the Chen-Chie model (Chen and Chie, 2007). Two kinds of lottery participation function are considered in this thesis. One is more heuristic and does not require agents’ expectations of the odds. In this case, we use the fuzzy inference system to represent agents’ heuristics. The other explicitly takes agents’ expectations of the odds into account, and a formal expected utility maximization approach is taken. In addition to lottery participation, following Chen and Chie (2007), we also consider two additional empirical aspects of lottery plays, namely, conscious selection and state-dependent utilities. The parameters of agents are not fixed; instead, they are autonomous and all behavioral parameters are adaptive via genetic algorithms. While the population genetic algorithms (social learning) are applied, an idea of nearest neighbors learning is used to further distinguish the global social learning from the local social learning. These setups together give us four behavioral models of lottery markets. We then simulate each of these four markets with different income distribution, and then compare their statistic behavior with statistical test to examine the overall effect of income distribution to lottery sales.

隨著FASB與IASB於2010年將穩健原則從觀念性架構中剔除，以確保財務資訊之中立性，穩健原則之存廢與否開始受到各界廣泛地討論。本文之目的主要係探討導致我國上市上櫃公司財務報表趨於穩健之原因，以檢視穩健原則對於企業財務報表之影響。 過去文獻指出企業之代理問題以及公司治理環境與財務報表穩健性之間可能存在兩種關聯性─替代觀點及補充觀點，而我國之情況係屬於前者；惟本文認為準則規範才是導致我國企業財報具備穩健性之主要原因，且該論點亦獲得本文實證結果支持。 此外，本文亦發現第35號公報適用後，受到該公報影響程度最大之資本密集產業，其財務報表穩健性反而呈現下降的趨勢，顯示管理階層可能為了因應該公報對其盈餘之衝擊而進行盈餘操縱，使其財務報導品質因而降低；有鑑於此，本文對於穩健原則是否真能有效提升財務報導品質，仍持保留的態度。

自1970年代第一部個人電腦(PC, Personal Computer)的出現，以開放的架構開啟了一連串資訊革命，改變了人們學習與工作的方式。隨後在1980年代起，整體PC產業上中下游的產業鏈也為台灣帶來了經濟上高速的成長。 這樣的高速成長在2000年後逐漸有了微妙的變化，以台灣與中國大陸為主的硬體代工供應鏈，為硬體的低價提供了穩固的後勤保障，PC硬體的品牌形象隨著PC的應用轉以網際網路內容與雲端應用而逐漸式微。在2000年中期，隨著網際網路產業的興盛更進一步加速行動化應用技術的成熟。如此的變化讓許多網際網路應用的服務提供者得以挑戰傳統PC軟體與硬體的龍頭如微軟、英特爾、惠普、戴爾與IBM的領導地位。 過去近三十年間，以PC產業為主的電子資訊產業佔據了所謂高科技與創新的舞台之際，在近年來也不斷試圖以各式創新，如硬體本身的多樣化、時尚化，與多角化措施，如轉投資雲端服務、行動裝置或多品牌策略等，試圖在新的競賽中搶佔新的席位。但在無法脫離原本業所帶來的利益與包袱之下，常有運用原有人力、資金、管理團隊與思維來啟動新事業的情形，造成轉型的困境。 筆者有幸服務於曾參與PC產業榮景的領導廠商之一，也同樣見證其與近十年主要的多角化歷程，希望藉由本研究將其多角化的動機、作法與未能成功的原因以個案方式呈現，輔以相關學理與從業經驗分析，期能為類似業者在進行多角化措施提供貼近實務的參考範例。 本研究的問題有三點:為身處高門檻高獲利的寡占廠商的分析其(1)多角化動機(2)多角化作法與(3)可能失敗的原因 透過收集整理公開資料與曾參與多角化產品行銷的人員訪談，本研究得到以 下結論(1) 企業多角化策略制定應考慮管理團隊專長 (2) 多角化產品開發應以獨立組織或合資方式進行 (3) 公司多角化策略應注意代理人問題 (4) 公司多角化策略應參考其本業的競爭優勢建立條件。 / The PC has changed the way we work and learn dramatically since it was introduced in 1970. Meantime, the information technologies have been through a continuous revolution base on the open hardware and software architecture of PC as well. Taiwan also benefits from the booming PC industry, as a key partner of PC supply chain, and has created a huge economic growth since 1980s. The landscape of PC industry has shifted gradually in early 2000s resulted from particular changes. The PC supply chain from Taiwan provides cost-effective hardware to make low-cost notebook happened and in addition to that, the internet and cloud application are altering the focus on brand image of PC hardware vendors to internet-based services providers, plus the booming internet industry has facilitated the readiness of mobile application from mid-2000s. All those changes allow the internet-based services providers to challenge the leadership of the giants from PC industry, such as Microsoft, Intel, HP, Dell and IBM. For last three decades, PC industry played the crucial role of high-tech innovation and it never stop to keep the leading positon via innovation to various and trendy ID design, diversification with cloud services, mobile devices as well as multi-brand strategies in recent years. However it is not easy to start up a new business with the benefit and limitation from original business thus the enterprise transformation would fail most likely. It’s been a pleasure for me to work for couple leading companies in PC era and witnessed part of the effort to diversification in “A company”. I expect to bring similar vendors a practical case study on the motivation, strategies and potential causes of failure of its diversification with recommendations generated from diversification theory and personal experience in field. There are three goals to this study: to analyze and find the (1) motivation of diversification (2) diversification strategy and (3) potential causes of failure, for a high profit company with high-entry barrier in oligopoly market. This study has reached the conclusions via collected and analyzed the public data and interviewed with key persons involved in diversification process of “A company”: (1) Diversification Strategy shall be incorporated with the expertise of leadership team (2) Production diversification shall be managed by an independent organization or a joint venture. (3) Diversification Strategy shall be observant to agency problem (4) Diversification Strategy shall be referred to and leveraged the elements of competition advantages in original business.

代理與代工雖然本質上都難逃為人作嫁的宿命，但其與品牌原廠間的關係卻是大相逕庭；尤其在工業儀表產業，代理商與原廠間除了代理人與主理人的代理合作關係外，還會因各自是否具備系統整合能力而有著另一種微妙的競爭關係。 所以，本研究是藉由探討一家具有系統整合能力的代理商，在其面對不同原廠時的各種策略邏輯，以深入了解其經營模式與成功因素，及探討代理商要如何經營與原廠的關係、如何依靠原廠資源來茁壯、如何避免辛苦耕耘的市場被原廠過河拆橋、及被終止代理權後如何繼續生存⋯⋯等，代理商與原廠間的各種經營問題，並藉由賽局理論來分析「原廠」與「代理」的各自優勢策略：  代理商的優勢策略思維－”以競促合，合中有競”： 1. 在銷售產品的同時，搭售自行創價的產品及服務，提昇代理商的不可取代性。 2. 對於銷售重心品牌／產品一定要有備案選擇。 3. 要有自知之明，最好／最強的產品不一定最適合，「門當戶對」的代理關係才能長久。  原廠的優勢策略思維－”以戰止競，順昌逆亡”： 不斷強化自身產品、技術層次為目標，使其成為市場上不論是規格、技術、價格、⋯⋯⋯等各方面都是最佳選擇，則代理商只是各種通路的選項之一，絕不會發生”尾巴搖狗”的不合理現象。 而依本研究的實際個案分析結論，發現個案中原廠與代理商的關係並非單純的”合作”或是”競爭”甚或是”雙贏“等靜態關係，其關係應是”競中有合、合中有競”的動態共生關係，而”競”與”合”的存在比例則是隨著時間、賽局、環境等因素的不同而隨時在變化。 / Generally speaking, the fate of the sales agent and the OEM agent are similar in someway, however their relationships with the principals are quite different from each other, especially when it refers to the industrial analyzer business. It will be a kind of co-opetition relationship between agent and principal while the agent or the principal has the capacity of system integration. This study, taking a local Taiwanese company which represents multi foreigner analyzer brands and is capable of system integration, as an example, attempts to figure out the relationship between agent and principal and then develops the dominant strategies of each parties through the case study and the game theory analyzing.  The dominant strategy of agent: enforcing the principal to cooperate by competition, therefore the cooperation contains competing. 1. To strengthen the agent’s corporate image to the customers by bundling the value-added products while selling principals’ products. This is to prevent the principal to replace the agent easily while they want to change the agent or set up the local branch. 2. Agent must always have alternative products as back up, especially for the major income products. 3. A compatible principal is the optima choice, not the best one.  The dominant strategy of the principal: inhibiting the competition by empowering themselves, therefore threating the agent to obey or die. Never allow tail wagging the dog. From this study, it shows the relationship between agent and principal is sort of dynamic “co-opetition” relationship and the existing percentages of “cooperation” and “competition” are varied in time, games, environment, …etc., instead of static one.

隨著創新時代來臨，政府透過創新的政策推動藉以滿足民眾最新的需求或與民眾產生更好的互動方式，政府部門的創新力近年來亦成提升政府服務品質的關鍵，同時透過政府間對創新政策的相互仿效，形成E.M.Rogers所提出的「創新擴散」（diffusion of innovations）效應。　　　　　　　　 臺北市政府即以美國紐約市「311專線」政策為藍本，於2005年啟用「1999專線」至2014年1月，其後有高雄市及新北市等共17個縣市陸續採用，顯見1999專線於政策擴散的效應，並直接影響各地方政府間及政府與民眾間的互動關係。因此本研究透過四個構面去分析：（1）我國1999專線政策於地方政府間擴散情形；（2）創新先驅者臺北市政府變遷代理人於傳佈各階段所扮演的角色；（3）臺北都會區創新決策過程；（4）臺北都會區創新政策擴散的後果。為探究臺北都會區從啟用至執行1999專線的情形，本研究透過文獻內容分析法、次級資料法與質化深度訪談法進行資料的統整與分析。經由創新擴散理論為架構，探析地方政府間擴散學習的效應及影響組織創新決策的過程，以作為其他縣市的參考。 　　本研究結果發現：（1）創新性分數較高多為直轄市或與創新先驅者鄰近之都會區、擴散型態呈現各式曲線分佈；（2）變遷代理人於擴散各階段扮演不同角色；（3）臺北都會區具有實施動機較高、相對優勢較高、政府網絡關係較高、組織內部資源與規模較高等創新優勢；（4）影響民眾知曉度主要為意見領袖；影響民眾滿意度主要因素為是否能滿足民眾的需求。本研究建議如下：（1）建置地方政府創新政策知識庫；（2）建立縣市創新政策交流機制；（3）建議中央鼓勵我國縣市全面實施。 / As the age of innovation comes, the government satisfies the public’s latest needs and builds a better way to interact with the public by carrying out innovative policies. Besides, innovation had played a key role in increasing governmental service quality for the past few years. Meanwhile, through mutual imitation of innovation between governments, the diffusion of innovations, pointed out by E.M.Rogers, was formed. 　　Based on New York City’s Hotline 133, Hotline 1999 was launched in Taipei by Taipei City Government in 2005, and was then adopted by totally 17 cities and counties one after another until January 2014, including Kaohsiung and New Taipei City, which showed the effect of Hotline 1999’s policy diffusion, and the significant impact to the relation between local governments and among governments and the public. Thus Hotline 1999 project was analyzed by 4 aspects in this study: 1. The diffusion condition of Hotline 1999 on local governments, 2. The roles played by Change agent of Taipei City government, as an innovation pioneer, in each stage of diffusion, 3. Innovation policy decision process in the metropolitan areas of Taipei, and 4. The consequences of the above said diffusion. To discuss the whole process of Hotline 1999 from the very beginning to implementing, the data will be complied and analyzed though document analysis, secondary data analysis, and In-Depth Interviews. Besides, through Innovation Diffusion Theory as the framework, we discuss the learning effect of local governments and the process of innovation policy decision that influenced organizations for the further reference to other cities and counties. 　　The research findings include the following: 1. Directly Controlled Cities and the metropolis that neighbor on innovators score higher in innovativeness, 2. Change Agent played different roles as problem locators and innovation satisfaction, etc, 3. Taipei’s metropolitan areas have several innovation advantages: incentive to implement, relative advantage, stronger network among governments, and abundant resources and bigger scope, and 4. Public’s awareness was raised mainly by opinion leader, and degree of satisfaction depends on whether public needs are met. The suggestions are as follows : 1. Build a knowledge base for local government innovation policies, 2. Provide a mechanism for exchange of innovation policies, and 3. Central government should encourage the entire nation to implement the project.

本論文採用事件研究法，以2008到2012年間美國紐約證交所上市公司共計1423個購併案件為樣本進行實證，利用累積異常報酬(CAR)的統計檢定與複迴歸分析去探討主併公司在宣告購併時，股價反應是否會因為主併公司之執行長為創辦人而有所不同。投資人會因考量到代理人問題，對於創辦人執行長做出的購併決策較具信心而使股價上揚，亦或是認為創辦人反而容易被過去成功的思維和作法所牽制而做了錯誤的購併決策，為本文討論重心。 本研究結果共有三點，第一，創辦人執行長之主併宣告效果不顯著，但非創辦人執行長之主併宣告效果顯著為正，兩樣本間的差異則無顯著異於零。第二、由迴歸分析之結果可得知，創辦人是否為執行長之變數對於主併公司宣告效果具有顯著的影響，當執行長為創辦人時對股價之影響為負向。第三、將兩樣本分別做迴歸檢定並和總樣本之結果進行比較，發現主併公司之成立年數對創辦人執行長之宣告效果產生負影響，顯示出市場認為創辦人容易因過去的成功經驗而傾向維持既有策略，導致無法做出開創性之購併決策。此外，執行長持有的股票選擇權比率高低對於宣告效果有顯著的影響，當持有比率越高時宣告效果越好，此結果佐證股票選擇權能夠降低代理人問題、使股價有正向反應之論述。

雖然近年來的文獻已嘗試以有系統的方式，探討創投的參與投資，是否有助於提昇被投資公司的價值，然而這些實證研究卻鮮少剖析創投是透過何種途徑來影響被投資公司的價值。再者，此類研究往往從被投資公司上市、上櫃時的股票折價幅度，來探討創投的介入是否對於被投資公司的價值有所貢獻，不過卻較少針對被投資公司的長期經營績效和上市、上櫃後的股價績效進行分析，特別是有關創投對於被投資公司的經營績效影響之相關研究仍付之闕如。因此，本研究嘗試為相關研究另闢蹊徑，以期瞭解創投的參與投資是否確實為被投資公司帶來實質的貢獻。 首先，經由文獻探討和個案分析得知，將代理理論引用至本研究主題確實具有合理性。因此，本研究以代理理論的觀點，嘗試克服傳統「基本主理人──代理人的模式」之限制，並藉由Von Neumann-Morgenstern 效用函數而針對創投的介入對於被投資公司在經營績效和技術上的影響進行理論模式推導，故本研究的理論模式不僅強調技術的提昇為刺激高科技公司產出增加的原動力之外，同時亦考量監控機制和激勵制度彼此可能具互補性的特質。 本研究的各個研究假說分別演繹自理論模式結論或歸納自文獻探討暨個案分析。在實證研究方面，本研究將實證分為三個層次：第一層次係比較國內有創投參與投資的上市、上櫃公司和無創投參與投資的上市、上櫃公司，其在長期經營績效與短期股價表現上是否具有差異性。實證結果發現，有創投參與投資的公司，其在長期經營績效和短期股價表現上皆較無創投參與投資的公司來得差；不過，創投的介入確實承擔了被投資公司本身的部分風險。 實證的第二層次則在於檢視，創投是透過何種途徑來影響被投資公司的績效表現。實證結果顯示，主要創投的持股比例、參與被投資公司的創投家數、創投佔被投資公司的董監事席位比例、創投所承擔被投資公司的技術股股本佔總資本額的比例，或創投投資被投資公司的時點越早，皆對於被投資公司的長期經營績效表現有顯著的正面影響。 另外，創投佔被投資公司的董監事席位比例、創投所承擔被投資公司的技術股股本佔總資本額的比例、主要創投成立的年數越長，或創投參與被投資公司的時點越早，則對於被投資公司上市、上櫃後的短期股價表現有顯著的正面影響。 實證之第三層次，旨在探討創投的參與投資是否加速被投資公司上市、上櫃的時間。根據實證結果得知，有創投參與投資的公司，其從公司設立至上市、上櫃的時間確實較無創投參與投資的公司來得短，此意謂創投可加速被投資公司上市、上櫃的時間，使得被投資公司可以較早在資本市場上募得資金。 綜合上述實證結論，囿限於國內創投的籌資壓力和追逐聲譽的壓力，以及在「逆選擇」的前提之下，導致國內有創投參與投資的公司其績效表現較無創投參與投資的公司來得差。然而，本研究的實證結果並不否定創投的能力，換言之，本研究的實證結果肯定創投的專業能力和監控能力，同時亦肯定創投在國內產業升級上所扮演的重要角色。 / Although recent work attempts to explore what venture capitalists do and whether venture capitalists' involvement adds value for venture-capital-backed firms, it does not investigate the ways in which venture capitalists add value to their portfolio companies.　Moreover, recent empirical research usually investigates whether venture capitalists' involvement reduces underpricing when their portfolio firms going public, but it seldom explicitly examines the effect of the presence of venture capitalists on operating performance of venture-capital-backed firms.　As a matter of fact, a number of issues relate to the relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have not been fully addressed.　Therefore, the objective of this study is to fill both theoretical and empirical gaps. This study applies agency theory which captures the essence between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, and use Von Neumann-Morgenstern utility function to analyze the effect of venture capitalists' involvement on their portfolio firms' operating performance and skills.　Our theoretical model not only considers the importance of new technology in modern economies, but also includes the possibility that these two control mechanisms, monitoring and incentives, might be complementary. Moreover, empirical results of this study reveal several important findings.　First, we contrast venture-capital-backed firms with companies that have no venture-capital backing. Our empirical results indicate　operating performance and after-market stock performance of firms with venture-capital backing are both inferior to that of firms without such backing, and the differences are statistically significant.　However, venture-capital-backed firms seem to have lower levels of firm risk. Secondly, empirical results provide evidence that the fraction of equity holdings of the lead venture capitalist, the number of venture capitalists, the number of the venture-capital-backed firm's board seats held by venture capitalists, stock compensation system and the length of time that venture capitalists have invested are all positively associated with operating performance of venture-capital-backed firms. In addition, the number of the venture-capital-backed firm's board seats held by venture capitalists, stock compensation system, the age of the lead venture and the length of time that venture capitalists have invested are positively associated with after-market stock performance of firms with venture-capital backing.　Not surprisingly, empirical results also provide evidence that venture-capital-backed firms go public earlier than non-venture-capital-backed firms. Overall, the results of this study support the idea that venture capitalists do provide much more than financing to their portfolio firms.　However, in a venture capital setting, adverse selection, grandstanding and money-recycling are important concerns; these　concerns might explain why performance of venture-capital-backed firms are significantly inferior to that of non-venture-capital-backed firms.　Indeed, our findings support the notion that venture capitalists' investment behavior does influence performance of their portfolio firms in a number of ways due to their skills, expertise and monitoring abilities.