Editorial. New issues in venture capital: an introduction to the special issue.

This paper introduces a special issue of Venture Capital which comprises a selection of the papers that were presented in the venture capital track at the 48th World Conference of the International Council For Small Business (ICSB) held in Belfast, Northern Ireland in June 2003. The intention of the mini-conference was to provide a forum for papers which explored new issues in venture capital. In our judgement the six papers that we have selected for publication in this special issue are particularly innovative in either their topic, methodology or treatment of the subject matter. This review covers the main themes in the track: (i) the new investment environment; (ii) approaches by venture capitalists to the evaluation of investment opportunities; (iii) the management of investments and investment performance; (iv) the global spread of venture capital; (v) business angels; (vi) the demand for venture capital; (vii) bootstrapping - making do without venture capital; (viii) women and (no) venture capital [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]