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Journal of Finance Vol. 59 No. 5 2004

Characteristics, Contracts, and Actions: Evidence from Venture Capitalist Analyses

Steven N. Kaplan; Per Strömberg1,2,3

1 Saint-Gobain (France) · 2 Cornell University · 3 Douglas County Health Department

Abstract

We study the investment analyses of 67 portfolio investments by 11 venture capital (VC) firms. VCs describe the strengths and risks of the investments as well as expected postinvestment actions. We classify the risks into three categories and relate them to the allocation of cash flow rights, contingencies, control rights, and liquidation rights between VCs and entrepreneurs. The risk results suggest that agency and hold‐up problems are important to contract design and monitoring, but that risk sharing is not. Greater VC control is associated with increased management intervention, while greater VC equity incentives are associated with increased value‐added support.

DOI
10.1111/j.1540-6261.2004.00696.x
Volume
59
Issue
5
Pages
2177-2210
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

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