1. ¹Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA
2. ²School of Management, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, USA

Correspondence: R Madhavan, University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business, 236 Mervis Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Tel: +1 412 648 1530; Fax: +1 412 648 1693; E-mail: rmadhavan@katz.pitt.edu

Received 7 December 2006; Revised 19 August 2008; Accepted 21 August 2008; Published online 16 April 2009.

Abstract

Industry participants and observers view venture capital as fundamentally a local business. However, recent data show an increasing share of US venture capital investments flowing overseas. We suggest that cross-border venture capital flows are associated with the formation of "transnational technical communities" (TTCs), groups of immigrants active in both home- and host-country technical networks. Our results highlight the role of human networks as a mechanism of industry globalization, and support the view that TTCs are emerging economic actors in their own right.