TY  - JOUR
AU  - Link,Albert N.
AU  - Ruhm,Christopher J.
AU  - Siegel,Donald S.
TI  - Private Equity and the Innovation Strategies of Entrepreneurial Firms: Empirical Evidence from the Small Business Innovation Research Program
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18297
PY  - 2012
Y2  - August 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18297
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18297.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Albert N. Link
Department of Economics
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
P.O. Box 26165
Greensboro NC 27402-6165
E-Mail: anlink@uncg.edu

Christopher J. Ruhm
Frank Batten School of
Leadership and Public Policy
University of Virginia
235 McCormick Rd.
P.O. Box 400893
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4893
Tel: 434-243-3729
E-Mail: ruhm@virginia.edu

Donald S. Siegel
School of Business
University at Albany, SUNY
1400 Washington Avenue 
 Albany, NY 12222 
E-Mail: dsiegel@albany.edu
AB  - There is great interest in evaluating the impact of private equity investments on innovation and economic growth.  However, there is no direct empirical evidence on the effects of such transactions on the innovation strategies of entrepreneurial firms.  We fill this gap by examining a rich project-level data set consisting of entrepreneurial firms receiving Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program research awards.  We find that SBIR firms attracting private equity investments are significantly more likely to license and sell their technology rights and engage in collaborative research and development agreements.  Our results suggest that private equity investments accelerate the development and commercialization of research-based technologies, thus contributing to economic growth.  We conclude that both public investments and private investments are key to innovation performance.
ER  -