Investor type and new - venture governance : cognition vs . interest alignment

Résumé : We study the specific rationale governing entrepreneur-investor relations in young ventures which raise equity capital from different investor types in pursuit of a strong growth strategy. Special emphasis is put on the governance process through which investors and entrepreneurs interact in a complex setting, where an entrepreneur faces at least two distinct investor types (business angels and venture capitalists). We do so in an effort to capture the specific role and impact of each for venture dynamics, trying to reach beyond static descriptions of entrepreneurs’ and investors’ characteristics. To this end, we set up a prospective case study (Bitektine, 2008). We actually use the case of a young growth venture in the process of raising external equity from angel investors and venture capitalists to test the relevance of two conflicting theories of venture governance. The study design has been set up to answer the following question: What is the dominant logic behind the governance of entrepreneur-investor interactions at an early stage in the growth process? Is it mainly driven by considerations of personal interest, as agency theory would have it, or does entrepreneurial and investor cognition play a dominant role?