An Economic Geography Of Venture Capital Investment In Canada

This dissertation investigates the supply and demand components of Canadian venture capital investment. Four areas are addressed: (1) where venture capital firms and their investments are located, (2) investment specialization of firms in different urban markets, (3) the spatial pattern of portfolio firm industrial sector and funding stage characteristics and (4) the economic impact of portfolio firms. These investigations are based on data gathered from industrial directories, surveys of both venture capitalists and their investments, and an online database of export oriented firms.;Venture capital investors are highly concentrated and regionally biased in their portfolio selections. Further, investors located in particular urban markets specialize in certain geographic regions, funding stages and industrial sectors. The resulting spatial patterns are the aggregate result of efforts to minimize uncertainty and reduce the inherent risk of ventures. Investigation of the performance and economic impacts of venture backed firms showed that venture capitalists usually invest in the elite of small and medium sized companies. These firms typically have above average rates of growth, and strong financial positions. They commit relatively large amounts of capital to research and development activity, and are highly export oriented. As a result of their rapid growth, they generate many new employment opportunities

Using the I-MARKOR scale to identify market-oriented individuals in the financial services sector

Purpose – Extant studies of the market orientation of service firms rarely consider the contribution of individual employees to the realization of this orientation. Existing scales that measure market orientation reveal the perceptions of a key informant about the dominant orientation within the firm. These scales do not measure the willingness of employees to act in a market-oriented way. This paper aims to report the development of a multi-dimensional scale of individual market-oriented behavior. Design/methodology/approach – The scale development process included identification of items from focus groups with employees of a major Canadian financial services firm and the market orientation literature. A pretest with marketing practitioners and academics helped to purify and reduce the number of items. Finally, a sample of North American financial services employees responded to the items in a web-based questionnaire. Findings – Confirmatory factor analysis of the responses confirmed the presence of a single latent construct with three dimensions: information acquisition, information sharing and strategic response, measured by 20 items. Research limitations/implications – Although scale validation included both qualitative and quantitative tests that triangulated the opinions of multiple stakeholders in the service delivery chain, future research must also test the predictive validity of this scale. Practical implications – Such research is important to increase understanding of how service organizations foster market orientation. The I-MARKOR augments the organizational scorecard approach with individual level measurement. Originality/value – The scale provides a method to assess differences between individuals within an organization, enabling empirical research on differences between departments, roles, training and other characteristics that may influence the extent to which an individual performs market-oriented behaviors

Individual-level antecedents to market-oriented actions

Although often assessed at an organizational level, a market-oriented culture is supported by the attitudes and actions of the organization\u27s employees. A firm cannot develop a market orientation strategy without each employee\u27s active understanding, willingness, and ability to perform in a market-oriented fashion. Therefore, individual employees must experience a responsibility to gather and assess the value of market information, and a willingness to share it with other employees. We surveyed a cross-section of employees at many levels and roles in different North American financial services organizations. This research identified important individual-level antecedents that organizations must account for when attempting to stimulate company-wide market-oriented behaviors. These include the fostering of high-quality and matched psychological contracts, modeling of learning strategies by agile learners, and increased opportunities and time to develop personal ties between customers and employees in diverse roles within the firm

Internal stakeholder views of a market orientation strategy: Implications for implementation

The market orientation literature focuses upon external stakeholders as the content or target of a market orientation strategy. This is problematic for understanding the successful implementation of a market orientation strategy because internal stakeholders provide the link between strategy‐makers and external stakeholder targets. Anchored in market orientation, dynamic capabilities, and stakeholder research, the study describes how internal stakeholders in a market orientation process can impede or encourage the achievement of market‐oriented objectives by a market‐oriented company. Focus groups were conducted with both management and non‐management employees of a large market‐oriented financial services organisation that recently introduced a market‐oriented agency call program. The extent to which the company is market‐oriented was determined through preliminary interviews with senior executives and distributor/customers. Results highlight: (1) program antecedents related to employee disposition and control; (2) potentially competing program objectives (relationship and knowledge acquisition); (3) issues of role conflict, time constraints; and (4) the need to confirm program value through feedback solicited from other stakeholders

Inexperienced decision-makers' use of positive heuristics for marketing decisions

Purpose: Research has reliably demonstrated that decision-makers, especially expert ones, use heuristics to make decisions under uncertainty. However, whether decision-makers with little or no experience also do, and if so, how? is unknown. This research addresses this issue in the marketing context by studying how a group of young and generally inexperienced entrepreneurs decide when asked to set a price and choose a distribution channel in a scenario involving a hypothetical firm. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used think-aloud protocols to elicit data and then used inductive procedures to code the data for analysis. Findings: The inexperienced entrepreneurs in the sample used three types of heuristics in their decision-making, forming a structured process that narrows in scope. First, metacognitive heuristics, which specify a decision-making approach, were used, followed by heuristics representing the criteria they considered, and finally, heuristics detailing the execution of a selected option. The authors also found that heuristics relating to a market orientation, especially customer-centric criteria, were the most common, but these were balanced with ones representing an internal orientation or growth. Research limitations/implications: The generally inexperienced decision-makers the authors’ studied used heuristics in a structured way that helped them to select and balance several potentially conflicting decision-making criteria. As with most research using qualitative research designs, the generalizability of these findings is unclear. Further research on the mechanisms by which relatively inexperienced decision-makers learn the heuristics they use is recommended. Originality/value: This research's novelty lies in its focus on heuristic use by nonexpert decision-makers under conditions of uncertainty and the findings about their scope and the order they are used. As the authors collected data from think-aloud protocols with relatively young entrepreneurs with limited experience, they also offer a description of the heuristics used by nascent entrepreneurs when making marketing decisions about pricing and channels. The most surprising conclusion is that even without relevant domain-specific knowledge, decision-makers can use heuristics in an ecologically rational way (i.e. structured to match the environment).Peer reviewe

COVID-19 and the global venture capital landscape

We assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on venture capital (VC) investments, documenting a significant decline in investments using a dataset of 39,527 funding rounds occurring before and during the pandemic in 130 countries. In line with our theoretical considerations, we show that this decline is more pronounced for investments characterized by higher uncertainty, namely investments in seed-stage ventures, industries affected more heavily by the COVID-19 crisis, international investments, and non-syndicated investments. Investor prominence partially moderates these effects