Essays on Investment Behavior and Performance of Venture Capital Investors

This dissertation presents three essays, which examine heterogeneity among VC investors at the fund level and investment partner level. Essay I studies personality traits of investment partners at institutional VC firms through the application of computational psycholinguistic text analysis and examines to which extent partners’ personality traits relate to the performance of their investments. Essay II examines the impact of investment partners’ personality traits on syndication behavior. Essay III focuses on investment strategies of VC funds and examines the relationship between fund diversification and returns. The dissertation contributes to the entrepreneurial finance literature and holds implications for practitioners in the VC industry.