Foreign venture capital firms and internationalization of ventures

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how foreign venture capital firms affect the internationalization of investee ventures and their performance. The author argues that, as influential stakeholders, foreign venture capital (VC) firms engage in strategic decisions of investee ventures and may positively contribute to ventures’ business in foreign markets.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines 551 VC-backed ventures that went public between 2000 and 2014 in the US. Logistic regressions and generalized linear models are used to test hypotheses, and the two-stage approach is used to address a potential endogeneity issue.FindingsIn the empirical results, the author finds that foreign VC investment is positively associated with the internationalization of ventures in terms of both the likelihood of internationalization and foreign sales intensity. In addition, the author finds that internationalization and foreign sales intensity are positively associated with firm performance when a venture is backed by a foreign VC firm.Originality/valueThis study makes important theoretical and empirical contributions to the international entrepreneurship literature by highlighting the role of foreign VC investors on internationalization of ventures.