Venture Capitalists' Value-Enhancing Activities Under Weak Protection of Law

Abstract

Using two sets of hand-collected survey data, we studied the value-adding activities of venture capitalists (VCs) operating in the weak legal environment of China. VCs exert value-enhancing efforts in addition to monitoring through trust considerations. We identified the effects of three types of trusts, strategic reputation-based (C-trust), knowledge-based (K-trust), and identification-based (I-trust), on a company's performance while investing venture capital in China. We find that the C-trust acts only through increased use of complementary resources to improve a firm's performance. K-trust and I-trust can also stimulate in two other ways by reducing transaction costs and improving team-spirit.