Who's who in venture capital research

Abstract

A bibliometric analysis of research papers in venture capital reveals an increasing interest over time by researchers across a broad spectrum of business disciplines. It also reveals the dominance of North American, particularly American researchers who entered the field early. Interestingly, the analysis demonstrates that two schools of entrepreneurial research compete for dominance in the venture capital framework. Much of the core research, the knowledge base, crosses disciplinary lines but is developed, from there-on, in a discipline specific fashion. Researchers whose primary interest is in finance and economics use quantitative, neo-classical models almost exclusively and publish, with the exception of the most cited authors, solely in economics and finance journals. These researchers tend to be more successful at achieving internal university funding for their projects while the second group, publishing in journals dedicated to management and entrepreneurship research, uses a broader array of theoretical techniques, apply both quantitative and qualitative methodologies and are more often funded externally. The core group of researchers, with reputations supported by large numbers of citations, appear to be able to raise funds both internally (through university bodies) and externally.