MORSe (Management and Organization Research Seminars): "Career Experiences and Emergent Network Structures: Investment Syndicates in the Young Venture Capital Industry"
Institute of Management and Organisation
Start date: 21 January 2010
End date: 22 January 2010
AUTHOR
HELENA BUHR (University Of Michigan)
TITLE
Career Experiences and Emergent Network Structures: Investment Syndicates in the Young Venture Capital Industry
VENUE
Room 251
TIME
January, 21st , 12:30-14:00
ABSTRACT
The paper explains how managers’ prior career experiences influence emergent networks among firms in a young industry. Prior network research has focused on the reproduction of relational patterns within mature industries. I propose instead that collaboration in young industries depends on managers’ career experiences in other social contexts. Drawing on a historical analysis of collaborative investments among venture capital firms in 1965-1987, I demonstrate that venture capital firms with managers from banking were more likely than other firms to collaborate on investments in response to uncertainty from earlier investment rounds. Theoretical implications for the literature on network dynamics are discussed.
