The analysis will be performed at both micro and macro level, it will consider factors affecting both the demand for and the supply of VC/PE financing, and it will uniquely combine the perspectives offered by different disciplines (finance, innovation economics, international economics, entrepreneurship, management, policy science) and different theoretical approaches (e.g. resource and competence based view, contractual theory of the firm, internationalisation theory. In particular, we are especially interested in the institutional variety that characterises the VC/PE sector in Europe (e.g. private VC firms, PE funds, CVC subsidiaries, bank-controlled VC subsidiaries, State-controlled VC firms). Moreover, we will investigate whether the effects on firm performance are also contingent upon both the different characteristics of investee firms (e.g. the stage of their life cycle) and the business and institutional environment in which they operate (e.g. the tightness of the appropriability regime). A comprehensive, robust, contextual analysis of the moderating role of the characteristics of the investor, the investee firms, and the business and institutional environment represents an original feature of the VICO project which goes well beyond previous studies in this field.

From a methodological perspective, the VICO project will resort to a mix of qualitative (i.e. in depth case studies) and quantitative studies that will use sophisticated statistical and econometric techniques to analyse both survey based and public data. Consistency between the analysis of the different aspects covered by the project will be assured by a centralized data gathering process. In particular, the project will lead to the creation of a unified, longitudinal, cross-country and cross-sector database on European high-tech start-ups, both VC-backed and non-VC-backed, and on VC investors.

The project will greatly benefit from its truly European dimension: the macro level analysis will include all European countries; as to the micro level analysis, this will exhibit an unparalleled coverage of firms located in different European countries, namely Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The United Kingdom.

The knowledge which the project will produce will be relevant for four kinds of audiences:

1. the scientific and scholarly communities
2. policy-makers in the venture capital business
3. entrepreneurial ventures
4. the invested companies

The scientific and scholarly communities consist of scholars in innovation and innovation policy studies on the one hand and in research on venture capital on the other hand. The mainstream of the latter group is in the field of financial studies. Both communities have their own journals and conferences as well as theoretical approaches. Since the approach of the proposed study cuts across these two groups, it needs to communicate with both of them. The last three groups have first-hand knowledge of the phenomena to be studied and will be vitally important informants for the project.