ICMA Centre Visiting Fellow Dr Keith Arundale was featured in the November 2018 issue of the ICAEW’s Corporate Financier magazine. The article “Learning from the Competition” was based on Keith’s PhD research into the difference in investment practices of European and US venture capital firms and in their structural characteristics and the wider environment in which the firms operate, including cultural differences and attitudes to risk. Keith’s thesis is that these differences contribute to the lower historic performance of European VC funds compared to US VC funds.

The article includes comparative data on the European and US VC markets and summarises the differences in investment practices between European and US VC firms. Keith comments: “Things are definitely improving in Europe but there’s a lot more that the European VC sector could learn from the US in order to raise the overall performance”. The article lists Keith’s suggested best practices from US VC firms that European VC funds could consider adopting.

The “Learning from the Competition” article is available from the ICAEW’s Corporate Finance Faculty at www.icaew.com

Dr Keith Arundale is a Visiting Fellow at the ICMA Centre with responsibility for the modules on Private Equity and Venture Capital for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is a member of the Examination Panel for the ICAEW/CISI Diploma in Corporate Finance.