Title: Venture capital and innovation: tug of war

Authors: James Matthew Taylor; Mohammad Saud Khan

Addresses: Wellington School of Government and Business, Victoria University of Wellington, 33 Bunny St., Pipitea, Wellington 6011, New Zealand ' Wellington School of Government and Business, Victoria University of Wellington, Room 915, 33 Bunny St., Pipitea, Wellington 6011, New Zealand

Abstract: Although majority work within the field of innovation has revolved around the theme that venture capital supports innovation, a critical and convincing stream of literature has emerged; promoting a contrasting hypothesis. It is argued that venture capitalists do not promote innovation, but rather thwart it, presenting empirical evidence in support of their position. Therefore, a question remains unanswered: do venture capitalists support innovation, as prevailing literature argues, or do they thwart it? Therefore, the questions of how, why and if venture capital supports innovation, and the importance of the answers for policy, forms the basis of this article.

Keywords: innovation; entrepreneurship; venture capital; finance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2021.113801

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2021 Vol.25 No.1, pp.20 - 32

Accepted: 05 Jun 2019
Published online: 31 Mar 2021 *

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