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Vested interests: how American and Chinese venture capitalists view essential management skills

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Abstract

This paper used semi-structured interviews with 11 highly successful venture capitalists from both the United States and China to examine perceptions of the essential nature of management skills for successful technology-based small-to-medium sized venture exits. Findings suggest American VCs appear to maintain a more global management perspective, whereas Chinese VCs appear to maintain a perspective that is more China-centric, or market specific, in nature. This divergence in perceptions of essential managerial skills offers an opportunity for the convergence of understanding of universal best practices. Implications for theory and research are discussed. Such an understanding may provide critical implications for successful exits from cross border ventures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business Administration, Belmont University, 1900 Belmont Boulevard, Nashville, TN, 37212–3757, USA

    Mark T. Schenkel, Howard H. Cochran, Jennie Carter-Thomas & Richard Churchman

  2. Management Consultant, Tokyo, Japan

    Patrick Linton

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  1. Mark T. Schenkel
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  2. Howard H. Cochran
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Correspondence to Mark T. Schenkel.

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Schenkel, M.T., Cochran, H.H., Carter-Thomas, J. et al. Vested interests: how American and Chinese venture capitalists view essential management skills. Int Entrep Manag J 9, 147–165 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-011-0193-0

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