The Determinants of Venture Capital in Europe—Evidence Across Countries

Abstract This article analyses the determinants of European venture capital activity. The main novelty of our work is in accounting for the idiosyncrasies of the European venture capital market. In particular, we investigate whether the size of the merger and acquisition market (M&A) is important in explaining venture capital. Moreover, our work is the first that analyses the impact of the degree of information asymmetry at the macro level, the direct impact of the level of entrepreneurial activity and the impact of the unemployment rate on venture capital activity. We use aggregate data from 23 European countries for the period 1998–2003 to estimate panel data models with fixed and random effects. Our results reveal that the size of the M&A market and the market-to-book ratio have a positive impact on venture capital activity whereas the unemployment rate influences the venture capital market negatively. These results highlight the importance of the exit environment and of the degree of asymmetric information for the venture capital market

Firm Size Effects on Venture Capital Syndication: The Role of Resources and Transaction Costs

The present paper examines firm size effects on the decision of venture capital firms to participate in a venture capital investment syndication network. The authors submit that firm size effects in venture capital syndication are dependent on resource acquisition motives and transaction cost considerations. Analysis of 317 venture capital firms in 6 European countries reveals a curve linear relationship between firm size and venture capital syndication participation. We also find positive and negative moderating effects of firm size. The implication of our findings is that there are both advantages and disadvantages in syndicated investment for the smaller and larger venture capitalist.Firm Size;Resource-Based View;Syndication Networks;Transaction Cost Theory;Venture Capital

Venture capital

The Conservative Government has been keen to stimulate investment in small businesses. In his November 1993 Budget, the Chancellor announced that the Business Expansion Scheme (BES), due to expire at the end of 1993, was to be replaced by the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and that a Consultative Document on venture capital trusts (VCTs) would be published. This Consultative Document was published in March 1994 and outlined a PEP-like system for venture capital. An individual could put a sum of probably £100,000 each year into a segregated fund which would purchase shares in VCTs. The income and gains arising in the fund would be exempt from tax. A VCT would be a quoted investment trust investing in small unquoted companies. Eligibility of investee companies would be similar to BES/EIS relief and a maximum investment of £1 million in any one company would be allowed, of which at least 50 per cent would take the form of equity capital.

Profitability of venture capital investment in Europe and the United States

This paper examines the profitability of venture capital investment in Europe and the United States. It highlights the unfavourable profitability differential of European venture capital investment in comparison with the United States. The investment performance measures used are the internal rate of return (IRR) and investment multiples. The analysis covers aggregated industry returns and venture capital funds' returns aggregated by vintage year. It relies on the VentureXpert private equity and venture capital performance database, maintained by Thomson Venture Economics. It also considers developments in the private equity and venture capital markets in Europe and the United States.venture capital, profitability, performance, IRR, capital investment, Dantas Machado Rosa, Raade

Private equity returns and disclosure around the world

We study the returns the venture capital and private equity investment from 221 venture capital and private equity funds that are part of 72 venture capital and private equity firms, 5040 entrepreneurial firms (3826 venture capital and 1214 private equity), and spanning 32 years (1971 - 2003) and 39 countries from North and South America, Europe and Asia. We make use of four main categories of variables to proxy for value-added activities and risks that explain venture capital and private equity returns: market and legal environment, VC characteristics, entrepreneurial firm characteristics, and the characteristics and structure of the investment. We show Heckman sample selection issues in regards to both unrealized and partially realized investments are important to consider for analysing the determinants of realized returns. We further compare the actual unrealized returns, as reported to investment managers, to the predicted unrealized returns based on the estimates of realized returns from the sample selection models. We show there exists significant systematic biases in the reporting of unrealized investments to institutional investors depending on the level of the earnings aggressiveness and disclosure indices in a country, as well as proxies for the degree of information asymmetry between investment managers and venture capital and private equity fund managers. Klassifikation: G24, G28, G31, G32, G3

What lures cross-border venture capital inflows?

The change in the business model of venture capitalists from investing locally towards investing across borders started to intensify in the late 1990s. According to a dataset of European and North-American countries, we find that countries with higher expected growth and higher lagged stock market returns receive larger net cross-border venture capital inflows. Thus, portfolio companies located in high-growth and high-return countries receive more venture capital from foreign venture capitalists than these countries’ venture capitalists invest in foreign portfolio companies. Also, countries with lower stock market capitalizations as well as those with poor tax and legal environments for venture capital intermediation exhibit larger net cross-border inflows. These findings offer important insights for policy makers since cross-border venture capital inflows partly compensate for potential limits in the domestic venture capital supply. --Venture Capital,Internationalization,Net Cross-Border Inflows,Economic Determinants

ATTRACTING VENTURE CAPITAL TO THE WOODWORKING INDUSTRY OF THE CHERNIVTSI REGION

The downturn on traditional for the Ukrainian venture funds markets (construction, financial, retail) intensified the problem of finding projects attractive for both the venture capital and regional growth. Woodworking industry is among the state’s strategic priorities in many countries, including Ukraine; it is developing in regional clusters with synthetic knowledge base and requires more venture capital for fast innovative transformation. We offer a mechanism for creation and developing of the regional competitive advantages and attraction of venture capital..venture capital, woodworking cluster, innovations

Capital Market Institutions and Venture Capital: Do They Affect Unemployment and Labour Demand?

This paper analyses the influence of the capital market on the labour market. Especially the impact of start-up financing on the structure of unemployment is of interest. We use a cross-country panel data analysis to examine how venture capital investment influences disaggre-gate unemployment. As we expected, venture capital investment has different influences on sectoral-, educational- and occupational-specific unemployment. We suggest, on the basis of the regression results that venture capital investment is a catalyst of structural change and has contributed to the faster growing internet and new economy sector in countries like the U.S. that have a well-developed venture capital market.Labor markets, venture capital, employment, new economy, panel analysis

Does Venture Capital Spur Innovation?

While policymakers often assume venture capital has a profound impact on innovation, that premise has not been evaluated systematically. We address this omission by examining the influence of venture capital on patented inventions in the United States across twenty industries over three decades. We address concerns about causality in several ways, including exploiting a 1979 policy shift that spurred venture capital fundraising. We find that the amount of venture capital activity in an industry significantly increases its rate of patenting. While the ratio of venture capital to R&D has averaged less than 3% in recent years, our estimates suggest that venture capital accounts for about 15% of industrial innovations. We address concerns that these results are an artifact of our use of patent counts by demonstrating similar patterns when other measures of innovation are used in a sample of 530 venture-backed and non-venture-backed firms.