IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/epolin/v51y2024i4d10.1007_s40812-024-00313-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Venture capital and the delegation of decision authority in startups: an exploratory study

Author

Listed:
  • Vincenzo Butticè

    (Politecnico di Milano, School of Management)

  • Massimo G. Colombo

    (Politecnico di Milano, School of Management)

  • Paola Rovelli

    (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)

Abstract

We study the delegation of authority over strategic decisions in startups and how it relates to venture capital (VC) investment through a mixed-methods study. We first show that startups typically centralize decision authority. The extent of delegation is higher if startups are VC-backed. In startups backed by corporate VC investors the aim is to leverage the unique knowledge possessed by entrepreneurial team members in a context characterized by low principal-principal agency costs. In those backed by independent VC investors, the increase in delegation is paired with the emergence of a polyarchy and decoupling between the formal and real organizations. In this situation delegation may serve as a control mechanism aligning the actions of startups with the interests of the VC investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincenzo Butticè & Massimo G. Colombo & Paola Rovelli, 2024. "Venture capital and the delegation of decision authority in startups: an exploratory study," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 51(4), pages 893-923, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:51:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s40812-024-00313-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s40812-024-00313-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40812-024-00313-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40812-024-00313-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimo G. Colombo & Samuele Murtinu, 2017. "Venture Capital Investments in Europe and Portfolio Firms' Economic Performance: Independent Versus Corporate Investors," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 35-66, February.
    2. Narayanan Jayaraman & Ajay Khorana & Edward Nelling & Jeffrey Covin, 2000. "CEO founder status and firm financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(12), pages 1215-1224, December.
    3. Aghion, Philippe & Tirole, Jean, 1997. "Formal and Real Authority in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-29, February.
    4. Fabio Bertoni & Massimo Colombo & Anita Quas, 2015. "The patterns of venture capital investment in Europe," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 543-560, October.
    5. Michael Keren & David Levhari, 1979. "The Optimum Span of Control in a Pure Hierarchy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(11), pages 1162-1172, November.
    6. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Claire Lelarge & John Van Reenen & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2007. "Technology, Information, and the Decentralization of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1759-1799.
    7. Richard A. Bettis & Constance E. Helfat & J. Myles Shaver & Massimo G. Colombo & Kourosh Shafi, 2016. "Swimming with sharks in Europe: When are they dangerous and what can new ventures do to defend themselves?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(11), pages 2307-2322, November.
    8. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    9. Craig R. Fox & Amos Tversky, 1995. "Ambiguity Aversion and Comparative Ignorance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 585-603.
    10. Criscuolo, Chiara & Gal, Peter N. & Menon, Carlo, 2014. "The dynamics of employment growth: new evidence from 18 countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60286, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Markku Maula & Erkko Autio & Gordon Murray, 2005. "Corporate Venture Capitalists and Independent Venture Capitalists: What do They Know, Who do They Know, and Should Entrepreneurs Care?," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, in: Tom Elfring (ed.), Corporate Entrepreneurship and Venturing, chapter 5, pages 101-126, Springer.
    12. Andy Cosh & Xiaolan Fu & Alan Hughes, 2012. "Organisation structure and innovation performance in different environments," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 301-317, September.
    13. Massimo G. Colombo & Luca Grilli, 2013. "The Creation of A Middle‐Management Level by Entrepreneurial Ventures: Testing Economic Theories of Organizational Design," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 390-422, June.
    14. Joon Mahn Lee & Byoung‐Hyoun Hwang & Hailiang Chen, 2017. "Are founder CEOs more overconfident than professional CEOs? Evidence from S&P 1500 companies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 751-769, March.
    15. Hvide, Hans K. & Panos, Georgios A., 2014. "Risk tolerance and entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 200-223.
    16. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Elena Loutskina & Xuan Tian, 2014. "Corporate Venture Capital, Value Creation, and Innovation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(8), pages 2434-2473.
    17. Cédric Gutierrez & Thomas Åstebro & Tomasz Obloj, 2020. "The Impact of Overconfidence and Ambiguity Attitude on Market Entry," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 308-329, March.
    18. Noam Wasserman, 2017. "The throne vs. the kingdom: Founder control and value creation in startups," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 255-277, February.
    19. repec:ner:ucllon:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/17678/ is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Elisa Alvarez-Garrido & Gary Dushnitsky, 2016. "Are entrepreneurial venture's innovation rates sensitive to investor complementary assets? Comparing biotech ventures backed by corporate and independent VCs," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 819-834, May.
    21. Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y. & Dunkelberg, William C., 1988. "Entrepreneurs' perceived chances for success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 97-108.
    22. Petty, Jeffrey S. & Gruber, Marc, 2011. ""In pursuit of the real deal": A longitudinal study of VC decision making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 172-188, March.
    23. Fabio Bertoni & Massimo Colombo & Luca Grilli, 2013. "Venture capital investor type and the growth mode of new technology-based firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 527-552, April.
    24. Dushnitsky, Gary & Lenox, Michael J., 2006. "When does corporate venture capital investment create firm value?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 753-772, November.
    25. Aldas Kriauciunas & Anne Parmigiani & Miguel Rivera-Santos, 2011. "Leaving our comfort zone : Integrating established practices with unique adaptations to conduct survey-based strategy research in nontraditional contexts," Post-Print hal-02313127, HAL.
    26. Paola Rovelli & Vincenzo Butticè, 2020. "On the organizational design of entrepreneurial ventures: the configurations of the entrepreneurial team," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(2), pages 243-269, June.
    27. Warren Boeker & Robert Wiltbank, 2005. "New Venture Evolution and Managerial Capabilities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 123-133, April.
    28. Cardon, Melissa S. & Zietsma, Charlene & Saparito, Patrick & Matherne, Brett P. & Davis, Carolyn, 2005. "A tale of passion: New insights into entrepreneurship from a parenthood metaphor," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 23-45, January.
    29. Milton Harris & Artur Raviv, 2005. "Allocation of Decision-making Authority," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 9(3), pages 353-383.
    30. Dimo Dimov & Eric Gedajlovic, 2010. "A Property Rights Perspective on Venture Capital Investment Decisions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7), pages 1248-1271, November.
    31. Christine M. Beckman & M. Diane Burton, 2008. "Founding the Future: Path Dependence in the Evolution of Top Management Teams from Founding to IPO," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 3-24, February.
    32. Simon, Mark & Shrader, Rodney C., 2012. "Entrepreneurial actions and optimistic overconfidence: The role of motivated reasoning in new product introductions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 291-309.
    33. Macmillan, Ian C. & Siegel, Robin & Narasimha, P. N. Subba, 1985. "Criteria used by venture capitalists to evaluate new venture proposals," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 119-128.
    34. Ranjay Gulati & Phanish Puranam, 2009. "Renewal Through Reorganization: The Value of Inconsistencies Between Formal and Informal Organization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 422-440, April.
    35. Wouter Dessein, 2002. "Authority and Communication in Organizations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(4), pages 811-838.
    36. Hellmann, Thomas, 2002. "A theory of strategic venture investing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 285-314, May.
    37. Michael Gibbert & Winfried Ruigrok & Barbara Wicki, 2008. "What passes as a rigorous case study?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(13), pages 1465-1474, December.
    38. Timothy van Zandt, 1999. "Real-Time Decentralized Information Processing as a Model of Organizations with Boundedly Rational Agents," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 66(3), pages 633-658.
    39. Thomas Hellmann & Noam Wasserman, 2017. "The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2647-2666, August.
    40. Massimo G. Colombo & Marco Delmastro, 2004. "Delegation of Authority In Business Organizations: An Empirical Test," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 53-80, March.
    41. Milton Harris & Artur Raviv, 2005. "Allocation of Decision-making Authority," Review of Finance, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 353-383, September.
    42. Mathias, Blake D. & Williams, David W., 2018. "Giving up the hats? Entrepreneurs' role transitions and venture growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 261-277.
    43. Noam Wasserman, 2003. "Founder-CEO Succession and the Paradox of Entrepreneurial Success," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 149-172, April.
    44. Michael N. Young & Mike W. Peng & David Ahlstrom & Garry D. Bruton & Yi Jiang, 2008. "Corporate Governance in Emerging Economies: A Review of the Principal–Principal Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 196-220, January.
    45. Busenitz, Lowell W. & Barney, Jay B., 1997. "Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 9-30, January.
    46. Talaulicar, Till & Grundei, Jens & Werder, Axel v., 2005. "Strategic decision making in start-ups: the effect of top management team organization and processes on speed and comprehensiveness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 519-541, July.
    47. Yongwook Paik & Heejin Woo, 2017. "The Effects of Corporate Venture Capital, Founder Incumbency, and Their Interaction on Entrepreneurial Firms’ R&D Investment Strategies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 670-689, August.
    48. Xiaohua Lin & Richard Germain, 2003. "Organizational structure, context, customer orientation, and performance: lessons from Chinese state‐owned enterprises," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(11), pages 1131-1151, November.
    49. Jonathan D. Arthurs & Lowell W. Busenitz, 2003. "The Boundaries and Limitations of Agency Theory and Stewardship Theory in the Venture Capitalist/Entrepreneur Relationship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(2), pages 145-162, March.
    50. Markku Maula & Erkko Autio & Gordon Murray, 2005. "Corporate Venture Capitalists and Independent Venture Capitalists: What do they know, Who do They Know and Should Entrepreneurs Care?," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 3-21, January.
    51. Keren, Michael & Levhari, David, 1989. "Decentralization, aggregation, control loss and costs in a hierarchical model of the firm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 213-236, March.
    52. Luis Garicano, 2000. "Hierarchies and the Organization of Knowledge in Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(5), pages 874-904, October.
    53. Dan Lovallo & Colin Camerer, 1999. "Overconfidence and Excess Entry: An Experimental Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 306-318, March.
    54. Vladimir I. Ivanov & Fei Xie, 2010. "Do Corporate Venture Capitalists Add Value to Start‐Up Firms? Evidence from IPOs and Acquisitions of VC‐Backed Companies," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(1), pages 129-152, March.
    55. Radner, Roy, 1993. "The Organization of Decentralized Information Processing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(5), pages 1109-1146, September.
    56. Haemin Dennis Park & H. Kevin Steensma, 2012. "When does corporate venture capital add value for new ventures?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, January.
    57. Michael Keren & David Levhari, 1983. "The Internal Organization of the Firm and the Shape of Average Costs," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 14(2), pages 474-486, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paola Rovelli & Vincenzo Butticè, 2020. "On the organizational design of entrepreneurial ventures: the configurations of the entrepreneurial team," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(2), pages 243-269, June.
    2. Jeon, Euiju & Maula, Markku, 2022. "Progress toward understanding tensions in corporate venture capital: A systematic review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).
    3. Massimo G. Colombo & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2013. "The organizational design of high- tech start- ups: state of the art and directions for future research," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 21, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Stefanie Weniger & Svenja Jarchow, 2023. "Between benefit and risk: how entrepreneurs evaluate corporate investors," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(5), pages 783-816, July.
    5. Pérez, Jessica Helen & Iranzo Sancho, Susana, 2012. "Determinants of Decentralization within the Firm: Some Empirical Evidence from Spanish Small and Medium- Sized Enterprise," Working Papers 2072/211755, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    6. Patrick Röhm, 2018. "Exploring the landscape of corporate venture capital: a systematic review of the entrepreneurial and finance literature," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 279-319, August.
    7. Yongwook Paik & Heejin Woo, 2017. "The Effects of Corporate Venture Capital, Founder Incumbency, and Their Interaction on Entrepreneurial Firms’ R&D Investment Strategies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 670-689, August.
    8. Bugl, Benjamin M. & Balz, Frank P. & Kanbach, Dominik K., 2022. "Leveraging smart capital through corporate venture capital: A typology of value creation for new venture firms," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    9. Sunny Hahn & Jina Kang, 2017. "Complementary or conflictory?: the effects of the composition of the syndicate on venture capital-backed IPOs in the US stock market," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 44(1), pages 77-102, March.
    10. Banal-Estañol, Albert & Macho-Stadler, Inés & Nieto-Postigo, Jonás & Pérez-Castrillo, David, 2023. "Early individual stakeholders, first venture capital investment, and exit in the UK startup ecosystem," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Alonso, Ricardo, 2009. "Strategic control and strategic communication," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58682, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Diego Useche & Sophie Pommet, 2021. "Where do we go? VC firm heterogeneity and the exit routes of newly listed high-tech firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1339-1359, October.
    13. Patrick Haslanger & Erik E. Lehmann & Nikolaus Seitz, 2023. "The performance effects of corporate venture capital: a meta-analysis," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 2132-2160, December.
    14. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Puri, Manju, 2015. "Capital allocation and delegation of decision-making authority within firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 449-470.
    15. Collewaert, Veroniek & Vanacker, Tom & Anseel, Frederik & Bourgois, Dries, 2021. "The sandwich game: Founder-CEOs and forecasting as impression management," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    16. Colombo, Massimo G. & Foss, Nicolai J. & Lyngsie, Jacob & Rossi Lamastra, Cristina, 2021. "What drives the delegation of innovation decisions? The roles of firm innovation strategy and the nature of external knowledge," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    17. Maria De Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2010. "Effort Observability, Incentive Systems, and Organizational Forms," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(3), pages 221-237, September.
    18. Rafał Morawczyński, 2020. "Venture Capitalists’ Investment Criteria in Poland: Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Entrepreneurs, and Founding Teams," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-30, October.
    19. Wang, Tao, 2023. "The ownership structure of corporate venture capital financing and innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    20. Diego Useche & Sophie Pommet, 0. "Where do we go? VC firm heterogeneity and the exit routes of newly listed high-tech firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-21.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:51:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s40812-024-00313-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.