Contextual status effects: The performance effects of host-country network status and regulatory institutions in cross-border venture capital

Abstract

Network status is generally considered to be a valuable firm asset; however, its effects are not well understood in the context of cross-border VC investments, as foreign VC firms can have different statuses in their home and host countries, and prior research has considered only the effects of home-country network status. Theorizing the importance of a foreign VC firm's network status in the host country for cross-border VC investments, we hypothesize a positive performance effect for network status in the host country. Furthermore, we theorize that the performance effect of a VC firm's network status in the host country is stronger in countries with weaker host-country regulatory institutions. We test these hypotheses using a global sample of cross-border VC investments and find support for our arguments.