Social capital of venture capitalists and start-up funding

How does the social capital of venture capitalists (VCs) affect the funding of start-ups? By building on the rich social capital literature, we hypothesize a positive effect of VCs' social capital, derived from past syndication, on the amount of money that start-ups receive. Specifically, we argue that both structural and relational aspects of VCs' social networks provide VCs with superior access to information about current investment objects and opportunities to leverage them in the future, increasing their willingness to invest in these firms. Our empirical results, derived from a novel dataset containing more than 1,500 first funding rounds in the Internet and IT sector, strongly confirm our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of venture capital and entrepreneurship, showing that the role and effect of VCs' social capital on start-up firms may be more complex than previously argued in the literature

Phylogenetic evidence for the invasion of a commercialized European Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita lineage into North America and New Zealand

Biological control (biocontrol) as a component of pest management strategies reduces reliance on synthetic chemicals, and seemingly offers a natural approach that minimizes environmental impact. However, introducing a new organism to new environments as a classical biocontrol agent can have broad and unanticipated biodiversity effects and conservation consequences. Nematodes are currently used in a variety of commercial biocontrol applications, including the use of Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita as an agent targeting pest slug and snail species. This species was originally discovered in Germany, and is generally thought to have European origins. P. hermaphrodita is sold under the trade name Nemaslug®, and is available only in European markets. However, this nematode species was discovered in New Zealand and the western United States, though its specific origins remained unclear. In this study, we analyzed 45 nematode strains representing eight different Phasmarhabditis species, collected from nine countries around the world. A segment of nematode mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was sequenced and subjected to phylogenetic analyses. Our mtDNA phylogenies were overall consistent with previous analyses based on nuclear ribosomal RNA (rRNA) loci. The recently discovered P. hermaphrodita strains in New Zealand and the United States had mtDNA haplotypes nearly identical to that of Nemaslug®, and these were placed together in an intraspecific monophyletic clade with high support in maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. We also examined bacteria that co-cultured with the nematode strains isolated in Oregon, USA, by analyzing 16S rRNA sequences. Eight different bacterial genera were found to associate with these nematodes, though Moraxella osloensis, the bacteria species used in the Nemaslug® formulation, was not detected. This study provided evidence that nematodes deriving from the Nemaslug® biocontrol product have invaded countries where its use is prohibited by regulatory agencies and not commercially available

Supplementary Methods and Analyses from Risky business: linking <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries

Disciplines such as business and economics often rely on the assumption of rationality when explaining complex human behaviours. However, growing evidence suggests that behaviour may concurrently be influenced by infectious microorganisms. The protozoan, <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>, infects an estimated 2 billion people worldwide and has been linked to behavioural alterations in humans and other vertebrates. Here we integrate primary data from college students and business professionals with national-level information on cultural attitudes toward business to test the hypothesis that <i>T. gondii</i> infection influences individual as well as societal-scale entrepreneurship activities. Using a saliva-based assay, we found that students (<i>n </i>= 1495) who tested IgG positive for <i>T. gondii</i> exposure were 1.4× more likely to major in business and 1.70× more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship' over other business-related emphases. Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, <i>T. gondii</i>-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (<i>n </i>= 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on <i>T. gondii</i> infection from the past 25 years with the global entrepreneurship monitor of entrepreneurial activity, we found that infection prevalence was a consistent, positive predictor of entrepreneurial activity and intentions at the national scale, regardless of whether previously identified economic covariates were included. Nations with higher infection also had a lower fraction of respondents citing ‘fear of failure' in inhibiting initiating new business ventures. While correlational, these results highlight the linkage between parasitic infection and complex human behaviours, including those relevant to business, entrepreneurship, and economic productivity

Supplementary Methods and Analyses from Risky business: linking <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries

Disciplines such as business and economics often rely on the assumption of rationality when explaining complex human behaviours. However, growing evidence suggests that behaviour may concurrently be influenced by infectious microorganisms. The protozoan, <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i>, infects an estimated 2 billion people worldwide and has been linked to behavioural alterations in humans and other vertebrates. Here we integrate primary data from college students and business professionals with national-level information on cultural attitudes toward business to test the hypothesis that <i>T. gondii</i> infection influences individual as well as societal-scale entrepreneurship activities. Using a saliva-based assay, we found that students (<i>n </i>= 1495) who tested IgG positive for <i>T. gondii</i> exposure were 1.4× more likely to major in business and 1.70× more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship' over other business-related emphases. Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, <i>T. gondii</i>-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (<i>n </i>= 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on <i>T. gondii</i> infection from the past 25 years with the global entrepreneurship monitor of entrepreneurial activity, we found that infection prevalence was a consistent, positive predictor of entrepreneurial activity and intentions at the national scale, regardless of whether previously identified economic covariates were included. Nations with higher infection also had a lower fraction of respondents citing ‘fear of failure' in inhibiting initiating new business ventures. While correlational, these results highlight the linkage between parasitic infection and complex human behaviours, including those relevant to business, entrepreneurship, and economic productivity