Venture capital winners: A configurational approach to high venture capital-backed firm growth

Abstract

The positive effect of venture capital (VC) on firm growth has been widely documented. However, there exists a large variation in growth, with only a small number of VC-backed firms reaching a substantial size. Prior studies have linked the variation in growth of VC-backed firms to differences in resource endowments of the entrepreneurial top management team, the firm or the venture capitalist, without considering their potentially complex interaction. In addition, the literature has taken strong growth aspirations in VC-backed firms as a given, without examining their potential variation, and its potential implications. Therefore, this study aims at examining which configurations of resource portfolios and growth aspirations lead to high VC-backed firm growth. In order to do so, it takes an inductive, theory-building approach, and builds upon fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our results show that strong growth aspirations in the entrepreneurial top management team are a necessary condition for high VC-backed firm growth. Furthermore, we identify four configurations which, in combination with these aspirations, lead to high VC-backed firm growth.