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Financing knowledge-intensive enterprises: evidence from CVCs in the US

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Abstract

Since the 1990s, the importance of corporate venture capital (CVC) programs has grown around the world. CVCs are investments that established firms make in entrepreneurial companies. At the most basic level, CVC describes an equity investment made by a corporation or its investment entity in a high growth, high potential, privately held business. There is no systematic evidence that corporate venture capital investments create value for the investing firms. Firm value, however, can be created as a result of other benefits from investing (e.g., accessing a new technology). These considerations can explain why many firms currently choose to operate venture units: They have recognized the importance of CVC for strategic innovation in addition to its potential to generate financial returns. Some evidence from the US context described in this paper supports this intuition.

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Author's contribution

The article is the result of the common reflection of all the authors. In the editing phase, the “Research methodology, objectives, value, and limitations”, “CVC operations: findings”, “The waves of CVC investments”, “From the boom wave to the rethinking wave: trends and the future for the US” sections were written by Matteo Rossi the “Literature review” section was written by Giuseppe Festa the “Introduction to CVC and the presentation of the research” section was written by Ludovico Solima the “Discussion of the results, implications, and limitations” section was written by Simona Popa whereas the “Conclusion” section was written by all the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law Economics Management and Quantitative Methods, University of Sannio, Via delle Puglie, 82, 82100, Benevento, BN, Italy

    Matteo Rossi

  2. Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132, 84084, Fisciano, SA, Italy

    Giuseppe Festa

  3. Department of Economics, Second University of Naples, Corso Gran Priorato di Malta, 81043, Capua, CE, Italy

    Ludovico Solima

  4. Department of Management and Finance, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Espinardo, Murcia, Spain

    Simona Popa

Authors
  1. Matteo Rossi
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  2. Giuseppe Festa
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  3. Ludovico Solima
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  4. Simona Popa
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Correspondence to Matteo Rossi.

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Rossi, M., Festa, G., Solima, L. et al. Financing knowledge-intensive enterprises: evidence from CVCs in the US. J Technol Transf 42, 338–353 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9495-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9495-2

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