How Could Venture Capitalists Improve Their Performance at Fund Management Level via Better Allocating Their Financial and Human Capitals - A Cross-Fund Approach

Venture capitalists’ performance has been studied at the levels of portfolio company and fund. But no similar study at the fund management entity level has been documented. This study fills in the gap to examine the drivers of the venture capitalists’ performance at the fund management entity level. This study uses the capital allocation theory to develop five hypotheses on its performance. Each of them embodies an aspect of the feature of capital allocation in the venture capital investment process. With an expanded concept of capital for capital allocation, this study examines the allocation of both the financial capital and the human capital of venture capitalists. The capital allocation in venture capital investment is a process of capital leveraging and channeling by venture capitalists at the fund management level to the portfolio companies. Our results show that the amount of leveraging financial capital channeled to the individual portfolio company on average is negatively associated with venture capitalists’ performance at the fund management level, while the reserve ratio of leveraging the financial capital, the degree of human capital clustering, and the quality of human capital are positively related to venture capitalists’ performance at the fund management level