TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of venture capital (VC) funding as a form of ownership on lobbying strategies of venture-backed companies.Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of venture-backed IPO companies between 1999 and 2014. The authors collected IPO data from the Thompson Securities Data Company (SDC) database. The authors collected VC data from SDC VentureXpert database and lobbying data from the Center for Responsive Politics database (opensecrets.org).Findings Consistent with the hypotheses, the authors find that VC-backed companies spend less on lobbying compared to non-VC-backed counterparts. However, this relationship is moderated by companies’ R&D intensity. R&D intensive VC-backed companies choose to spend more on lobbying.Research limitations/implications The research indicates that although VC backing has a negative impact on lobbying efforts, R&D intensity creates an incentive for VC-backed companies to spend more on lobbying in order to shape public policy to their benefit. The study consists of VC-backed companies that are public. The authors believe that future research can explore political strategies of VC-backed companies during their pre-IPO stage.Social implications The authors believe that political strategies are powerful yet underutilized resources that VC-backed companies can rely on to shift industries and invest in innovative products that challenge norms and fight the status quo. Lobbying and other forms of political involvement can help them shape public policy.Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study makes a unique contribution to the literature by exploring the political strategies of VC-backed companies. VL - 8 IS - 2 SN - 2045-2101 DO - 10.1108/JEPP-07-2019-109 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/JEPP-07-2019-109 AU - Alakent Ekin AU - Ozer Mine AU - Goktan M. Sinan PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - The effect of venture capital backing on companies’ subsequent lobbying efforts T2 - Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 241 EP - 253 Y2 - 2024/03/28 ER -