GROWTH AND VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY-BASED SMALL FIRMS THE CASE OF HUNGARY

Venture capital backed enterprises represent a low proportion of companies, even of innovative ones. The research question was, whether these companies have an important role in innovation and economic growth in Hungary compared to other countries. In the first part of the article I present the theoretical background of technology-based small firms, highlighting the most important models and theories of the economic impact and the special development of innovative technology-oriented small firms. In the second part of the article I present the status of the most important indicators of innovation in connection with entrepreneurship, than I elaborate on the measures of start-ups, mainly the high-tech ones with high-growth potential. I describe the current position of venture capital industry, detailing the venture capital investments, with particular emphasis on classical venture capital investments that points out the number and the amount of venture capital investments financing early stage firms with high-growth potential. At the end I summarize the status of Hungarian technology-based small firms and their possibilities to get financial sources form venture capital investors, with regards to the status and the prospects of the JEREMIE program. In Hungary the number of internationally competitive firms, ready and willing to obtain venture capital, is much lower than in the US or Western European countries. Hungary could take advantage of its competitive edges in some special fields of innovation. The efficiency of information flow would reduce the information gap between the demand and the supply side of the venture capital market and more Hungarian firms could be internationally successful through venture capital financing. The recent years’ policy and special programs like JEREMIE generated more transactions, that helped to inform the entrepreneurs about venture capital and helped to co-invest public resources with private equity more efficiently, but the global crisis had negative impact on the industry. The venture capital backed small firms are more likely to create relatively higher economic growth, but because of their low number and the inadequate number of potential companies that are ready to receive venture capital, they can hardly have a high impact on total economic growth in the short run, even with the help of the JEREMIE program

THE ROLE OF VENTURE CAPITAL IN THE BRIDGING OF FUNDING GAPS – A REAL OPTIONS REASONING

Funding gaps occur when for a particular group of enterprises there are not enough available funds to finance their growth. Such enterprises are typically young, innovative and technology-oriented startup companies. These companies do not have significant revenues or collaterals; hence they are not suitable for bank financing. On the other hand the information problems decrease their chances to attract investors and also there is high uncertainty involved in these companies. The method of venture capital financing was established to operate in this financing gap and to provide funds for these technology-oriented, young startup enterprises. There is an extensive literature that highlights that venture capitalists are capable and willing to provide financing for these enterprises as a result of their special expertise and business experience and their sophisticated value creation methods. In this article the authors introduce a real options reasoning in order to give an interpretation of venture capital decision-making method and why venture capital is willing to operate in funding gaps and how it is able to bridge them. With the involvement in the operation of the invested companies venture capitalists create options that increase the value of the firm. Also in option-valuation the higher the uncertainty of the asset is, the higher the value of the option is. That is the reason, why other passive funding forms reject the financing of startup enterprises, while venture capital is willing to provide funds for them. In this article we will describe the problem of funding gaps, than we will introduce real options and their effect on investment decision. In the last part of the article we will demonstrate how real options appear and are created in venture capital financing as a result of its special characteristics and how the real options approach can explain the ability of venture capitalist of bridging funding gaps

CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND VENTURE CAPITAL

Venture capital significantly changes the capital structure of the portfolio company at the time of the investment. Venture capitalists contribute to the company’s success through their active involvement in the management and their added value appears in the increase of the value of the equity. At the same time with taking active role in the management, agency problem occurs, that complicates the cooperation and the success of exit. In this article we search the answer for the question whether the preferred equity, that are commonly used in the US for bridging the agency problem, are used and able to help Hungarian venture capitalists to manage agency problems. On the other hand we examined how the venture capital affect capital structure, how the venture capitalists value added appear in the capital structure. During the evaluation of the three case studies, we came to the conclusion, that the venture capital investments have positive effect on the liabilities of the enterprises, as the capital structure indexes show. However, the investors need the ownership, which help them to step up resolutely, when things change for the worse, and companies need the expertise, which the investors bring with their personal assistance. The investor’s new attitude also has positive effect on a mature company, which has an experienced leader, because he can show another aspect, as a person who come from outside. During the examination of the capital structure, we cannot disregard the events of the company’s environment, which have effects on the firm. The investor’s decisions also appear different ways. Because of this, every venture capital investment is different, just as the capital structure of the firms, in which they invest

The relevance of sports financing

According to estimations sports exploit approximately two percent of world GDP. In addition sports represent an important function in culture, socialization and also in education, act an outstanding role in economy, as well, though academic researchers cannot find positive relationship between sports financing and economic growth. Sports were originally civil actions, with non-profit nature, where they did not aspire to reach high returns, but fulfilment of sport itself. However returns can be realized and reinvested in sports. This paper tries to collect the different aspects of sports financing in order to highlight its relevance

Specialities of the Corporate Tax in Connection with the Sports Organizations

In 2004 Hungary joined the EU, therefore its tax system is harmonized with EU directives and its trade with the EU is liberalized and exempt from customs restrictions. In the past few years Hungarian government introduced significant corporate tax advances in order to increase Hungary’s competitiveness for foreign capital. With the flat 10% corporate tax rate, Hungary has one of the the lowest corporate income tax rate in the European Union. Since 2011 new corporate tax incentive was adopted in order to create a tax advantageous economic environment for supporting the five most popular team sports in Hungary, namely, football, handball, basketball, water polo and ice hockey. The following article provides a rough guide on the corporate taxation – in particular of sport organizations in Hungary