Fostering Dynamic Growth in New Ventures through Venture Capital: Conceptualizing Venture Capital Capabilities

There is ample evidence of the influence of venture capital on the creation and growth of new ventures, yet scant attention has been paid to the heterogeneity of venture capitalists and their capacity to contribute to the dynamic growth of new ventures. This paper aims to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the notion that venture capitalists have beneficial effects on the growth of new ventures when they rely on a set of distinctive skills and processes that we associate with venture capital capabilities. We bridge the venture capital and resource-based view research streams to identify the foundational mechanisms of venture capital capabilities. We develop a set of propositions to test empirically and discuss the implications of our study for research and practice.