Watkins, Andrew
(2013)
Collaborative venture capital activity in the London
metropolitan region: entrepreneurial capacity building through corporate partnering?
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
Venture capital firms are collaborative and location specific actors. A significant
source of specialised factor inputs (knowledge, expertise, resources, and finance)
for investing in new high tech companies are large corporations, making them
potentially complementary partners for independent venture capital firms in
collaborations from which considerable value adding capacity might be derived.
Employing a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with 30 London
based technology oriented venture capital firm, this study (1) captures and explains
the how, why, and under what circumstances do venture capital firms collaborate
with large corporations and their corporate venturing divisions, and (2) the role
that geographic proximity plays in facilitating this collaboration. Using a cross
sector comparison, the core of the research inquires as to the structures employed,
and the motivations and conditions for which this collaborative activity is pursued.
In addition, it assesses the facilitating role that geographic proximity, and the
opportunities and capacities of the London metropolitan region might play.
The findings demonstrate that collaboration between venture capital firms and
large corporations is increasingly common, but more formal collaborative
structures are the exception. Driving this collaboration is the exchange of
complementary knowledge for purposes of better investment selection and for
improving options for investment exit. Geographic proximity plays a facilitating
role and is particularly important during the investment selection phase. While the
significance of co-location is somewhat downplayed, collaboration is indirectly
facilitated through the innovation capacities and the opportunities for network
interaction and international knowledge exchange which the London metropolitan
region offers.
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