Mapping the venture capital and private equity research: a bibliometric review and future research agenda

Abstract

AbstractThe fields of venture capital and private equity are rooted in financing research on capital budgeting and initial public offering (IPO). Both fields have grown considerably in recent times with a heterogenous set of themes being explored. This review presents an analysis of research in both fields. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science, this study used bibliometric analysis to present a comprehensive encapsulation of the fields’ geographical focus, methodological choices, prominent themes, and future research directions. Noteworthily, the foundational themes in venture capital research areventure capital adoption and financing processes,venture capital roles in business,venture capital governance,venture capital syndication, andventure capital and creation of public organizations.In private equity research,style drift into venture capitalemerges as a key theme alongsidebuyouts and privatization, andvaluation and performance of private equity investment.