Constructing social networks of venture capital (VC) firms using social ties of VC partners in 36 countries, we find that VC firms that are central in the networks tend to lead VC investment syndicates, and this relation is more pronounced in countries with weaker institutional environments and investor protection. We show evidence that central VC firms achieve superior performance as they obtain better access to deal flow and provide more value-added services to portfolio companies. We demonstrate that the positive value of social network centrality is not driven by the mutual existence of investment networks built upon historical investment relationships. Importantly, our results suggest that social networks are one of the key drivers of investment networks.

中文翻译：

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世界各地的社交网络和风险投资


利用 36 个国家/地区风险投资合作伙伴的社交关系构建风险投资 （VC） 公司的社交网络，我们发现，在网络中处于中心地位的风险投资公司往往会领导风险投资财团，这种关系在制度环境和投资者保护较弱的国家更为明显。我们展示的证据表明，中央风险投资公司在获得更好的交易流程并为投资组合公司提供更多增值服务时，取得了卓越的业绩。我们证明了社交网络中心性的积极价值并不是由建立在历史投资关系基础上的投资网络的共同存在所驱动的。重要的是，我们的结果表明，社交网络是投资网络的关键驱动力之一。