We investigate the implications of venture capital (VC) investor type (government or private) on the operating efficiency of a sample of 515 Belgian portfolio firms up to 3 years after the investment. We find that the government VC-backed firms display significant reductions in productivity. No...

Using a unique database of 990 VC-backed Belgian firms, we study whether compatibility between corporate and environmental characteristics matters. We address two questions: (i) Does the interplay of company, industry, and product factors affect the expected returns of the VC-backed firms? (ii)...

We document substantial variation across startups in whether and when they appoint outside directors, and the type of directors they appoint. The startup-director match depends on professional connections and individual experience profiles. Early-stage investors are more likely to serve as...

We investigate the corporate governance of venture capital (VC) backed IPOs that enter into strategic alliances. Startups can have alliances with outside strategic partners and with parents of corporate VCs (CVCs), who primarily invest in startups for strategic reasons. Both CVCs and outside...

In late 2017, DuraTable received a number of unsolicited inquiries regarding its interest in selling out in a going private transaction, mostly from private equity firms. Since the chairman of the board and founder, Gary Reynolds, was approaching retirement age and the largest single shareholder...

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behaviour by examining their impact on CEO pay-performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of...

We construct a model to illustrate the dynamics of cash flow volatility and firm valuation. As a firm progressively invests into its growth opportunities, its book value increases and catches up with its market value, reducing the valuation multiple (Q). Cash flow volatility (CFV) decreases due...

I extend Jensen and Meckling 1976 (“JM”) to show that the change in the firm's performance from the decision on who manages is composed of 1) JM's management agency costs and 2) skill differential agency cash flows: the difference between the owner and the firm's alternate manager in...

We study the role of a company founder in its internal governance. Using a sample of 484 CEO turnovers for 2000-2015, we establish that CEOs are red for poor performance. However, the likelihood of a poor-performing founder-CEO being fi red is lower than that of an outsider CEO. Moreover, having...

This article discusses the determinants of the survival of new companies, with particular emphasis on their sources of financing. We have analysed the impact of experience in the same focal industry, of having a competitive advantage and intellectual property rights (patents and trademarks) and...