Financial intermediation and novel technologies

With its focus on private equity (PE) investment in the clean technology (CT) sector, this thesis makes a contribution to an area of research, that, to date has only in part been examined in extant literature. In particular, it adds to prior research by analyzing (1) the multitude of interdependencies among different sources of capital on the one hand and (2) the interdependencies between these sources of capital and financial/innovation policy measures on the other hand. Thereby, the thesis adds depth to the discussion revolving around the financing of innovative technology companies and incorporates the impact of intended and unintended feedback from policy measures. Each of the four main chapters of the thesis covers different aspects of the interdependencies along the innovation-finance value chain: Chapter 2: Private equity financing of clean technology companies: A literature review (RQ1). Chapter 3: Sources of finance in the clean technology sector: Capital structure, financial intermediation and industry life-cycle (RQ2). Chapter 4: Interdependencies between technology and capacity investments in the solar technology sector (RQ3). Chapter 5: Private equity in clean technology: An exploratory study of the finance-innovation-policy nexus (RQ4). A concluding chapter summarizes the main implications from the four main chapters and presents the findings in a format targeted at specific audiences - researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.