Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Early-Stage Investments'

This dissertation examines the role of public investments in inducing small firms to develop risky, early-stage technologies. It contributes to expanding our understanding of the consequences of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship policies and programs by investigating in more depth the effect of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program on the innovation effort, ability to attract external capital, and other metrics of post-entry performance of small business start-ups using a new sample and estimation approach. Unlike prior R&D subsidy studies that concentrated almost exclusively on European countries, this dissertation focused on small business start-ups in the United States using a new scientific survey of new firms. It integrated the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation with the SBIR recipient dataset from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and used advances in statistical matching to achieve better comparability between the treated and control groups of small business start-ups. The integrated KFS-SBA dataset, which contains both recipient and non-recipient small firms, and statistical matching allowed us to empirically construct the counterfactual outcomes of SBIR recipients. This dissertation balanced the pre-treatment characteristics of SBIR recipients and non-recipients through propensity score matching (PSM). It constructed the comparison sample by identifying non-recipients with nearly identical propensity scores as those of SBIR recipients. Consistent with the propensity score theorem, observations with the same distribution of propensity scores have the same distribution of observable characteristics. PSM made the comparison and treatment samples homogenous except in SBIR program exposure, making the fundamental assumption of ignorability of treatment assignment more plausible. Using the realized outcomes of observationally similar non-recipient start-ups as the counterfactual outcomes of SBIR recipients, we found empirical evidence of the input additionality effect of the SBIR program. Had they not applied for and granted SBIR R&D subsidies, recipient start-ups would have spent only $185,000 in R&D, but with SBIR their R&D effort was significantly increased to $663,000, on average. The treatment effects analyses also found a significant positive effect of SBIR on innovation propensity and employment. However, it appears that public co-financing of commercial R&D has crowded-out privately financed R&D of small business start-ups in the United States. A dollar of SBIR subsidy decreased firm-financed R&D by about $0.16. Contrary to prior SBIR studies, we did not find any significant "halo effect" or "certification effect" of receiving an SBIR award on attracting external capital. However, we discovered a different certification effect of the SBIR program: SBIR grantees are more likely to attract external patents. This finding also confirms that innovation requires a portfolio of internal and external knowledge assets as theorized by David Teece and his colleagues. This dissertation's empirical results may be relevant to the Small Business Administration, SBIR participating agencies, the U.S. Congress, other federal, state and local policymakers, small high-tech start-ups, and scholars in the field of science, technology, and innovation policy.

The decreasing numbers of investments in early-stage start-ups indicate that fewer start-ups might become scale-ups and later sustainable business, affecting the eco- nomical development. Early-stage investment actors such as venture capital firms (VCs), incubators and business angels select and support investment in different ways. The VC and investment research mostly regards later-stage team and idea focused strategies. The thesis investigates what characterises and what is important for the early-stage process and selection of tenants pursued, through the investment process at the VC start-up Hidden Dreams, who combines incubator support with early stage investments. Organisational documents and previous research, presented in the frame of reference, lay the foundation for the analysis of the thesis. Research about VC selection strategies, investments, incubators, and more, paves the way of modeling a market need focused strategy combined with support. HD’s past pre-transaction processes and its current portfolio companies are analysed by the frame of reference. A model depicting the early-stage investment and support process is presented as a result, together with other findings in the analysis. The depiction explains the selection and support strategy and process by nine modules, each playing a role in the journeys of the VC and start-up. Insights about how the idea, team and market need affect the outcome of choice from the process are presented. The process becomes iteratively more characterised based on historical lessons. Since early-stage investments are considered risky, a way of minimising that risk can be seen through the combination of VC, incubator and business angel functions. The team and idea play a vital role in the process, especially the entrepreneur or advisor who contribute with market knowledge in the evaluation of market need. If the market inhibits competition the opportunity needs a hook, otherwise the initia- tors need to know why there is no competition. The team and idea plays important parts in the evaluation of market need. The idea works as initiator of the scope and to define value creation capabilities, whilst the entrepreneurial team, through the potential problem-owner, give each case market anchoring through experience and knowledge.

Digital presentation

This dissertation evaluates the effects of the institutional environment on investment and performance in the private equity industry. It provides insights on how trade secret protection can increase venture capital (VC) investment through a state court’s favorability toward the inevitable disclosure doctrine, the effect of anti-takeover regulation as it relates to private equity firm buyout performance, and the role that political context has in determining VC distributions to different states. Data analysis is based on Thomson Reuters’ VentureXpert for VC investment and geography, inevitable disclosure rulings gathered from multiple sources, a proprietary database on private equity firm buyout performance, and election results at the state and national levels of the United States. Three studies were conducted, which comprise this dissertation. The first paper investigates how inevitable disclosure, a form of trade secret protection, affects the geography of VC investment in the United States. Results show that a rule in favor of inevitable disclosure increases the overall amount of VC inflows and the proportion of investment by non-local VCs in a state more than an against or no rule. Mechanisms are addressed that can explain these findings by considering how a court decision on inevitable disclosure might increase the probability of obtaining a court injunction against a former employee departure and the predictability of that probability. The second paper extends experiential learning theory by arguing that the degree of causal ambiguity in firm decisions likely differs not only across different settings (i.e. operational vs. strategic), but also across different stages of the same strategic decision. With particular regard to acquisitions, the selection stage seems to be less causally ambiguous than the restructuring stage. Since experience translates into learning to a lesser extent when causal ambiguity is greater, acquisition experience translates more readily into learning to select than into learning to add value. Accordingly, results show that more experienced acquirers should perform better in scenarios when the focal acquisition is more selection- (rather than restructuring-) oriented, such as when (1) the educational background of the acquiring firm’s top management is more finance- (rather than business-) oriented; and (2) the information environment is less transparent. Results are largely consistent with the notion that correlation between acquisition experience and performance is more positive when the firm’s capacity to select target companies is more relevant. The third paper attempts to uncover the effects of political context, as it relates to VC distributions to different states across the United States. The primary finding is that VC investment distributions increase when states that elect a Republican governor also vote for a Democratic presidential candidate (regardless if that candidate wins). Additionally, as the stability of a Republican gubernatorial regime increases, VC investment decreases. Finally, results show that policies that improve the quality of financial institutions (through the number of IPOs) might help explain the political effects on VC, whereas tax policy (through capital gains tax rate) and proentrepreneurship policy (through the number of new firms) do not.

Cette thèse étudie l’effet sur l’innovation entrepreneuriale et les autres acquis d’apprentissage des entreprises qui créent des relations avec des startups en phase de démarrage (dites "early-stage") grâce à l'investissement en capital-risque d'entreprise (Corporate Venture Capital; CVC). Dans la mesure où les startups early-stage ne possèdentpossedent pas encore nécessairement de produits ou services, celles-ci sont souvent considérées comme des cibles d'investissement incertaines en termes de potentiel de performances futures. En dépit de cette affirmation, des preuves empiriques établissent la participation d’un certain nombre d’entreprises à des opérations de CVC early-stage.Dans mon premier essai, j’effectue des recherches pour déterminer si l’augmentation des investissements dans des startups early-stage induit une meilleure performance en termes d’innovation pour les entreprises investisseurs en me basant sur la littérature sur l'apprentissage organisationnel. Je constate que les investissements dans les startups early-stage ont effectivement un effet positif sur l'innovation à court terme des investisseurs. De plus, je trouve que la diversité des investissements en termes d'industries diminue cet effet positif en raison de l’augmentation de la complexité de l'apprentissage organisationnel.Dans mon deuxième essai, j'examine la décision des investisseurs de former des relations exclusives avec des startups early-stage en fonction de la structure de leur équipe CVC. Je me concentre sur l'accès exclusif à des ressources précieuses que les investisseurs peuvent obtenir comme avantage clé en investissant dans ces startups. Je prédis que les équipes de CVC autonomes sont plus susceptibles d'opter pour des liens exclusifs avec des startups early-stage que les équipes de CVC intégrées, car les CVC intégrés sont souvent plus sensibles aux risques et à l'approbation de la direction. Je constate également que si les investisseurs autonomes ont des connaissances plus originales, cela peut réduire leur incitation à établir des liens exclusifs en préférant un large éventail de connaissances plutôt qu'une appropriation effective de certains pools de connaissance.Dans mon troisième essai, j'étudie la relation entre les investissements CVC et la performance sociale des entreprises (CSP). Je théorise que l'expérience accumulée à travers l'obtention de ressources auprès de ces startups peut contribuer à l'élévation de la réputation sociale des investisseurs grâce au développement de leur capacité à comprendre et répondre aux demandes de leurs parties prenantes. Cette recherche suggère que l’impact sur la responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE) n’est pas dû à un investissement spécifique, mais plutôt à l'expérience accumulée grâce à une série de tels investissements qui peut être positivement associée à des évaluations externes
N examines the implications on corporate innovation and other learning outcomes of incumbents that build relationships with early-stage ventures through Corporate Venture Capital(CVC) investments. As entrepreneurial ventures draw the attention as external sources of valuable knowledge and skills, past literature has investigated how incumbents build inter-organizational relationships with these ventures through CVC investments. Among them, early-stage ventures without a visible product or service are often considered to be uncertain investment targets in terms of their technologies and potential performance. Contrary to this view, empirical evidence shows that number of incumbents are participating in early-stage CVC deals. This raises an intriguing question about what corporate investors can achieve by targeting such ventures with higher uncertainty.In my first essay, I examine whether firms achieve greater innovative performance when increasing their early-stage CVC investments. I theorize an find that early-stage CVC investments indeed increase firms’ short-term innovation even after controlling for total CVC investments and the investment in Independent Venture Capital (IVC)-backed ventures of corporate investors. Furthermore, I find empirical support that greater industry diversity of a firm’s CVC portfolio attenuates this relationship by adding knowledge complexity to organizational learning.In my second essay, focusing on exclusive access to valuable resources as a key advantage of early-stage CVC investments, I theorize that while exclusivity can serve as a strategy for corporate investors to form strong bonds with early-stage ventures, a trade-off exists as information asymmetries arise from the lack of external information to value these ventures as partners. I demonstrate that corporate investors with autonomous CVC units are more likely to opt for exclusive ties with early-stage ventures, as opposed to integrated CVC units, which are more sensitive to risk and managerial consent. In addition, this trend is moderated by the knowledge originality of corporate investors’ existing knowledge stocks.In my third essay, I examine the relationship between CVC investments and Corporate Social Performance (CSP), and propose that certain aspects of CVC investments can lead to positive outcomes from a CSR perspective. Specifically, I focus on early-stage CVC investments, which require resource acquisition under conditions of uncertainty. I theorize how accumulating resources through continuous investments in early-stage ventures can contribute to higher social outcomes. This research suggests that it is not just a single early-stage investment that impacts CSR, but rather the accumulated experience gained through such investments that can be positively associated with external evaluations of CSR

This analysis examines the impact that personal characteristics like gender, race, years participating in the labor force, education, and previous entrepreneurship have on the amount of funding a startup receives from venture capital investors. Data for the analysis is taken from online venture capital database, Crunchbase, and includes investments made by venture capitalists between the years of 2002 and 2014. Findings from the regression analysis conclude that gender, the number of years a founder has been in the labor force, and a founder’s education background are significant determinants of the amount of funding a company receives in funding rounds. In addition, the sector the company falls under and the venture capital firms that the company seeks investment from are both significant determinants of the amount of funding received by the company and the founder.

Early-stage investors increasingly impact the surging video game industry. Thus, understanding their thought processes provides vital insight for entrepreneurs. This thesis explores how early-stage investors assess investment opportunities in the Swedish game industry by presenting semistructured interviews with three prominent angel investors. Thematic analysis was performed on the interview data to extract significant themes regarding investors’ thought processes. Themes were then contrasted with previous research on investor decision-making to establish emergent patterns in the game industry. Results indicate that investors regard the composition and reliability of the team and pursue long-term involvement in companies. It is particularly important for teams to inspire trust. If investors can connect to teams personally, it facilitates successful long-term collaboration. Future research should focus on interviewing investors in other flourishing game markets, such as the U.S. or Chinese. Congruent results may lay the foundation for a framework to aid developers with acquiring funds in the broader game industry.

Using a human capital perspective, this study investigates the relationship between the specific human capital of the top management teams of venture capital firms (VCFs) and the firms’ investment performance. The results of this study demonstrate that, in the early-stage information technology and communication (ICT) industry, VCFs’ technological expertise strongly predict better venture capital firm performance in the form of greater portfolio exit ratio. While financial expertise shows a positive but not significant effect. This study finds that although venture capital investing is a financial activity, technological expertise is the human capital characteristic that is more appropriate for this sub-environment. Future research is suggested.

Cette thèse vise à démontrer comment l’implication des fonds de capital-risque d’amorçage dans les différentes activités post-investissement influence la performance des entreprises de haute technologie. Le recours aux théories de l’agence et de la dépendance envers les ressources permet de tester l’impact de l’implication des managers des fonds, respectivement dans le remplacement du chef d’entreprise et dans l’apport de ressources managériales à l’entreprise. Le modèle théorique a été testé avec les données collectées par questionnaires auprès d’une large partie des fonds d’amorçage français ayant en portefeuille près de 300 entreprises dans les secteurs de la biotechnologie et des TIC. Les résultats ont montré l’impact positif de l’apport par le fonds de ressources managériales sur la performance de l’entreprise. L’implication du fonds dans le remplacement du chef d’entreprise s’avère moins efficace en l’absence d’un accompagnement managérial. Ces résultats permettent de conclure à une complémentarité entre la théorie de l’agence et celle de la dépendance envers les ressources. Ils permettent également de tirer des implications pratiques pour les différents acteurs du marché
The objective of this thesis is to show how different post-investment activities of early-stage venture capitalists influence the performance of ventures. The combination of the agency and resource dependence theories enabled to test respectively the impact of early-stage venture capitalists’ involvement in CEO replacement and in provision of a variety of managerial resources. The theoretical model has been tested on data collected through questionnaires from a large proportion of early-stage venture capitalists in France having in their portfolio around 300 ventures in ITC and biopharmaceutical sectors. The findings revealed that managerial resources provided by early-stage venture capitalists positively influenced the ventures’ performance. In addition, while CEO replacement conducted by French venture capitalists was not efficient, when conducted together with provision of value-adding resources by an early-stage venture capitalist, it was positively associated with ventures’ performance. These results have implications for theoretical and empirical literature and provide some useful insights for activities of different actors including government bodies, fund of fund managers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs

The main objective was to create a normative model of determining the value of early stage for companies in the seed and start up stage. The model should be applicable to entrepreneurs and investors, taking into account the assessment of the value of qualitative factors. Another aim was to identify the significant factors affecting the value of early stage companies in the seed and start up stage, i.e. at a time when there are no or very little revenues. Based on a research among investors and other experts on the valuation of early stage companies and venture capital, the most significant factors were not only identified, but also determined by their weight. The quality of evaluating investment opportunities has a major impact on the profitability of the investor´s capital. Current knowledge of the key value drivers and the mechanisms of valuation can help businesses to set realistic expectations when trying to raise capital to finance the startup of the project. It is therefore necessary to provide a clear methodological framework applicable to both parties of investing. The actual research was divided into two phases - individual interviews with investors and questionnaires. It was confirmed that the most crucial factors are those associated with quality management and company founders.

This thesis has been carried out within the framework of the Master of ScienceProgramme in Sociotechnical Systems Engineering and performed for the SwedishTrade Council in London. The author investigates how the Swedish Trade Councilcan facilitate and bridge the contacts between venture capitalists in the UK andhigh-tech start-ups in Sweden. High-tech ventures in the start-up phases often face a challenge in accumulatingsufficient financial resources and skills to successfully move from concept stage tobusiness, particularly within the life sciences’. High costs associated to time consumingand demanding product development cycles may require external investors whichprovide venture capital and expertise. However, many face difficulties in attractingventure capital partly due to the so-called equity gap, which relates to financiersunwillingness for taking on risk and investing in the early-stages. The study shows that venture capital largely rely on local networks and are limited intheir investments’ geographical distribution. The interviewed market players alsoemphasise the importance of local networks in the investment processes. Given thesecharacteristics, it may be difficult for a Swedish company seeking venture capitalabroad without help from intermediaries. Although there is a role to fill forintermediaries in assisting in the investment discovery process, it is likely to provedifficult over time as tasks become increasingly cumbersome.

Venture Capitals and early stage companies are of fundamental importance for how the market operates and develops. In the last decade more focus has been put on the ESG strategies and governance of organizations. However, ESG is a relatively new and complex research area in which ignorance and measurement problems have led to inconsistency in applications of ESG concepts and strategies. Based on empirical data consisting of qualitative document analysis and interviews with Swedish Venture Capitals this thesis aims, from theoretical perspectives within decision-making and ESG strategies, to investigate which ESG strategies are used among Swedish Venture Capitals investing in tech, and how these are applied in, are weighted and impact the decision-making process. The result shows that the decision making process can be assumed to be based on bounded rationality tinged by fragmented application of ESG concepts and strategies in which diversity and CO2 impact are prioritized focus areas. The common perception was also that investing in tech created a natural aligning to ESG. Active Ownership, Positive- and Negative screening are the central strategies that were applied with the aim to develop and manage the lack of information and the risks that follows with early stage investing.
Venture Capitals och early stage bolag är av fundamental betydelse för hur marknaden fungerar och utvecklas och under det senaste årtiondet har större fokus riktats mot organisationers ESG strategier och styrning. ESG är dock ett relativt nytt och komplext forskningsområde där okunskap och mätningsproblematik har lett till att begrepp och strategier tillämpas inkonsekvent. Utifrån empiri baserad på kvalitativ dokumentanalys och intervjuer från svenska Venture Capitals avser denna studie, utifrån teoretiska perspektiv inom beslutsfattande och ESG strategi, att undersöka vilka ESG strategier som används bland svenska Venture Capitals och hur de tillämpas, viktas och påverkar beslutsfattandet vid investeringar i tech. Resultatet visade att beslutsprocessen kan antas baseras på begränsad rationalitet präglad av fragmenterad tillämpning av ESG begrepp och strategier där jämställdhet och CO2 påverkan var prioriterade fokusområden. Den gemensamma bilden var även att investering i tech skapade en naturlig förankring till ESG. Active ownership, Positive- och Negative screening var de centrala strategierna som tillämpades i syfte att utveckla och hantera den informationsbrist och de risker som medföljde early stage investering.

The lack of coherent and established methods and processes for evaluating early-stage development projects presents a severe challenge for both investors and entrepreneurs. For investors, the lack of an established process risks making every investment decision “ad hoc”, and in the long run prevent any meaningful analysis or comparison between different investments. For the entrepreneur, it makes the fundraising process a maze of seemingly random information requests from potential investors and a constant lack of understanding of where in the process they are, what is required to reach a decision and where to focus their efforts. This thesis describes these challenges in more detail together with some general background of the tools available today. It continues to outline a generalized process for reaching an investment decision, together with descriptions of the different information artifacts that are central to the process. The result is a step-by-step process that can be predicted and iterated between the entrepreneur and the investor. In each step, focus is on a certain piece of information and the goal is to make it clear to all parties what is expected in each step and why.
Avsaknaden av en koherent och vedertagen process för att utvärdera utvecklingsprojekt i tidig fas presenterar and allvarlig utmaning för både investerare och entreprenörer. För investerare, bristen på en etablerad process riskerar att varje investeringsbeslut tas på ”ad-hoc” basis, vilket i det långa loppet omöjliggör meningsfull analys och jämförelse mellan olika investeringar. För entreprenören så gör det processen att söka investeringskapital till en labyrint av slumpmässiga informationsförfrågningar ifrån potentiella investerare och en konstant brist på förståelse för var i processen de befinner sig, vad som krävs för att nå beslut och vart de skall fokusera sitt arbete. Denna rapport beskriver dessa utmaningar i mer detalj, tillsammans med viss generell bakgrund om de verktyg som finns att tillgå idag. Den fortsätter med att beskriva en generaliserad process för att nå ett investeringsbeslut och de informationsartefakter som är centrala för processen. Resultatet är en steg för steg process som är förutsägbar och som kan itereras mellan entreprenören och investeraren. I varje steg ligger fokus på en specifik informationsdel och målet är att göra det tydligt för alla inblandade vad som förväntas i varje steg och varför.

This thesis analyzes the impact of an Economic Crisis on Venture Capital Activity. For the analysis, a panel data was created with information on 20 European countries for the period between 2006 and 2012. Crisis was not found to significantly impact VC Activity (Investment or Fund Raising Levels). However, when accounting for the different Stages of Investment considered – Seed, Start-up and Later Stage – results were different. While Investments in Seed and Start-up Stages proved not to be significantly impacted by the Crisis variable, Later Stage was found to be. These results follow in line with the previous research done on the subject. Furthermore, the results yielded for the same test but using Fund Raising Levels proved to be insignificant for all stages assumed. Possible causes for the main results are theorized in this thesis.
Esta tese tem como objectivo analisar o impacto de uma crise económica na actividade ao nível do capital de risco. Para a análise foi criado uma panel data com informação relativa a 20 países europeus para o periodo entre 2006 e 2012. Os resultados obtidos indicam que a variável Crise não impacta significativamente o investimento ou a angariação de fundos. No entanto, quando considerando as diferentes etapas de investimento consideradas – Seed, Start-up e Later Stage – os resultados foram distintos. Enquanto os Investimentos em Seed e Start-up não se mostraram significativamente impactados pela variável crise, Investimentos em Later Stage mostraram-se significativos. Os resultados vão de encontro às conclusões obtidas por Block & Sandner (2009). Por seu lado, ao testar a mesma relação, mas substituindo a variável Investimento por Fundos angariados, nenhuma conclusão significativa foi obtida. Possiveis causas para tal resultado são debatidas nesta tese.

This dissertation evaluates the effects of the institutional environment on investment and performance in the private equity industry. It provides insights on how trade secret protection can increase venture capital (VC) investment through a state court’s favorability toward the inevitable disclosure doctrine, the effect of anti-takeover regulation as it relates to private equity firm buyout performance, and the role that political context has in determining VC distributions to different states. Data analysis is based on Thomson Reuters’ VentureXpert for VC investment and geography, inevitable disclosure rulings gathered from multiple sources, a proprietary database on private equity firm buyout performance, and election results at the state and national levels of the United States. Three studies were conducted, which comprise this dissertation. The first paper investigates how inevitable disclosure, a form of trade secret protection, affects the geography of VC investment in the United States. Results show that a rule in favor of inevitable disclosure increases the overall amount of VC inflows and the proportion of investment by non-local VCs in a state more than an against or no rule. Mechanisms are addressed that can explain these findings by considering how a court decision on inevitable disclosure might increase the probability of obtaining a court injunction against a former employee departure and the predictability of that probability. The second paper extends experiential learning theory by arguing that the degree of causal ambiguity in firm decisions likely differs not only across different settings (i.e. operational vs. strategic), but also across different stages of the same strategic decision. With particular regard to acquisitions, the selection stage seems to be less causally ambiguous than the restructuring stage. Since experience translates into learning to a lesser extent when causal ambiguity is greater, acquisition experience translates more readily into learning to select than into learning to add value. Accordingly, results show that more experienced acquirers should perform better in scenarios when the focal acquisition is more selection (rather than restructuring) oriented, such as when (1) the educational background of the acquiring firm’s top management is more finance (rather than business) oriented; and (2) the information environment is less transparent. Results are largely consistent with the notion that correlation between acquisition experience and performance is more positive when the firm’s capacity to select target companies is more relevant. The third paper attempts to uncover the effects of political context, as it relates to VC distributions to different states across the United States. The primary finding is that VC investment distributions increase when states that elect a Republican governor also vote for a Democratic presidential candidate (regardless if that candidate wins). Additionally, as the stability of a Republican gubernatorial regime increases, VC investment decreases. Finally, results show that policies improving the quality of financial institutions might help explain the political effect (through the number of IPOs), whereas tax policy (through capital gains tax rate) and pro-entrepreneurship policy (through the number of new firms) do not.

This investigation analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on venture capitals' investment levels, including American and European venture capital firms. By employing regression analysis, it is found that venture capitals lowered their investment levels by 2.5% due to the macroeconomic shock and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. When comparing regions, the virus's impact is more severe in the European countries, accounting for a 4% decrease in the raised amount, while American deals did not present a significant change. These drops, however, can only be seen in the seed funding rounds, being early and later stages not significantly affected by the pandemic. We argue that the entrepreneurial activity is being affected by the fear and uncertainty about the future and that venture capitals are focusing more on existing funds than looking for new investments, leading to a lower seed investment level. Lastly, it is studied the impact of the pandemic on two industries - Healthcare and Technology. Results yielded an increase of 6% in the raised amounts relative to healthcare companies, while technology companies received 5% less funding since the COVID-19 outbreak. As an explanation, it is argued that healthcare represented a growing need for everyone under lockdown.
Esta tese analisa o impacto da pandemia COVID-19 nos níveis de investimento das sociedades de capitais de risco, em empresas americanas e europeias. Através de regressões lineares, verifica-se que as sociedades de capitais de risco reduziram os níveis de investimento em 2.5% devido ao choque macroeconômico e à incerteza causada pela pandemia. Na comparação das regiões, o impacto do vírus é mais acentuado nos países europeus, correspondendo a uma redução de 4% no valor arrecadado, enquanto que os negócios americanos não apresentam variação significativa. Estas quedas, no entanto, só podem ser verificadas nas rondas de financiamento inicial, sendo os estágios intermédios e posteriores não significativamente afetados pela pandemia. Argumentamos que o empreendedorismo está a ser afetado pelo medo e incerteza sobre o futuro, e ainda que as sociedades estão-se a concentrar mais nos fundos existentes do que na pesquisa de novos investimentos, levando a um menor nível de investimento inicial. Por fim, é estudado o impacto da pandemia em duas indústrias - Saúde e Tecnologia. Os resultados apresentam um aumento de 6% nos valores relativos às empresas de saúde, enquanto as empresas de tecnologia receberam 5% a menos de financiamento desde o aparecimento da COVID-19. Como explicação, argumenta-se que a saúde representava uma necessidade crescente para todos os que estavam sujeitos ao confinamento.

碩士
國立中興大學
科技管理研究所
92
This thesis theoretically rigorous integrates capital budgeting approaches allowing pharmaceutical investment evaluation to handle uncertainty of future cash flows and future decisions. In particular, it applies the insights and techniques of Net Present Value (NPV), Decision Analysis (DA) and Real Options Analysis (ROA), and contrasts them in terms of treatment of uncertainty, acknowledgement of flexibility, and usefulness for strategic decision-making. Traditional capital budgeting approaches regards the violence as the risk of business. It ignores the potential extra rewards resulting from the violence, firms therefore tend to take a high discounting rate and looses valuable investment opportunities. In this study, we prove that managerial flexibility to adapt and revise future decisions in order to capitalize on favorable future opportunities or to limit losses is vital to long-term corporate success in an uncertain and changing pharmaceutical marketplace. The conclusions are: (1) managerial flexibility is valuable, because the ROA and DA regard the opportunity of investments as the project which is indispensable to be executed instantly; (2) while financial managers take ROA and DA to do capital budgeting, it will help managers to quantify the elusive elements of managerial flexibility in the face of unexpected change and justify corporate resource allocation and evaluation of investment alternatives; (3) ROA and DA can’t completely replace the NPV; while a manager faces a steady environment, the method of NPV is suitable; nevertheless, in an uncertain environment, ROA and DA will be better.

碩士
國立交通大學
經營管理研究所
90
Recently, the amount of VC’s investment in early stage company (include Seed stage and Start-up stage) is growing. The investment agreement could be seen as part of the self-control risk in the risk management because there is no tangible assets which can be evaluated in early stage. This study explores the ways of negotiation between the VC and the entrepreneurs in terms of investment agreement in the early stage. The case study is used in this research. By in-depth interview one can find out what factors affect the terms of investment agreement in early stage investments, and what kinds of terms should be signed in. Besides, the influence of investing environment and related laws between Taiwan and foreign countries to the agreement will be taken into consideration. This research identifies that nine terms which should be signed in the contracts：equity structure, equity valuation, investment protection, guarantee of the representations and warranties, organization and business management, default remedies, the timing of recalling the investment, anti-dilution adjustments, and liquidity adjustments. The propositions of the factors which affect the investment agreements are also identified and tested.

This study investigates how venture capitalists in China make early-stage investment decisions under uncertainty. Within this context, it examines why early-stage venture capitalists use effectuation (involving emergent strategy) in contrast to prediction (concerned with planned strategy) and how the experts and novices differ in their use of effectuation. Venture capital is important for entrepreneurship development. The topic of how venture capitalists make investment decisions has attracted extensive research efforts over the last few decades. The majority of these studies assume venture capitalists’ decision making is a rational process based on prediction. However, early-stage venture development is fraught with uncertainty and ambiguity. Prediction does not work effectively in such a context. Several recent studies have shown expert entrepreneurs use effectuation, which consists of a specific set of heuristics, to tackle uncertainty. This knowledge about entrepreneurs is relevant to venture capitalists as they participate in a similar environment. This study develops a theoretical framework based on early-stage venture investment expertise and proposes a series of hypotheses along five specific dimensions contrasting effectuation and prediction. An extensively used qualitative method for researching expertise-Protocol analysis-was adopted in this study. 62 participants, including 32 expert early-stage venture capitalists and 30 novices, were asked to think aloud continuously as they solved problems associated with early-stage venture investment decision making. The findings supported the central hypothesis that expert venture capitalists use effectuation to a significantly higher extent than novices. Specifically, expert venture capitalists are more likely than novices to emphasise execution, be sceptical about market data, and emphasise own personal knowledge of the product. Experts place significantly more emphasis on entrepreneurs’ resources and on how venture capitalists’ own means could add value to the venture. In addition, experts are more likely to consider the business development cost and partnership. They are more aware of unexpected contingencies and among the participants who acknowledged so, experts are more likely to emphasise the importance of exploiting opportunities arising from contingencies. This study also found that expert venture capitalists do not completely abandon prediction in early-stage venture investment decision making. Expert venture capitalists do not differ from novices in emphasising entrepreneurs’ goal setting and competition. It is also found that experts place even more emphasis on expected return than novices do. Overall, this study suggests that expert venture capitalists' thinking process is more comprehensive, elaborated, and complex than novices’. The study makes a significant contribution to the literature by challenging the conventional wisdom about how venture capitalists think and what actions they intend to take in relation to early-stage investment decision making. The knowledge generated may not only help early-stage venture capitalists improve their decision process and investment outcomes, but also allow entrepreneurs to secure venture capital more effectively and efficiently. Learnable elements are identified for training novice venture capitalists and fresh perspectives are presented to venture capital limited partners and entrepreneurship policy-makers for consideration. A future research agenda is proposed at the end of the thesis.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC), 2012

This paper studies the potential of ESG investment criteria as financial markets are no longer primarily driven by financial returns. Hence, SRI and ESG are becoming an integral part in the investment decision. VC firms have the opportunity to finance global market leaders who will drive the sustainable transformation. Considering the limited number of scientific publications in this field, this paper aims to demonstrate the status quo of ESG investment and portfolio management in VC funds. This paper finds evidence that VC firms are increasingly recognizing the significance of ESG integration and are shifting to responsible and impact driven investments.

Social entrepreneurship and impact investing are on the advance and Impact Venture Capital has established itself as a relevant investment type to finance social and environmental ventures. In contrast to traditional venture capital funds, which have well-established operating principles and, consequently, founders know which screening schemes to expect, the way Impact Venture Capitalists screen deals and provide funding is less clear to both researchers and founders looking for funding. The aim of this thesis is to generate practical insights on how Impact Venture Capitalists evaluate the impact of a company, to what extent this influences the funding decision, and how tools or frameworks are used to evaluate the impact of a company. For this, managers of 15 early-stage funds from all over Europe were interviewed and evaluated applying a qualitative content analysis. The findings of this analysis confirm that there is no standardized approach on how Impact Investors evaluate and measure impact during the screening process. One common approach that was found is the usage of the Sustainable Development Goals in combination with a required measurable impact as well as a clear theory of change. Being among the first studies that explore the decision-making of Impact Venture Capitalists based on firsthand information, this paper lays the ground for a much-needed understanding of the impact schemes applied by VCs. Future studies on the development of appropriate screening tools and frameworks can create added value for both impact ventures and impact investors and would contribute significantly to the development of the industry.
O empreendedorismo social e o investimento de impacto estão em crescimento e o Capital de Risco de Impacto (VC de Impacto) estabeleceu-se como um modelo de investimento relevante para financiar empreendimentos sociais e ambientais. Em contraste com os fundos tradicionais de capital de risco, que têm princípios de funcionamento bem estabelecidos e, consequentemente, os empreendedores sabem quais os critérios de selecção a esperar, a forma como os VC de Impacto seleccionam os negócios a investir e fornecem financiamento é menos clara, tanto para os investigadores como para os empreendedores que procuram financiamento. O objectivo desta tese é o de gerar conhecimentos práticos sobre a forma como os VC de Impacto avaliam o impacto de uma empresa, em que medida isto influencia a decisão de financiamento e como as ferramentas ou modelos são utilizadas para avaliar o impacto de uma empresa. Para esta investigação, foram realizadas entrevistas a 15 gestores de fundos de capital de risco de toda a Europa, analizando-se os dados através de metodologias qualitativas. Os resultados indicam que não há nenhuma forma standard de avaliar investimentos e medir o impacto nos VC de Impacto. Uma abordagem comum é a utilização dos Objectivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável em combinação com um requisito mínimo de impacto, bem como uma clara Teoria da Mudança. Estudos futuros sobre o desenvolvimento de ferramentas e modelos de selecção apropriados poderão criar valor acrescentado tanto para os empreendimentos de impacto como para os investidores de impacto.