Rethinking venture capital in economic geographical research

Venture capital is a specialised form of commercial finance and is widely accepted as a key driver of entrepreneurship and economic development in advanced economies. While parts of economic geography have undergone a series of (albeit contested) turns, geographies of money and finance as a sub-discipline continues to swell. The venture capital industry has occupied a relatively off-stage location in both of these developments reflecting the sporadic engagement by economic geographers with this particular intersection of the financial system. Drawing on aspects of new economic geography and cultural economy approaches to money and finance, plus relational and practice-orientated approaches, this paper proposes alternative ways of researching the venture capital industry while complementing, but also addressing, some of the limitations associated with more traditional accounts of the industry in previous economic geographical research.