ABSTRACT

Venture capital (VC) syndicates pool diverse resources from their members to accomplish the common goal of nurturing new ventures for a successful exit. Although the size of syndicate is a fundamental attribute impacting performance, the influence of syndicate size is less understood in prior studies with mixed findings. To address the gap, we suggest that there is an inverted U relationship between a syndicate size and venture performance. As the number of partners in a VC syndicate increases, a syndicate can provide more heterogeneous resources that can help its portfolio company succeed, but coordination costs increase as well. We thus predict that the net effect combining these two countervailing effects yields an inverse-U relationship between syndicate size and performance. We further examine two boundary conditions under which the nonlinear relationship is likely to manifest. Analyzing 407 investment syndicates formed by 1,106 VC firms for new ventures in the U.S. information and communications technology sector between 1990 and 2006, we find that the relationship between syndicate size and performance is an inverse-U shape. We further find that geographic distance among syndicate partners flattens the inverse-U curve, whereas a strong reputation of the lead VC firms shifts the inverse-U curve to the right.

摘要

风险资本（VC）联合会从其成员那里汇集各种资源，以实现为成功退出而培育新企业的共同目标。尽管辛迪加的规模是影响绩效的一个基本属性，但在先前对混合结果的研究中，对辛迪加规模的影响了解较少。为了解决这一差距，我们建议在集团规模和企业绩效之间存在倒U关系。随着VC辛迪加合作伙伴的数量增加，辛迪加可以提供更多异构资源来帮助其投资组合公司成功，但协调成本也随之增加。因此，我们预测将这两个抵消作用结合起来的净效应会在辛迪加规模和绩效之间产生反U关系。我们进一步研究了非线性关系可能表现出来的两个边界条件。通过分析1990年至2006年之间由1,106家风险投资公司组成的407个投资集团，这些投资集团在美国信息和通信技术领域进行了新的投资，我们发现，集团规模与绩效之间的关系呈倒U型。我们进一步发现，银团合伙人之间的地理距离使U形曲线倒平，而领先的风险投资公司的良好声誉使U形曲线向右移动。