When is Centrality-based Advantage Absent? The Case of Cross-Border Venture Capital Syndication.

I re-evaluate the classic positive centrality-performance relationship in the setting of nascent venture capital (VC) industry in China, where foreign entrants from Western developed markets and indigenous firms born in the transitional economy operate in the same market space. Mixed methodologies are employed in this study. Network visualizations reveal two findings on macro-level structures of the industry network. First, a network structural change in the level of interaction between foreign VCs and domestic VCs in China happened when equity market -- the most import financial institution supporting VC, was installed. Second, during the low interaction stage, foreign VCs formed a highly interconnected sub-network, while domestic VCs' sub-network remained fragmented. Further, regression analysis results from multi-year data show nuanced findings on the classic centrality-performance relationship. Firms reside in networks whose composition is heterogenous and therefore provide diverse information and resources would benefit from occupying central positions. When the composition of the network is homogenous, central firms in fragmented network would experience better performance, while central firms in highly interconnected network no longer show superior performance than their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]