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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This study aims to examine the venture capital (VC) industry in China. It has demonstrated a history of high growth with significant variations over time. The authors have examined the trends and determinants of VC investments in China over a 20-year period from 1995 to 2014. They find that the aggregate amount of VC investments, the total number of venture deals and the average amount of venture investments per deal in China are all significantly impacted by macroeconomic conditions (i.e. GDP, export, money supply), technology innovations and financial market indicators (i.e. initial public offerings (IPOs), interest rate, price-to-earnings ratio, etc.). They also find that the 2007 China A-Share stock market crash and the subsequent global financial crisis have motivated VCists in China to adjust their investment strategies and risk levels by allocating more capital to later-stage investments and securing more deals with later-round financings. However, after the 2008 global financial crisis, the China’s venture industry has recovered faster compared to the US counterpart response.

The authors first perform trend analysis of VC investments at an aggregate level, by stages of development, and across industry from 1995 to 2014.To test H1 and H2, the authors use multiple regression models with lagged explanatory variables. To test H3, the authors use univariate tests to compare the measures of VC investments at an aggregate level, stage funds ratios, stage deals ratios and financing series ratios during both a five-year and seven-year time windows around the 2007 A-Share stock market crash and the subsequent financial crisis.

The development of the VC industry in China has demonstrated a history of high growth with significant variation over time. The authors find that the aggregate amount of VC investments, the total number of venture deals and the average amount of venture investments per deal in China are all significantly impacted by macroeconomic conditions (i.e. GDP, export, money supply), technology innovations and financial market indicators (i.e. IPOs, interest rate, price-to-earnings ratio, etc.). The authors also find that the 2007 China A-Share stock market crash and the subsequent global financial crisis have motivated VCists in China to adjust their investment strategies and risk by allocating more capital to later-stage investments and securing more deals with later-round financings. However, the China VC industry has recovered faster compared to the USA just after the 2008 global financial crisis.

There are also limitations in the study. The VC data in China in the earlier 1990s might not be very reliable due to the quality of statistics. Therefore, the trend analysis and discussions mainly focus on the time after 2000. Also, the authors cannot find VC financing sequence data for the analysis. Second, there is no doubt that the policy impact from Chinese transforming economic system and government policies on its VC industry is substantial (Su and Wang, 2013). However, they cannot find an appropriate variable to be included in the empirical models to consider this effect. Further study on this area would provide meaningful information. Third, although the authors have done comparison study between the VC industry in China in this study and the VC industry in the US documented in Ning et al. (2015) and discussed some interesting findings, more in-depth research in this area will be very useful.

The findings have meaningful implications for VCists and start-up companies seeking equity financings in China. VCists should closely monitor macroeconomic and market conditions to make appropriate adjustments to their risk and investment strategies. Entrepreneurs seeking equity financings for their business could also monitor the identified macroeconomic and market indicators, which can help them with their timing and to negotiate a better equity financing deal. VC financing is more likely to succeed when key macroeconomic and market indicators become favorable.

This paper contributes to the literature by testing the supply and demand theory on the VC market proposed by Poterba (1989) and Gompers and Lerner (1998) from the macroeconomic perspective using 20 years’ VC data from China. The authors also examine how the 2007 A-Share stock market crash and the subsequent financial crisis affected VCists to adjust their risk levels and investment strategies. It provides useful information for international academia and policymakers to understand the quick rise of China VC industry. The authors also find that the macroeconomic drivers of VC industry are somewhat different under different economic systems.

Staged financing is a prominent feature of the venture capital investment process. With staged financing, venture capitalists (VCs) may choose to either make an investment or delay it at each round. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of market uncertainty, project-specific uncertainty and agency problems on these decisions.

The study uses data from Indian firms that received venture capital funding between 2000 and 2017. The duration between funding rounds is analysed using survival analysis. An accelerated failure time model is used to estimate the influence of market uncertainty, project-specific uncertainty and agency problems on the length of time between funding rounds.

VCs delay investment when there are high levels of uncertainty in the market; if market uncertainty increases by 1%, delay in funding increases by more than 6% (almost a month) on average. There is no statistically significant relationship found between the funding duration and project-specific uncertainty. Agency problems motivate VCs to invest sooner. An increase in agency problems results in a reduction of 55% (almost five months) in the length of time before the next funding round.

This study has useful business policy implications. It provides VCs with real option value drivers such as market uncertainty, agency problems, which influence the timing of decisions in staged investment processes. It will help to make the choice between investing and delaying at each round of financing more robust. Further, it is useful for VCs to differentiate between market uncertainty and agency problems against the backdrop of their different implications for staging decisions.

Few studies have examined staging decisions from a real options perspective in the context of a developed economy and very few from a developing economy perspective. This study increases understanding of staging decisions in the Indian context.

Recently, corporate venture capital (CVC) has been gaining increasing attention worldwide as a special form of venturing through which non-financial corporations invest in target companies, usually technological firms, as start-ups. These investments mostly aim not at financial goals but constitute a strategic way for the corporation to obtain access to new technologies and innovations through financing entrepreneurial initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the connections between the core business of the parent company and its venturing investments, investigating, in particular, its “ambidexterity,” i.e., the ability of the CVC company to invest in ventures close to its core activities, exploiting internal resources and exploring new markets.

Stemming from the results of previous studies, this research has applied a discriminating analysis methodology to the 18 most active CVC companies in the world, all of which have technology innovation as the core business of the corporation, in the 2015/2017 period.

An evident correlation between the Financing Round (as the independent variable) and the Entrepreneurial Intensity (as the dependent variable) influences the CVCs investment policies and their behavior with respect to their ambidexterity. This link could also influence the strategic orientation of the CVC policy, forcing the company to appropriately govern and manage the starting nature and/or the variable nature of the CVC (ambidextrous, hybrid, dis-ambidextrous or random).

The current research has used only secondary data to explore the behavior of only 18 CVCs in a relatively short period. Thus, it would be advisable to extend the number of observations, to enlarge the period under investigation, and to retrieve field data to obtain more detailed and reliable results.

The main objective/contribution of this study is to understand if there is a correlation between the Financing Round (as the independent variable) and the Entrepreneurial Intensity (as the dependent variable) for the 18 most active CVCs in the world, according to CB Insights, in 2015–2017, adopting and further confirming the model by Rossi et al. (2019). The statistical investigation, based on the conclusions of that linear regression model, has highlighted a total or large correlation between these two variables for the current research perimeter, which includes CVC companies with technology as the core business of the corporation.

The availability of external equity finance is a key factor in the development of technology‐based firms (TBFs). However, although a wide variety of sources are potentially available, many firms encounter difficulties in securing funding. The venture capital community, particularly in the UK, has done little to finance early stage TBFs and has failed to cater adequately for the specific value‐added requirements of these firms. Non‐financial companies have the potential to become an important alternative source of equity finance for TBFs through the process of corporate venture capital (CVC) investment. Based on a telephone survey of 48 UK TBFs that have raised CVC, examines the role of CVC in the context of TBF equity financing. Shows that CVC finance has represented a significant proportion of the total external equity raised by the survey firms and has been particularly important during the early stages of firm development. In addition, CVC often provides investee firms with value‐added benefits, primarily in the form of technical‐ and marketing‐related nurturing and credibility in the marketplace. Concludes with implications for TBFs, large companies, venture capital fund managers and policy makers.

This study explores the potential benefits and costs of bank entry into venture capital investing. Data are obtained from a survey of banking organizations regarding their perceptions of the effects of such venture capital investing. Also, evidence on the portfolio diversification effects of such investments is provided using stock price data. These data are consistent with the existence of net benefits from bank entry into this industry. The implications for entrepreneurs are also discussed. Venture capital firms (professionally managed organizational investors) and business angels (private individual investors) invest in new and growing businesses. Their aim is to maximize their risk‐adjusted return on investment through the ex ante assessment of risk and the ex post monitoring of their client entrepreneurs. Because they invest in businesses that are inherently newer and smaller, often without substantial collateral, their deals are riskier than the loan packages that are funded by commercial banks. However, by investing in risk‐ reducing information and sharing it among coinvestors, these venture capitalists often generate returns that are the envy of many bankers. Many venture capitalists expect to earn more than 30% annually on their investments. At a time when banks have been experiencing earning problems, particularly those located in the West and Southwest, there are at least four possible benefits that could come to them and also to entrepreneurs from the entrance of banking organizations into venture capital financing. First, if banks were able to manage the increased risk, they might be successful in improving their earnings. The increased earnings would contribute to the elimination of the capital deficiency facing the banking industry. Second, if they funded entrepreneurs, the total supply of venture capital would increase and it could become much easier to locate seed money. Third, participation by banks would also contribute to the elimination of the widely reported capital gap that may exist for funding new ventures. Fourth, in the long run, if they provided venture capital, they might find that they were providing start‐up financing for future customers, customers that would not otherwise exist. This study contemplates a future role for commercial banks as a potentially huge source of funding for new ventures. It explores the possibility that under certain conditions commercial banks may be able to effectively manage the greater risk associated with venture capital investing. It concentrates on the potential effects of bank entry into venture financing on the risk of failure of the bank, a concern that underlies the existing prohibition for U.S. banks. The proposal to allow U.S. commercial banking organizations to enter the arena of venture capital investments may seem somewhat questionable in a period of massive numbers of bank failures. Yet there are reasons to believe that the potential effects of these activities may not be risk‐increasing as often argued and may, under certain circumstances, even be risk‐reducing. To understand this view, consider the reaction of commercial banks to the changes in their external environment that accompanied financial deregulation during the 1980's. The elimination of deposit rate ceilings that accompanied deregulation increased sharply the cost of bank funds. Banking organizations reacted to that increase in costs by reaching for higher‐risk loans. But, in the United States, these banks were unable through regulatory and market constraints to obtain complete compensation for the increased risk. If these banks had been able to take equity positions in venture capital investments, the upside potential from these commitments of funds to more risky undertakings could be realized, a potential that is impossible with the conventional loan contract. If commercial banks become major players in the market for venture capital, it seems likely that they will rely upon different strategies for controlling risk than those used by venture capital firms and business angels. Basic differences in their approaches to risk management could be a reflection of their costs of access to risk‐reducing information, their visibility in the community, and their tendencies to coinvest with similar types of investors. This study examines the possibility that the size of a bank will largely determine whether it views venture capital investing as a prudent means of doing business. This expectation is based on the assumption that the larger a bank, the more likely it will be to hold a portfolio of diversified venture capital investment. Thus, we would expect to find greater enthusiasm for venture capital investing among large banks than among small banks. If commercial banks were to be permitted to make venture capital investments in the United States, such a move could be so influential that no entity that depends upon this market for its survival would be unaffected. Business angels and venture capital firms could be overshadowed by the resources that banks would have at their disposal, while entrepreneurs and public policy makers would find it difficult to ever again suggest that there was insufficient capital available to fund deserving ventures. This study reviews the roles of venture capital firms and business angels and compares them to the role that could be played by banks. It also compares the perceptions of large bankers (assets >$1 billion) and small bankers (assets <$1 billion) regarding their institution's competence in managing different types of risk. This research will first examine how venture capital firms and business angels emphasize managing different types of risk. Hypotheses related to bank strategies for reducing venture capital risk will be proposed and tested. Finally, implications for entrepreneurs and public policy makers will be discussed.

This paper aims to explore the strategies used by venture capital (VC) firms in assisting entrepreneurs who have business potential but lack capital. The study also aims to investigate whether the VC strategy can be adopted by Islamic banks through musharakah financing.

Apart from content analysis, primary data were gathered from several interview sessions with the management of three VC firms and two Islamic banks.

Islamic banks in Malaysia have great potential to offer musharakah financing and mitigate risk by adopting the following five VC strategies: method of selection, channelling of funds, monitoring, non-capital assistance and period of investment. We propose the channelling of corporate social responsibility funds for musharakah financing as an initial step in applying VC strategy.

Given the limited number of willing and eligible respondents in Malaysia, the scope of this study can be widened to a cross-country analysis where musharakah financing is widely adopted.

This study motivates regulatory bodies and Islamic banks to consider musharakah financing using the risk monitoring strategy adopted from the VC industry.

This study is the first to empirically explore the strategy adopted by VC companies and evaluate whether such a strategy is suitable for the concept of musharakah financing.

U.S. venture capital financings of U.S. entrepreneurial firms with up to 213 observations are consistent with the proposition that convertible preferred equity is the optimal form of venture capital finance. This paper introduces new evidence from 208 U.S. venture capital financings of Canadian entrepreneurial firms. In contrast to U.S. venture capital investments in U.S. entrepreneurial firms, U.S. venture capitalists finance Canadian entrepreneurial firms with a variety of forms of finance. The differences between domestic and international U.S. venture capitalist financing structures are not attributable to differences in the definition of the term ‘venture capital’. The data point to the importance of institutional determinants of venture capitalist capital structures within the U.S. and abroad. Among other things, the data indicate that U.S. venture capitalists often do not choose convertible preferred shares in the absence of tax considerations in favor of that financing vehicle.

Muslim entrepreneurs face various obstacles when starting their business, especially in gaining access to financing. Some financing practices have some Sharia violations, so this paper tries to explore the opportunities and challenges of one financing alternative for Muslim entrepreneurship development in Indonesia that fully complies with Sharia principles. This paper aims to further understand the concept of venture capital and how it relates to Islamic teachings, and the paper ends with the suggestion for future research direction.

This study uses qualitative methods with descriptive and exploratory analysis. A case study approach using semi-structured in-depth interviews with several key informants were conducted to identify the opportunities and challenges for Muslim entrepreneurs in gaining access to Islamic financing. Various literary syntheses are also provided to better understand alternative financing for business development of Muslim entrepreneurs.

Muslim entrepreneurship, depending on their goals and needs in obtaining financing, uses different models in the process of agreements with capital-funding institutions based on Sharia principles. Sharia venture capital is one alternative financing that gives freedom for Muslim entrepreneurs to develop their business based on the Islamic system, without thinking about the requirements that must be met in obtaining access to the financing. However, it seems that this scheme still has relatively low interest, especially from Muslim entrepreneurs because they do not know the information and procedures of Sharia venture capital.

Some policy implications include increasing capital from Sharia venture capital institutions, the role of the government in providing adequate policy support and incentives and broader socialization and education about the existence and importance of developing Sharia venture capital. Practical implications include useful information for Muslim entrepreneurs to address financing issues in their entrepreneurial activities and suggest insights for future research.

This study provides the link of financial access for Muslim entrepreneurs to Sharia venture capital as a new financing business innovation. Thus, it contributes to the literature on Sharia venture capital and Muslim entrepreneurship. The authors also propose some useful recommendations for further research in this field.