How Does Venture Capital Financing Improve Efficiency in Private Firms? A Look Beneath the Surface

Review of Financial Studies (RFS), 2011

66 Pages Posted: 17 Mar 2008 Last revised: 29 Oct 2014

See all articles by Thomas J. Chemmanur

Thomas J. Chemmanur

Boston College - Carroll School of Management

Karthik Krishnan

Northeastern University

Debarshi K. Nandy

Brandeis University - International Business School

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: August 30, 2009

Abstract

We use the Longitudinal Research Database (LRD) of the U.S. Census Bureau, which covers the entire universe of private and public U.S. manufacturing firms, to study several related questions regarding the efficiency gains generated by venture capital (VC) investment in private firms. First, do VCs indeed improve the efficiency (total factor productivity, TFP) of private firms, and if so, are certain kinds of VCs (high reputation vs. low reputation) better at generating such efficiency gains than others? Second, do VCs invest in more efficient firms to begin with (screening), or do they improve efficiency after investment (monitoring)? Third, do efficiency improvements due to VC backing arise from increases in sales or reductions in costs? Fourth, does VC backing and the associated efficiency gains affect the probability of a successful exit (IPO or acquisition)? Our analysis shows that the overall efficiency of VC-backed firms is higher than that of non-VC-backed firms at every point in time. This efficiency advantage of VC-backed firms arises from both screening and monitoring: the efficiency of VC-backed firms prior to receiving financing is higher than that of non-VC-backed firms, and further, the growth in efficiency subsequent to VC financing is greater for such firms. The above increases in efficiency of VC-backed firms are spread over the first two rounds of VC financing after which the TFP of such firms remains constant until exit. Additionally, we show that while the TFP of firms prior to receiving financing is lower for high-reputation VC-backed firms, the increase in TFP subsequent to financing is significantly greater for these firms, consistent with high-reputation VCs having greater monitoring ability. We disentangle the screening and monitoring effects of VC backing using three different methodologies: switching regression with endogenous switching, regression discontinuity analysis, and propensity score matching. We show that while overall efficiency gains generated by VC backing arise primarily from improvements in sales, the efficiency gains of high-reputation VC-backed firms arise also from lower increases in production costs. Finally, we show that VC-backing and the associated efficiency gains positively affect the probability of a successful exit.

Keywords: VC financing, monitoring, screening, efficiency, TFP

JEL Classification: G24, G34, L60

Suggested Citation

Chemmanur, Thomas J. and Krishnan, Karthik and Nandy, Debarshi K., How Does Venture Capital Financing Improve Efficiency in Private Firms? A Look Beneath the Surface (August 30, 2009). Review of Financial Studies (RFS), 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1025322 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1025322

Thomas J. Chemmanur

Boston College - Carroll School of Management ( email )

Finance Department, 436 Fulton Hall
Carroll School of Management, Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3808
United States
617-552-3980 (Phone)
617-552-0431 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://https://www2.bc.edu/thomas-chemmanur/

Karthik Krishnan

Northeastern University ( email )

360 Huntington Avenue
414C Hayden Hall
Boston, MA 02115
United States
617-373-4707 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.northeastern.edu/kkrishnan

Debarshi K. Nandy (Contact Author)

Brandeis University - International Business School ( email )

Mailstop 32
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,439
Abstract Views
9,574
Rank
15,848
PlumX Metrics