This paper investigates how patent applications and grants held by new ventures improve their ability to attract venture capital (VC) financing. We argue that investors are faced with considerable uncertainty and therefore rely on patents as signals when trying to assess the prospects of...

This paper examines the role of venture capital on a firm's innovation activities by using a data set of German technology-based firms founded between 1996 and 2005. Innovation is proxied by patent counts and an index of innovativeness which reflects the degree to which a young firm has...

With an overall lack of gender and ethnic diversity in the innovation sector documented in Gompers and Wang (2017), we ask the natural next question: Does increased diversity lead to better firm performances? In this paper, we attempt to answer this question using a unique dataset of the gender...

The financial literature claims that venture capital (VC) financing spurs the growth of new technology-based firms (NTBFs). Nevertheless, the benefits and costs for portfolio companies may depend upon the type of investor. In this paper we distinguish financial intermediaries (FVC) and...

Despite the evidence on the positive effect of venture capital (VC) on portfolio firm performance, such evidence badly pulls up alongside the non-negligible number of entrepreneurial firms that chooses to refuse VC. This is the first study that investigates the determinants behind the missed...

Both equity and non-equity crowdfunding has proven to be a productive method of capital formation for start-ups. The equity crowdfunding provisions of The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the “JOBS” Act) offer perhaps the most promising development to facilitate capital formation by...

This paper investigates how patent applications and grants held by new ventures improve their ability to attract venture capital (VC) financing. We argue that investors are faced with considerable uncertainty and therefore rely on patents as signals when trying to assess the prospects of...

In the presence of asymmetric information, economic agents need to communicate their quality to investors and other parties. While much of the literature focuses exclusively on signaling, we develop a conceptual framework that extends this view with elements of the literature on certification....

This paper examines the role of venture capital on a firm's innovation activities by using a data set of German technology-based firms founded between 1996 and 2005. Innovation is proxied by patent counts and an index of innovativeness which reflects the degree to which a young firm has...

We present theory and evidence on the careers of high-tech entrepreneurial founders prior to obtaining venture capital (VC), and after VC exit. Prior to obtaining VC, entrepreneurs may have started other ventures, worked as a salaried employee in a startup, or worked for a large company. Upon VC...