Enabling or accelerating? The timing of innovation and the different roles of venture capitalists

IF 7.5 1区管理学 Q1 MANAGEMENT

Research Policy Pub Date : 2024-07-08 DOI:10.1016/j.respol.2024.105060

Andrej Gill , David Heller , Nina A. Michel

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Venture capitalists (VCs) shape innovative activities, moving beyond the role of providing financial resources. This paper investigates the role of VCs in firms’ innovative performance regarding two mutually exclusive concepts in which they enable or accelerate the patenting activities, distinguishing previously patenting and non-patenting portfolio firms, respectively. To reveal underlying mechanisms, the analyses explore differences in the timing of patenting activities and the level of VC involvement using large-scale VC and firm-level data. We find a positive and persistent enabling effect, suggesting that VCs push for rapid commercialization of inventive ideas by previously non-patenting firms. While we find no accelerating effect on average, high investor involvement and reputable VCs can accelerate the innovative activity of patenting firms by fostering new ideas. Examining firm-level differences in prior patenting experience shows that some target firms only obtain financial support, while others additionally seek active investor involvement that compensates for their need for expert knowledge. Overall, these findings disclose new and differentiated perspectives on the role of VCs in stimulating the inventive capabilities of their portfolio firms.

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扶持还是加速？创新的时机和风险资本家的不同角色

风险资本家（VC）对创新活动起着决定性作用，而不仅仅是提供资金。本文研究了风险投资公司在企业创新绩效中的作用，涉及两个相互排斥的概念，即风险投资公司促成或加速专利申请活动，并分别区分了先前申请专利和未申请专利的投资组合公司。为了揭示其背后的机制，分析利用大规模风险投资公司和公司层面的数据，探讨了专利申请活动的时间差和风险投资公司参与程度的差异。我们发现了一种积极而持久的扶持效应，这表明风险投资推动了以前未申请专利的企业将其发明创造迅速商业化。虽然我们没有发现平均的加速效应，但投资者的高度参与和声誉良好的风险投资公司可以通过促进新创意来加速专利企业的创新活动。对公司层面的先前专利经验差异的研究表明，一些目标公司只获得资金支持，而另一些公司则寻求积极的投资者参与，以弥补其对专家知识的需求。总之，这些研究结果揭示了风险投资公司在激发被投资公司创新能力方面所扮演角色的新的不同视角。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Research Policy MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

12.80

自引率

6.90%

发文量

182

期刊介绍： Research Policy (RP) articles explore the interaction between innovation, technology, or research, and economic, social, political, and organizational processes, both empirically and theoretically. All RP papers are expected to provide insights with implications for policy or management. Research Policy (RP) is a multidisciplinary journal focused on analyzing, understanding, and effectively addressing the challenges posed by innovation, technology, R&D, and science. This includes activities related to knowledge creation, diffusion, acquisition, and exploitation in the form of new or improved products, processes, or services, across economic, policy, management, organizational, and environmental dimensions.