000			01544nab a22001217a 4500
008			160615b1993 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aNorton, Edgar
245			_aSpecialization versus diversification as a venture capital i strategy _cNorton, Edgar.
260			_c1993
300			_a431 - 442
520			_aMuch important work has informed us of rates of return earned by venture capitalists, the importance of venture capitalists to the going public process, and the criteria venture capitalists use to evaluate deals. This paper seeks to add to the literature by testing hypotheses, based upon both the finance and strategic management literature, regarding certain venture capitalist investment practices. Venture capitalists seek to control or manage risk (Driscoll 1974; MacMillan, Siegel, and SubbaNarasimha 1985). Financing structure and investment strategy provide several means for venture capitalists to do this. Tools available to the venture capitalist include portfolio diversification to spread risk across different industries, firms, or hot/cold IPO markets to minimize unsystematic or investment-specific risk. Information sharing, networking, and specialization can also be used to control unsystematic risk. Several hypotheses are developed from these conflicting perspectives. Data used to test the hypotheses are derived from responses to a survey of venture capitalists. Three hundred surveys were mailed to venture capitalists; 98, or 32.7%,returned usable responses. ...
773			_aJournal of Business Venturing _dSep
999			_c43884 _d43884