Does venture capital spur innovation or the other way around? Evidence on the significance of investment timing from China

This paper explores the interaction between venture capital and innovation in China. We focus on the difference between early, development, and expansion stages of innovation firms when they receive their first installment of venture capital. Using ordinary least squares (OLS), switching regression model and counterfactual comparison, we find that selection effect exists in all three stages, suggesting that established innovation capacity increases the possibility of innovation firms to receive venture capital. Further, the selection effect is most profound in the development stage. The treatment effect, the combined effect of financial role and value‐added service, plays an important role in promoting innovation in all three stages. However, the mechanisms of the effect vary greatly across the early, development, and expansion stages. The financial role of venture capital does not influence innovation in the early stage, but promotes innovation in the development stage, and restrains innovation in the expansion stage. Value‐added service promotes innovation in the early and expansion stages, and whether it influences innovation in the development stage needs further study.