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Venture capital and risk perception

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Abstract

This study extends the current state of research on venture capital (VC) determinants by introducing a behavioral perspective. We focus on individuals’ risk perception and connect it to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Individualism is related to overoptimism and uncertainty avoidance is related to overcaution, and hence affect the perception of risk. In a cross-country empirical analysis with 49 countries, we find that individualism is positively associated with VC activity, whereas uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with VC activity. Our results are robust to controlling for other determinants as well as using other proxies of VC activity, other time periods, and subsamples of countries.

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Danksagung

We are grateful to Wolfgang Breuer and an anonymous referee for their useful comments and suggestions. We thank Jan Ossenbrink for excellent research assistance.

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  1. Corporate Finance—Valuation, KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Tersteegenstraße 19-31, 40474, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Ron Christian Antonczyk &  Astrid Juliane Salzmann

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  1. Ron Christian Antonczyk
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  2. Astrid Juliane Salzmann
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Correspondence to Ron Christian Antonczyk.

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Antonczyk, R., Salzmann, A. Venture capital and risk perception. Z Betriebswirtsch 82, 389–416 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-012-0556-1

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