Venture capital e attività brevettuale delle giovani imprese italiane ad alta tecnologia

The aim of the paper is to conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of VC (venture capital) funding on the innovation output of new technology-based firms in terms of their patenting activity. In particular, we compare the patenting rates of investee and non-investee high-tech firms. To investigate whether VC investments spur patenting activity, we consider a unique longitudinal dataset composed of one hundred and ninety- one Italian firms operating in high-tech manufacturing industries. We estimate different econometric models on panel data, controlling for factors beyond VC that could influence a firm’s patenting behaviour, such as the founders’ human capital and the use of other financing sources. The results of the analysis show that VC investments have a positive impact on successive patenting activity and that prior to receiving VC, the patenting propensity of the investee firms was no higher than other firms. Keywords: Venture capital, brevetti, imprese ad alta tecnologia JEL Code: D92, G24, L21