The advantage of specialisation in venture capital financing makes the presence of generalists perplexing. In order to understand their function, the authors investigate the knowledge resource bases of both generalists and specialists, the types of enterprises they select, and their...

The question why venture capitalists syndicate their deals has been attract-ing growing attention. The paper analyses how the motives of two types of venture capitalists do differ. Focusing on information costs it expects that venture capitalists with the standard basic know-how in founding and...

The advantage of specialization in venture capital financing makes the presence of generalist investors perplexing. In order to understand their function, the authors investigate the knowledge resource bases of both generalist and specialist venture capital funds, the types of enterprises they...

Venture capitalist are intermediaries with strong advantages in financing risky investments (Leland/Pyle 1977, Chan 1983, Diamond 1984; Bygrave 1988). Being specialized in one industry, venture capitalists can control risk at lower cost compared to other players in the market (e.g. banking houses)...