<p><br></p> <p>In my dissertation research I document information price discovery through investments in the alternate asset class of Venture Capital. The two chapters of this dissertation studies the effect of these investments in two different contexts. The first chapter analyses improvements in valuations of venture capital funds through syndication by VC funds. The second chapter documents improvements in stock prices, and valuations, of publicly traded firms through investments by institutional investors in VC funds and in public equity.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In the first chapter I examine the effect of syndication among venture capital (VC) funds on the funds' incentives to manipulate their performance measures. I show that the presence of new syndicate partners reduces misreporting by VC funds. About half of the reduction in manipulation is during the follow-on fundraising period. To identify that syndicate partners reduce performance misreporting I use: (i) a triple-difference approach around fundraising and (ii) availability-of-syndicate-partners as an instrument for the number of new syndicate partners. The implications of my findings are that LPs should better monitor VC funds with fewer new syndicate partners and regulators should consider the presence of peer-monitoring among VC funds before imposing disclosure requirements.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  Chapter two includes John J. McConnell, Timothy E. Trombley, and M. Deniz Yavuz as coauthors. In this chapter we report evidence consistent with institutional investors using industry-level information that they obtain from their investments in venture capital (VC) funds to earn excess returns in publicly-traded equities.  We use court rulings regarding the Freedom of Information Act as an exogenous shock affecting the information flow between VC firms and institutional investors to show that the excess returns are explained by information received via this channel.  Thus, institutional investors serve as conduits of information, making publicly-traded stock prices more efficient.  In the process, institutional investors earn higher returns from their VC investments than implied by the cash flows thereby received. </p>

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Given the importance that entrepreneurship and start-up businesses operating in technology-intensive sectors (biotechnologies, life sciences, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, information & communication technologies, software, etc.) have come to play as part of the processes of economic development and jobs creation, the access of such entrepreneurs and businesses to appropriate levels of corporate finance has become a major focus of policymakers in recent decades. Yet, this gave way to a wide variety of policy models across nation-states and even within nation-states, as levels of government and market actors adapted to those new challenges by refining or transforming pre-existing policies and institutions as well as by crafting new policy tools to address specific needs or interests. This thesis investigates the roots of such policy diversity within countries, offering in-depth accounts of the evolution of Quebec’s and Scotland’s policy strategies in the sector of development capital and sub-sector of venture capital since 1990. As compared to other regions’ or provinces’ in the United Kingdom (such as South East England) or Canada (such as Ontario), Quebec and Scottish regional venture capital ecosystems rely on a high degree of state intervention, either direct (through public investment funds) or indirect (through government-backed, hybrid or tax-advantaged funds). Hence the description of these two regions as “sponsor states,” heavily involved in the strategic backing of innovative businesses. Whereas most of the literature on venture capital has focused on economic variables to explain variations in such public sector involvement across polities however, this thesis seeks to explain policy divergence in Quebec and Scotland through a political and ideological lens. Its main argument is that the development of the venture capital ecosystems in these regions was underpinned by Québécois and Scottish nationalisms, which induced perceived imperatives and ideological preferences for policy autonomy, policy divergence, and state intervention. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the impacts of political ideas on economic policymaking. More specifically, it is a study into the effects of Québécois and Scottish nationalisms on regional policies in the sector of corporate finance, and subsector of venture capital. The question it was devised to answer is as follows: why is it that Quebec and Scotland developed particularly dynamic regional venture capital ecosystems, in which the state (through public investment funds) or state-backed investors (such as hybrid or tax-advantaged funds) play a leading role as compared with other Canadian or British regions? Through an in-depth process-tracing effort aimed at the uncovering of rationales underpinning major policy initiatives in this sector since 1990 and beyond, this thesis shows that minority nationalism contributed to the development of such ecosystems in key ways, notably by inducing perceived imperatives and preferences for policy autonomy, policy asymmetry, and state intervention.

Denna studie introducerar restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) som rekommendationsmodell i kontexten av riskkapital. Ett nätverk av relationer används som proxy för att modellera investerares bolagspreferenser. Studiens huvudfokus är att undersöka hur RBMs kan implementeras för ett dataset bestående av relationer mellan personer och bolag, samt att undersöka om modellen går att förbättra genom att tillföra av ytterligare information. Nätverket skapas från styrelsesammansättningar för svenska bolag. För nätverket implementeras RBMs både med och utan den extra informationen om bolagens ursprungsort. Vardera RBM-modell undersöks genom att utvärdera dess inlärningsförmåga samt förmåga att återskapa manuellt gömda relationer. Resultatet påvisar att RBM-modellerna har en bristfällig förmåga att återskapa borttagna relationer, dock noteras god inlärningsförmåga. Genom att addera ursprungsort som extra information förbättras modellerna markant och god potential som rekommendationsmodell går att urskilja, både med avseende på inlärningsförmåga samt förmåga att återskapa gömda relationer. / In this thesis, we introduce restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) as a recommendation model in the context of venture capital. A network of connections is used as a proxy for investors’ preferences of companies. The main focus of the thesis is to investigate how RBMs can be implemented on a network of connections and investigate if conditional information can be used to boost RBMs. The network of connections is created by using board composition data of Swedish companies. For the network, RBMs are implemented with and without companies’ place of origin as conditional data, respectively. The RBMs are evaluated by their learning abilities and their ability to recreate withheld connections. The findings show that RBMs perform poorly when used to recreate withheld connections but can be tuned to acquire good learning abilities. Adding place of origin as conditional information improves the model significantly and show potential as a recommendation model, both with respect to learning abilities and the ability to recreate withheld connections.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY<p><p>This thesis aims at analysing some aspects of Venture Capital (VC) and high-tech entrepreneurship. The focus is both at the macroeconomic level, comparing venture capital from an international point of view and Technology-Based Small Firms (TBSF) at company and founder’s level in Belgium. The approach is mainly empirical.<p>This work is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on venture capital. First of all, we test the impact of VC on productivity. We then identify the determinants of VC and we test their impact on the relative level of VC for a panel of countries.<p>The second part concerns the technology-based small firms in Belgium. The objective is twofold. It first aims at creating a database on Belgian TBSF to better understand the importance of entrepreneurship. In order to do this, a national survey was developed and the statistical results were analysed. Secondly, it provides an analysis of the role of universities in the employment performance of TBSF.<p>A broad summary of each chapter is presented below.<p><p>PART 1: VENTURE CAPITAL<p><p>The Economic Impact of Venture Capital<p><p>The objective of this chapter is to perform an evaluation of the macroeconomic impact of venture capital. The main assumption is that VC can be considered as being similar in several respects to business R&D performed by large firms. We test whether VC contributes to economic growth through two main channels. The first one is innovation, characterized by the introduction of new products, processes or services on the market. The second one is the development of an absorptive capacity. These hypotheses are tested quantitatively with a production function model for a panel data set of 16 OECD countries from 1990 to 2001. The results show that the accumulation of VC is a significant factor contributing directly to Multi-Factor Productivity (MFP) growth. The social rate of return to VC is significantly higher than the social rate of return to business or public R&D. VC has also an indirect impact on MFP in the sense that it improves the output elasticity of R&D. An increased VC intensity makes it easier to absorb the knowledge generated by universities and firms, and therefore improves aggregate economic performance.<p><p>Technological Opportunity, Entrepreneurial Environment and Venture Capital Development<p><p>The objective of this chapter is to identify the main determinants of venture capital. We develop a theoretical model where three main types of factors affect the demand and supply of VC: macroeconomic conditions, technological opportunity, and the entrepreneurial environment. The model is evaluated with a panel dataset of 16 OECD countries over the period 1990-2000. The estimates show that VC intensity is pro-cyclical - it reacts positively and significantly to GDP growth. Interest rates affect the VC intensity mainly because the entrepreneurs create a demand for this type of funding. Indicators of technological opportunity such as the stock of knowledge and the number of triadic patents affect positively and significantly the relative level of VC. Labour market rigidities reduce the impact of the GDP growth rate and of the stock of knowledge, whereas a minimum level of entrepreneurship is required in order to have a positive effect of the available stock of knowledge on VC intensity.<p><p>PART 2: TECHNOLOGY-BASED SMALL FIRMS<p><p>Survey in Belgium<p><p>The first purpose of this chapter is to present the existing literature on the performance of companies. In order to get a quantitative insight into the entrepreneurial growth process, an original survey of TBSF in Belgium was launched in 2002. The second purpose is to describe the methodology of our national TBSF survey. This survey has two main merits. The first one lies in the quality of the information. Indeed, most of national and international surveys have been developed at firm-level. There exist only a few surveys at founder-level. In the TBSF database, information both at firm and at entrepreneur-level will be found.<p>The second merit is about the subject covered. TBSF survey tackles the financing of firms (availability of public funds, role of venture capitalists, availability of business angels,…), the framework conditions (e.g. the quality and availability of infrastructures and communication channels, the level of academic and public research, the patenting process,…) and, finally, the socio-cultural factors associated with the entrepreneurs and their environment (e.g. level of education, their parents’education, gender,…).<p><p>Statistical Evidence<p><p>The main characteristics of companies in our sample are that employment and profits net of taxation do not follow the same trend. Indeed, employment may decrease while results after taxes may stay constant. Only a few companies enjoy a growth in both employment and results after taxes between 1998 and 2003.<p>On the financing front, our findings suggest that internal finance in the form of personal funds, as well as the funds of family and friends are the primary source of capital to start-up a high-tech company in Belgium. Entrepreneurs rely on their own personal savings in 84 percent of the cases. Commercial bank loans are the secondary source of finance. This part of external financing (debt-finance) exceeds the combined angel funds and venture capital funds (equity-finance).<p>On the entrepreneur front, the preliminary results show that 80 percent of entrepreneurs in this study have a university degree while 42 percent hold postgraduate degrees (i.e. master’s, and doctorate). In term of research activities, 88 percent of the entrepreneurs holding a Ph.D. or a post-doctorate collaborate with Belgian higher education institutes. Moreover, more than 90 percent of these entrepreneurs are working in a university spin-off.<p><p>The Contribution of Universities to Employment Growth<p><p>The objective of this chapter is to test whether universities play a role amongst the determinants of employment growth in Belgian TBSF. The empirical model is based on our original survey of 87 Belgian TBSF. The results suggest that both academic spin-offs and TBSF created on the basis of an idea originating from business R&D activities are associated with an above than average growth in employees. As most ‘high-tech’ entrepreneurs are at least graduated from universities, there is no significant impact of the level of education. Nevertheless, these results must be taken with caution, as they are highly sensitive to the presence of outliers. Young high-tech firms are by definition highly volatile, and might be therefore difficult to understand.<p><p>CONCLUSION<p><p>In this last chapter, recommendations for policy-makers are drawn from the results of the thesis. The possible interventions of governments are classified according to whether they influence the demand or the supply of entrepreneurship and/or VC. We present some possible actions such as direct intervention in the VC funds, interventions of public sector through labour market rigidities, pension system, patent and research policy, level of entrepreneurial activities, bankruptcy legislation, entrepreneurial education, development of university spin-offs, and creation of a national database of TBSF.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: For any country, including South Africa, new business development is critical for the sustained growth and development of the economy. In this study the impact of the transfer of knowledge and skills by the investor to the investee and the impact on the success of private equity, venture capital and angel investments, new business development in South Africa and internationally is researched. A literature study is firstly conducted to determine, from literature, the importance of the transfer of knowledge and skills by the investor to the investee of a new venture. The results from recent research conducted in the United States of America and Europe is also included to determine current global development tendencies. The research highlighted factors, other than merely having a good business idea, which determines the success of a new venture. The global research clearly demonstrates that the active involvement of the angel investors, venture capitalists and private equity investors in new ventures, through the transfer of knowledge and skills, determines the success of the investment in new business development. The survey that was done in the South African venture capital environment seems to support this outcome although the South African market sector is in the early stages of development and focuses mainly on private equity and not so much new business development. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nuwe besigheidsontwikkeling is krities vir enige land, ingeslote Suid Afrika, om deurlopende en volhoubare groei en ontwikkeling van die land se ekonomie te verseker. Hierdie studie het die impak van die oordrag van kennis en vaardighede op die sukses van privatekapitaal- , waagkapitaal- (alternatiewelik – nuwebesigheidsbeleggings) en engelbeleggings in nuwebesigheidsbeleggings vir Suid Afrika en Internationaal, nagevors. ‘n Literatuurstudie om die belangrikeid van die oordrag van kennis en vaardighede, van die belegger na die nuwe besighede, in die gemelde belggingsprosesse vir nuwebesigheidsbeleggings te bepaal, is eerstens gedoen. Die uitkoms van navorsings wat onlangs in die Verenigde State van Amerika en Europa gedoen is, is ook ingesluit om die huidige internationale ontwikkelingstendense rakende nuwebesigheidsbeleggings te bepaal. Die navorsing het die klem geplaas op ander belangrike faktore anders as slegs ’n goeie besigheidsidee, wat die sukses van ‘n nuwe besigheid bepaal. Die internasionale navorsing het duidelik aangedui dat die aktiewe betrokkenheid van beleggers, engel-, waagkapitaal en privatebeleggers, deur die oordrag van kennis en vaardigheid aan die nuwe besigheid, die sukses van die nuwe besigheid en dus die belegging bepaal. Die opname wat in Suid Afrika gedoen is, ondersteun hierdie internasionale bevinding alhoewel die Suid Afrikaanse nuwebesigheidsbeleggings sektor in die vroeë stadium van ontwikkeling is en daar hoofsaaklik gekonsentreer word op privatekapitaalbeleggings, “private equity investments”, terwyl die werklike nuwebesigheidsbeleggings nie soveel aandag geniet nie.

This paper seeks to understand the role of proximity to Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley network effect on venture success. Despite the wealth of literature on the role and importance of geographic proximity in the venture capital process, no studies have specifically examined the impact of geographic proximity to Silicon Valley on venture success. I build my study on existing literature but deviate from past research in the following ways: first, I narrow the research question to the relationship between geographic proximity to Silicon Valley and successful exit; second, I consider success from the perspective of the venture rather than the venture-backing firm; third, I employ a logistical model as well as a linear probability model; fourth I control for endogeneity by isolating first rounds; lastly, I exclude syndicated deals, focusing on 1:1 venture-backing firm-to-venture deals. I use VenureXpert data for Silicon Valley-backed firms located both in and outside Silicon Valley to test hypotheses regarding geographic proximity. The results are significant and suggest that venture location in Silicon Valley is associated with greater venture success. Based on the results, it is clear that the impact of the Silicon Valley network effect is statistically meaningful and should encourage ventures to continue to strategically locate themselves in Silicon Valley.

This bachelor thesis evaluates how high-engagement investors contribute to the development and growth of for-profit social enterprises by providing both funding and non-financial advisory services focused on organisational capacity-building. Case studies on three social enterprises describe the structure of funding deals, what considerations affected these due to the high social character of the ventures, and inquire into the relationship between social enterprise and their investors to evaluate how the investors provide value for their investees beyond capital. The investor types involved include commercial venture capital funds, angel investors, accelerator programs and venture philanthropy funds; a sort of social impact investment fund which combines the high- engagement mentoring of venture capital funds with lower expectations on financial returns in exchange for higher demands on social impact. The findings indicate that high-engagement investors in general provide a wide range of services to the social enterprises studied, where strategic advisory services and networks introductions are identified as key enablers for development. Aligning philosophies on the combination of business and social impact is also identified as critical for a constructive relationship between investor and investee. The perceived value of venture philanthropy funding diverges between the cases; while filling an empty space in the social enterprise capital market, some findings question their capabilities and investment model. Apart from the initial research questions on how high-engagement investors add value to social enterprises, the study raises further questions on social enterprise funding in general and the issues that obstructs these organisations from introducing innovation and growth to underdeveloped markets.

The diploma thesis describes and defines in theoretical part the entire venture capital system, analyzes the individual elements and inner flows. The thesis contains chapters where the reader can meet the term of venture capital, its history and specifics, and various possible types of investment, subjects at venture capital maktet and the investment process. The second part of the thesis focuses on the issues of the venture capital market in Central and Eastern Europe and in detail in the Czech Republic with particular accent on the last period and the changes caused by the financial crisis and includes the limiting factors for the development of this market.

Venture capital é espécie de empreendimento que vincula dois agentes econômicos, empreendedor e investidor, visando ao desenvolvimento de uma ideia inovadora para posterior comercialização no mercado. O empreendedor é detentor de conhecimento sobre a ideia e o investidor possui os recursos para desenvolver o projeto. O negócio se diferencia dos demais pelo alto grau de incerteza e risco do empreendimento e requer o uso de tipos contratuais adequados para sua limitação. O projeto se inicia com a etapa de contratação, na qual as partes negociam a divisão de riscos e retorno do negócio, seguindo-se a etapa de monitoramento do desenvolvimento das atividades. Ao final ocorre o desinvestimento, com a saída do investidor e venda do negócio. Do ponto de vista da Economia, utilizamos a Teoria dos Jogos e apresentamos os problemas informacionais, riscos e incertezas do negócio, e os incentivos para organizar a cooperação entre as partes. Do ponto de vista de Finanças, debatemos a decisão de financiamento do negócio e as alternativas para diversificação dos riscos do investimento, isto é, a possibilidade de limitação dos riscos pela adoção de estratégias de contenção, que aumentam o interesse em contratar o negócio. Do ponto de vista do Direito, avaliamos qual a estrutura contratual ideal para organizar esse tipo de empreendimento. Analisamos as principais formas usadas para organização do negócio, em especial as sociedades limitadas e as sociedades anônimas fechadas. Avaliamos o suporte normativo aplicável, com destaque para a possibilidade de limitação dos riscos do projeto pela aplicação das normas de Direito Societário a esses empreendimentos. Os principais riscos aplicáveis são os riscos de contratação do negócio, os riscos de alocação do poder de decisão entre os sócios e os riscos de interrupção prematura do projeto. Devido à natureza e características do negócio de venture capital, concluímos que esse tipo de projeto é mais bem organizado como um contrato plurilateral e que não há tipo contratual ideal para alinhar os interesses. Dos tipos existentes, a sociedade anônima fechada é o mais adequado, mas incapaz de limitar todos os riscos do negócio. A conclusão é confirmada, parcialmente, pelas evidências empíricas apresentadas. / Venture capital is a business that links two economic agents, entrepreneur and investor, aiming to develop an innovative idea for future sale on the market. The entrepreneur holds knowledge about the idea and the investor has the resources to develop the project. It is distinguished from others by the high degree of uncertainty and risk of the project and requires the use of appropriate contract types for its restriction. The project begins with the contracting stage, in which the parties negotiate the division of risks and return business, followed by the monitoring of the development of the business activities. At the end occurs the divestment, in which the finished business is sold by the investor. From the point of view of Economics, we use Game Theory to present the informational problems, business risks and uncertainties, and the incentives to organize the cooperation between the parties. From the standpoint of Finance, we discuss the decision to finance the business, and alternatives for risk diversification, that is, the possibility of limiting the risks by adopting containment strategies that may increase the interest in contracting. From the point of view of Law, we evaluate the ideal contractual structure for organizing this kind of project. We analyze the main existing contract types, in particular, the limited liability companies and the closed corporations. We present our concerns about the normative support applicable to that type of business, emphasizing the Corporate Law problems. We evaluate the normative support applicable, emphasizing the possibility of limiting the project risks by applying the Corporate Law rules to such ventures. The main risks are the risks applicable to the contracting phase, the risk of incorrect allocation of decision rights between the partners and the risk of premature termination of the project. Due to the nature and characteristics of the venture capital business, we conclude that this type of design is best organized as a plurilateral agreement and that there is no contract type that can be considered ideal to align the interests. Considering all the existing types, the private corporation contract is the most appropriate form, but also unable to limit all the business risks. The conclusion is partially supported by the empirical evidence presented.