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This chapter discusses the relevance of venture capital and corporate governance. The results of the literature review are used to identify the most important aspects of this topic and to reveal existing knowledge gaps. Based on that, the aims of the thesis and the corresponding research approach are defined. This determines the structure of the work, as described in the last paragraph.

This chapter lays the foundations of the work by introducing venture capital and corporate governance. The description of venture capital includes the characteristics of venture capitalists and the actions they take to pursue their goals. It then details the corporate governance elements and their functions as well as how stakeholders can influence those elements. This is the basis for understanding the succeeding chapters.

Different theories explain the relation between venture capital and corporate governance from different perspectives. In order to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the relationship, this work combines two disciplines related to the different functions of corporate governance: agency theory as an economic perspective and the dynamic resource-based view as a managerial theory. Whereas agency theory focuses on the control functions of monitoring and bonding, which restrain the managers, the dynamic resource-based view centres on the advice function of corporate governance. Consequently, the importance of corporate governance for the success of venture capitalists is judged differently by the two theories. Nonetheless, as the following introduction of the theoretical foundations shows, both theories consider corporate governance as a key factor for the success of growth companies and thereby for venture capitalists.

This chapter builds a theoretical framework for the relationship between venture capital, corporate governance and firm value on the basis of the two perspectives introduced in chapter three. The four aspects that are expected to have the greatest importance in this relationship, based on the literature review, are analysed. First, the reasons for the venture capitalists’ influence on the corporate governance of portfolio companies are explained. Thereafter, the expected effects of the influence on corporate governance quality are described. This is followed by a description of the abilities that should determine the venture capitalists’ impact. In the end, the effects of good corporate governance on growth companies′ firm value are determined. The specific hypotheses are derived in the following.

This chapter presents the results of the empirical analysis of the theory-based hypotheses. First, the research concept is introduced to summarise the expected relationships between venture capital, corporate governance and firm value before the methods are described in detail. Then, the empirical results are presented, first for the qualitative analysis and then in more detail for the quantitative analysis.

This chapter summarises the key results of the research and answers the research questions. In a second step, these findings are discussed taking into account limitations and relations with the results of earlier research. Finally, an outlook is given that directs the need for further research on the basis of this analysis.