Risk Appraisal and Venture Capital in High Technology New Ventures

Written by Professor Gavin Reid, and Julia A. Smith,

This book is a 'crossover' treatment of quantitative and qualitative risk analysis within the setting of new high technology ventures in the UK. Reid and Smith have based their research on extensive fieldwork in patent-intensive, high-technology firms. This has included face-to-face interviews with leading investors, and is illustrated by two chapters of case studies. Their aim is to advance the understanding of methods of risk assessment and to illuminate current policy concerns about stimulating innovative output and securing intellectual property.

This book is unique in being academic in intent and purpose, yet strongly grounded in practice, without becoming merely a practitioner volume. Using tools from economics, accounting and finance, Reid and Smith find a considerable consensus in the venture capital industry on the spectrum of investments by risk, and on key commercial factors affecting risk. This book offers a useful and interdisciplinary approach to an increasingly popular field of study.

This book will be of considerable interest to students and academics of financial and industrial economics, and financial and management accounting, as well as practitioners in banking, private equity and business and management consultancies.

The work on which this book is based was sponsored by: the Research Foundation of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA); The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland; the British Academy; and the CNRS research unit MRSH, of the University of Caen.

Gavin C. Reid is Director of CRIEFF and Professor in Economics and Finance at the University of St Andrews. Julia A. Smith is Reader in Accounting and Finance at Strathclyde Business School.

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