Mapping the venture capital and private equity research: a bibliometric review and future research agenda

The fields of venture capital and private equity are rooted in financing research on capital budgeting and initial public offering (IPO). Both fields have grown considerably in recent times with a heterogenous set of themes being explored. This review presents an analysis of research in both fields. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science, this study used bibliometric analysis to present a comprehensive encapsulation of the fields' geographical focus, methodological choices, prominent themes, and future research directions. Noteworthily, the foundational themes in venture capital research are venture capital adoption and financing processes, venture capital roles in business, venture capital governance, venture capital syndication, and venture capital and creation of public organizations. In private equity research, style drift into venture capital emerges as a key theme alongside buyouts and privatization, and valuation and performance of private equity investment. Plain English Summary Financing is an important aspect of business that creates opportunities for investors and invested entities. Venture capital and private equity are two major vehicles of financing a business. While venture capital manifests as small investments that support the business operations of a large number of promising firms (more risky) in the early stage (startup), private equity transpires as large investments that support the business expansion of a small number of stable firms (less risky) in the later stage (scaleup). This study presents state-of-the-art insights into the current trends and future directions of venture capital and private equity using a bibliometric analysis of high-quality research on these forms of financing.