This paper proposes a theory of gazelle growth in which gazelles can either grow organically or by acquisitions. In the model, there are three types of firms: incumbent, target, and gazelle. We show that the lower cost of organic growth can increase the incentives for acquisition growth. The...

Start-up growth is often treated as a stylised fact, despite an extensive research body composed of divergent theories and empirical findings. Against this background, this work contributes to the literature by analysing a hand-collected dataset of 2,951 EIF-backed VC start-ups. Section 2...

This paper shows that active investors, such as venture capitalists, can affect the speed at which new ventures grow. In the absence of product market competition, new ventures financed by active investors grow faster initially, though in the long run those financed by passive investors are able...

Using a new European Union-sponsored firm-level longitudinal dataset, we assess the impact of government-managed (GVC) and independent venture capital (IVC) funds on the sales and employee growth of European high-tech entrepreneurial firms. Our results show that the main statistically robust and...

The aim of this paper is to better understand how entrepreneurial equity finance interacts with the complex growth process of young technological ventures. More specially, we investigate how different growth paths are influenced by the entrepreneurs' interactions with different categories of...

I study the effect of limited attention on resource allocation by venture capitalists. Using engagement in the IPO process as a measure of distraction, I document that investments made by distracted venture capitalists into new portfolio companies tend to underperform. Such companies are 7% less...

In recent years, business angels have invested in a few hundred Finnish firms annually. The target firms are mainly young and small: 75% of them employ fewer than 10 workers and are less than 8 years old. These firms are most likely to be found in the ICT and professional service industries and...

We provide evidence on the value of patents to startups by leveraging the quasi-random assignment of applications to examiners with different propensities to grant patents. Using unique data on all first-time applications filed at the U.S. Patent Office since 2001, we find that startups that win...

During the latter part of the 1990s the introduction of the euro, the dramatic increase in the supply of venture capital in most EU countries, and the creation of several new equity markets targeted at innovative firms have dramatically transformed the financing prospects of European...