Venture Capitalists and Patent Applications of Start-up Firms

In this thesis, the effects of ownership structure on the patent applications of start-up firms are examined, focusing particularly on the role of VC. A unique dataset of Japanese start-up firms is used in the analysis, controlling for firm and industry characteristics. We find that shareholding by VC has a positively significant impact on patent applications and VC is supposed to have an increasing effect on patent applications of the firms brought by R&D expenditures.