This authoritative and accessible Handbook provides an excellent overview of the various facets of venture capital and their related issues. The book opens with a thorough survey of venture capital as a research field; conceptual, theoretical, methodological and geographic aspects are explored, and its pioneers revisited. The focus then shifts to the specific environs of venture capital. Firstly, formal (institutional) venture capital is discussed. The analysis encompasses considerations such as: structure, pre-investment processes, venture capitalist's value-adding, performance, and impact on economic development, early-stage financing as well as management buyouts. Business angel research, their investment decision making, and business angel networks are then discussed under the wider umbrella of informal venture capital. Finally, the corporate venture capital market is explored from the entrepreneur's perspective as well as the supply side of corporate venture capital. Also providing a lively and stimulating debate on policy implications and possible directions for future venture capital research, this all-encompassing Handbook will prove an invaluable reference tool for those with an interest in business, management, entrepreneurship and the financing of new enterprises.