Venture capitalists and value creation: The role of informal investors in the growth of smaller European firms

Abstract

In the last few decades, the innovation process has involved research systems, production systems, and governmental/institutional systems (Etzkowitz and Leydesrdoff, 1998, 2000; Fagerberg et al., 2005; Chesbrough, 2006). In this new context, both formal and informal investors - banks, business angel investors, venture capitalists, and corporate venture capitalists - play an important role. The aim of this paper is to analyse the particular role of venture capitalists (henceforth, VCs) in the innovation system, with a specific focus on new, small, innovative firms in the European context. This research is based on secondary data (Boston Consulting Group, 2015; DealRoom, 2018a, 2018b). The paper can be defined as a descriptive paper, and it attempts to illustrate a phenomenon. The limitations of the paper are a consequence of its very nature, i.e., the fact that it is largely conceptual and based on a secondary data.