Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Unifying or harmonizing the laws of different countries means replacing, to respective degrees, the existing national laws with common rules.1 The merits of law unification or harmonization may seem to be obvious. They have been repeatedly described. Law diversity is an obstacle to trade between countries. Engaging in a commercial operation with a partner of another legal system immediately raises the question of which law will govern the relationship, with the consequence that, for one of the parties, the contract will be subject to unfamiliar rules (perhaps even for both parties if the law of a third party is determined to be applicable).

This paper identifies subsistence farming as a significant opportunity for poverty reduction and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. By taking a holistic, standardized, and bundled approach, this paper proposes an innovative business model that enables small-holder farmers to access affordable extension services, technical assistance and financial scheme, thereby improving their overall productivity level.

The increase in international trade creates a growing number of disputes between parties from different countries. Arbitration has become the most preferred mechanism to solve disputes in international trade. If a party does not voluntarily comply with an award, the successful party must apply for recognition and enforcement of the award in order to obtain the remedies. Cameroon is one of the major business markets in West and Central Africa, several companies committed to arbitral procedures are likely to have assets in Cameroon. This means that if a party fails to honour an award, an enforcement procedure may begin within a Cameroonian court. The enforcement procedures in Cameroon are sufficient and do comply with international standards. The most used and important instruments for recognition and enforcement are the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1958 and the Uniform Act on Arbitration 1999 in the OHADA territory, to which Cameroon is a signatory State. According to this Convention and the Uniform Act, an arbitral award may be refused enforcement under certain grounds laid down in them. There are various types of arbitral awards contemplated by the Cameroonoan legislature and will be herein examined to see how they can be enforced in Cameroon. An analysis of the legal situation in Cameroon confirms that there are problems associated with the enforcement of arbitral awards. These problems are not, however, connected with the concept of arbitral awards, but rather with the entire judicial system in Cameroon. Even though an enforcing party can do little to overcome these problems, certain measures can be taken in order to ease the enforcement procedure

Technological advances have had a major impact on traditional retail shopping changing it from a physical undertaking to a completely digitised experience where consumers buy digital media online. VAT systems that do not specifically provide for, or which have not been adapted to cope with, technology-driven advances, generally do not provide for the adequate levying and collection of VAT on cross-border digital trade. The South African VAT system is no different. The taxation of e-commerce should not artificially advantage or disadvantage e-commerce over comparable traditional commerce, or unnecessarily hinder the development of e-commerce. This thesis determines whether the South African VAT Act 89 of 1991 in its current form, can be applied adequately to raise and collect VAT on cross-border digital transactions. Where shortcomings in the VAT Act are identified, the harmonised VAT rules of the European Union (EU), together with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) proposals on consumption taxes, are analysed and discussed to seek possible solutions and make recommendations.

The evidence of developments in the harmonization of international business laws shows that Africa is lagging seriously behind. There are still some skeptical voices about the need for and the value of harmonization of international business laws, but such voices are now in a minority. The aim of this paper is to assess the prospects for harmonizing international business laws in Africa. The main contention is that the debate today in Africa is not whether or not there should be harmonization of international business laws, but how this should be done. The paper reviews the imperatives for harmonization and the options that exist and then focuses on the present approach to harmonizing business laws in Africa under the auspices of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Laws in Africa, better known under its French acronym, OHADA. Based on the critical review of the weaknesses and strengths of the OHADA regulatory framework, the paper suggests ways in which the agenda to develop a harmonized and modern set of business laws in Africa can be achieved.

The rationale for the legal protection of copyright works is based on the perceived need to encourage the creation of works which are considered to be socially beneficial. By awarding authors proprietary rights in their creations, copyright law allows authors the ability to earn direct financial returns from their efforts, and, thus, copyright law provides the required incentives for authors to create copyright works. Since the early days of commercial software development, copyright protection has been extended to computer programs; thus, by providing such protection it was assumed that their production should be encouraged, and that without such protection they will not be produced to the extent required by society. Comparatively recently, we have witnessed large-scale production of open-source software, which is licensed on generous terms, giving users the right to freely use, modify and redistribute such software. By adopting such licensing terms, the authors of open-source software are unable to charge licensees a fee for permission to use their software, which is the reward which copyright assumes authors seek to create such software. This development has made it necessary to re-evaluate the rationale for copyright protection of computer programs, and determine whether the continued protection of computer programs is justifiable. This study seeks to first establish a coherent theoretical justification for copyright protection, which it is submitted should be an economic justification, rather than a moral justification. The legal analysis in this work seeks to establish whether the copyright protection of computer programs is consistent with the economic justification for copyright protection. In particular, the analysis focuses on the current scope of copyright protection, and seeks to establish whether such protection is excessive, stifling creativity and innovation, and, thus, imposing too high a social cost. It is contended that copyright doctrine has generally sought to minimise these costs, and that current scope of copyright protection of computer programs leaves enough creative room for the production of new software. Despite the fact that the effect of open-source software licences is that authors are unable to earn the direct financial rewards which copyright enables authors to earn as an incentive to create such software, their authors continue to have financial incentives to create such software. Commercial firms who invest in open-source software do so because they seek to provide financially-rewarding related services in respect of software, or because it serves to promote sales in their complementary products. Similarly, the participation of individual computer programmers is largely consistent with the standard economic theories relating to labour markets and the private provision of public goods. Individuals are principally motivated by economic motives, such as career concerns. Copyright protection gives participants the choice to opt for the direct financial rewards which its proprietary protection enables, or the more indirect financial rewards of open-source software development. It is submitted within this research that rather than undermining the rationale for copyright protection of computer programs, the development of open-source software has illustrated that copyright protection allows for the emergence of alternative business models, which may be more economically advantageous to authors.

Arbitration as a mode of dispute settlement has been growing steadily all over the world. The momentum for commercial arbitration in particular was provided by the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (“the Model Law”). Legislation based on the Model Law has been enacted in many countries. The arbitration laws of three of these countries, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, are selected for consideration in this dissertation because of their common origins, similar statutes, similar problems, shared experiences, and their regional distribution. As the writer’s arbitration practice is based in Kenya, that jurisdiction is the primary, albeit not the only, source and foundation for this work, the focal point of reference and the citations from the law and practice incorporated in this research. The work consists of three chapters. Chapter one is a brief introduction and an overview of arbitration. This is followed by the statement of the research question, the justification for the research, methodology and the structure and content of the dissertation. Chapter two describes the legal and contextual framework for the investigation of the research questions in the selected jurisdictions of Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Customary Law arbitration is included as a significant feature of African arbitration law. The UNCITRAL Model Law, the Arbitration Act, 1995 (Kenya), the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1988 (Nigeria), the Arbitration Act, 1996 (Zimbabwe), the Arbitration Act, 1996 (England), and the South African Draft Arbitration Bill are all used as legislative or statutory points of reference in the discussion of the research questions. Chapter 3 contains the main focus of the dissertation in which six recurrent arbitration problems in Kenya are discussed in the context of domestic arbitration. The research investigates (i) the illusiveness of consent as the basis for consensual arbitration (ii) jurisdictional challenges (iii) the procedural powers of the arbitral tribunal (iv) the disruptive effect of adjournments and postponements on the arbitral process (v) constraints on the granting of interim relief and (vi) the enforcement of the arbitral award. Original, creative and innovative proposals in response to these problems include: the express legislative recognition of the manifestation of consent in both the verbal and written forms of the arbitration agreement, the use of the constructive dispute resolution technique, statutory recognition of customary law arbitration, the use of an expedited arbitration procedure, the award of exemplary and punitive damages in arbitration, a code of sanctions to facilitate the arbitration process, and a simplified method of enforcement and execution of the arbitral award. The dissertation concludes with reflections on the future of arbitration in Africa, and the need for modernization and harmonization of arbitration laws for peaceful resolution of disputes and serious conflicts across Africa. The aim of this study is best illustrated by a short story: In the early nineties there was a man, untrained in any known discipline, who strutted court corridors, trade centres and market places, carrying a placard advertising himself to lawyers, traders and marketers as “An Arbitrator and Private Judge”. He attracted business, charged a handsome percentage fee on the value of the claim, was duly paid, until officialdom caught up with him and put paid to his burgeoning career as “Arbitrator-Judge”. But the reckless enthusiasm spawned by his wit and imagination, and the idiosyncratic practices in dispute resolution persisted and are manifest in Kenyan arbitration culture today. The need to remove bad practices, avoidable impediments, and inefficiency in the arbitration culture of Kenya in order to make its procedures and processes more efficacious, is the heart of this study.

Tesis doctoral (Lectura 07/02/2013). Director: Francisco José Martínez López (Universidad de Granada). Tribunal: Martínez López, Francisco José, Univ. de Huelva, presidente; Padilla Meléndez, Antonio (secretario); Ortigueira Sánchez, Manuel (vocal); Luna Huertas, Paula (vocal); García Ordaz, María Mercedes (vocal). Se puede afirmar que la historia de las relaciones entre los individuos y las organizaciones se divide en dos, antes y después de la aparición de Internet, la penetración de los PC y de la banda ancha. En el campo organizacional, las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC), se refieren al amplio espectro de tecnologías de base de los Sistemas de Información, y que se constituye en un importante recurso, que facilita la continua adaptación del Sistema de Información a los cambios internos y del entorno. La aplicación de los sistemas de información a las actividades organizacionales, caso concreto que nos interesa, el marketing, se constituye en una herramienta para que la empresa se mantenga competitiva en el mercado. Las relaciones de intercambio desarrolladas en los mercados electrónicos posibilitan la comunicación bidireccional entre las partes y entre cada una de ellas y el propio medio, exigiendo a las organizaciones implementar un marketing interactivo en términos de producto, precio, distribución y comunicación, en el que consumidor dirija el proceso de intercambio. El desarrollo del comercio en los mercados electrónicos y las aplicaciones de los sistemas de información al marketing, han tomado características del comercio tradicional y han sido adaptadas al electrónico, caso específico la adaptación que han realizado una gran cantidad de empresas comerciales en la Web a las recomendaciones a sus usuarios a través de los sistemas de recomendación (RS), entendidos como sistemas que realizan recomendaciones de productos que están buscando, o basadas en sus gustos o preferencias. Este es tema central de este trabajo, pero no enfocado a su parte técnica, sino a la comprensión de los factores que explican el comportamiento online de los consumidores frente a los RS de determinada website (WS), por lo que se propone un modelo teórico, sustentado por once hipótesis principales y otras subordinadas, la cuales son el resultado de la integración reflexiva de la Teoría de la Acción Razonada, de la adaptación Trust-TAM y de la Teoría del Comportamiento Planeado. Del análisis y corroboración del modelo, se puede concluir que el proceso de adopción del sistema de recomendación de cierto website se conforma sobre la base que a) el usuario percibe la opinión de otros con respecto al uso de los sistemas de recomendación en general y del particular de un determinado website; b) el grado de confianza que le merece al consumidor la interacción e información proporcionada por el sistema de recomendación; c) la percepción de utilidad de uso del sistema de recomendación que tiene su usuario; y d)la actitud del individuo hacia el sistema de recomendación de un website particular.

A major cause of political and constitutional instability in post-independence Africa was the ease with which political leaders subverted constitutionalism by arbitrarily changing constitutions to suit their political agendas. During the constitutional reforms of the 1990s many provisions were introduced in most African constitutions aimed at limiting the ability of governments to abusively change constitutions. Because of the critical importance of controlling the process of constitutional change to entrenching constitutionalism, this paper attempts to critically examine and analyze some of the different control devices that have been introduced. The objective is to see to what extent they may help not only to promote constitutionalism but also enhance constitutional durability and stability. The first part considers why it is important for constitutional designers to include special procedures to regulate and control the constitutional amendment process. The second part examines the different amendment patterns in a number of selected African countries. The third part considers the practical implications of the various control devices in terms of their actual and potential impact on the nurturing and growth of constitutionalism on the continent. The paper concludes that although there has been some progress, more changes still need to be introduced to check the problem of arbitrary constitutional change in Africa.

The thesis analyses the concept ‘fairness’ in consumer contracts regulated by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, mainly from the perspective of a freedom and fairness orientation. It discusses the evolution of ‘fairness’ as background to a more detailed discussion of the classification of fairness into substantive and procedural fairness. The thesis examines dimensions of fairness, factors which play a role in the determination of fairness, and fairness- oriented approaches in an attempt to formulate a framework for fairness in consumer contracts. The main aspects that should be taken into account to justify a finding of fairness, or to determine whether a contract is fair, are identified. This analysis addresses, too, the extent to which the fairness provisions of the Consumer Protection Act are appropriate (with reference to the law of South Africa, Europe, and England).

A few years ago, African contribution of the world trade was only around 2%. The investors, except those who are exploiting natural resources, never want to dare dispensing their fund in Africa. The reason of this situation was very simple. The majority of investors denounce the juridical insecurity and also the political preponderance across the African continent. With human and natural resources abundant, Africa is regarded as a continent equipped with a great potential of development. The years of independences in Africa saw being born in many States, of the organizations trying to solve these difficulties and to reinforce their capacities by the constitution of international organizations acting in all the fields. But it is only in the year 1990; some organizations appeared in the continent and knew of real rise thanks to the liberal and democratic economic policies. This article wishes to present an assessment of seventeen years implementation of the African Harmonization of Business Law Treaty of 1993. Firstly, it will describe the system from an institutional point of view and hence from a normative point of view. Secondly, during the course of this essay, there will be a focus on analysis of OHADA’s laws, its system and its potential impact. In addition, the article will concentrate on OHADA’s appropriateness in the business sector and necessary guarantees it must offer for a successful investment partnership with foreign investment.

Due to the expansion of business transaction across the globe, the private sector demands an adequate legal framework that is sufficiently clear, modern, predictable and transparent to permit investment with a sense of security. The Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires) is generally known by its French acronym OHADA. As long-standing idea, the foundation of the OHADA Treaty was first laid during a meeting of finance ministers of the members of the franc CFA1 area held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in April 1991. A group of experts, led by Senegalese Justice Keba Mbaye, was appointed to conduct a feasibility study on a form of legal collaboration designed to promote economic integration and attract investments.2 Identifying low investment as a major obstacle to economic growth, Keba Mbaye presented his report to the French-speaking African summit in Libreville, Gabon, in October 1992, recommending the creation of a supranational organization comprising the entire franc area. The recommendation was adopted and a steering committee of three experts were appointed and tasked with drafting an international instrument as well as identifying the areas of law to be harmonized. The OHADA was established through the treaty of Port Louis in Mauritius on 17th October, 19933 The treaty is open to any Member State of the Organization of African Unity (AU) as well as any other non-member of the AU invited to join with the common agreement of all the Member States.4 The OHADA has progressively become the common business law in anglophone and francophone African countries, taking the best from the civil law and the common law systems.5 The OHADA provides its Member States with 1) a single, modern, flexible and reliable business law adapted to each country’s economy; 2) arbitration as an appropriate and trustworthy way to settle disputes; and 3) an opportunity for training judges and judicial staff and ensuring their specialisation. In May 2003, the uniform OHADA business law came into force in the sub-Saharan African States of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Chad, Togo and later the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The OHADA Treaty secures a legal framework for the conduct of business in Africa.6 Pursuant to Article 53 of the OHADA Treaty, any member State of the African Union may become a member, if it wishes to do so.7 Many countries are currently giving active consideration to joining the OHADA common system of business law.8 Most of the countries have a French colonial heritage, with the exception of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Belgian colony), Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese colony), Equatorial Guinea (former Spanish colony), and Togo and Cameroon (formerly under partly British and partly French colonial rule). French is also an official language in most of the countries and many OHADA sources are only available in French. 9 It is interesting to know that the Council of Ministers of the OHADA organisation which is the legislative organ of the organisation have adopted the following uniform business law: the general commercial laws, corporate laws and rules concerning different types of joint ventures, laws concerning secured transactions, debt recovery and enforcement laws, bankruptcy laws, arbitration law, accountability law, and law regulating contract for the carriage of goods by roads.10 The OHADA treaty established the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA) which is a supranational11 judicial institution based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.12 2.

Post-independent Cameroon has grappled with the problem of systemic violation of civil and political rights (CPR) despite a transition from single party dictatorship to multiparty democracy in the 1990s. Various legislative measures including the adoption of a supposedly ‘rights friendly’ constitution in 1996 have done little to ameliorate that problem. This thesis adopts a concept of constitutionalism, based on contemporary international standards, to analyse the problem of CPR violations from the perspective of the constitutional arrangements in Cameroon. It examines the system of separation of powers, the method of securing judicial independence and the mechanisms for judicial review. The argument is made that the problem can be attributed in part to the predominant influence of the French civil law system in Cameroon’s bijural legal system. Although for historical reasons, Cameroon operates both the English common law and the French civil law, constitutional developments have continued to be influenced by the latter which lends itself to practices that are not sufficiently supportive of constitutionalism as defined herein. The thesis, however, goes further to explore how the constitutional system could be reinforced to provide a more conducive framework for the protection and enhancement of CPR. Drawing on two strands of arguments, one highlighting features of the common law system that can be more supportive of constitutionalism and the other which highlights the value of indigenous antecedents of constitutionalism, the thesis proposes the development of a contextual model which is more reflective of Cameroon’s peculiar legal and socio-political circumstances. It proposes what is described as an Optimal Integrative Approach (OIA) as a framework for developing a contextual model, more conducive for the protection and enhancement of CPR in Cameroon.

<p>This book examines the law, national and/or international, that arbitral tribunals apply on the merits to settle disputes between foreign investors and host states. In light of the freedom that the disputing parties and the arbitrators have when designating the applicable law, and because of the hybrid nature of legal relationship between investors and states, there is significant interplay between the national and the international legal order in investor-state arbitration. The book contains a comprehensive analysis of the relevant jurisprudence, legal instruments, and scholarship surrounding arbitral practice with respect to the application of national law and international law. It investigates the awards in which tribunals referred to consistency between the legal orders, and suggests alternatives to the traditional doctrines of monism and dualism to explain the relationship between the national and the international legal order. The book also addresses the territorialized or internationalized nature of the tribunals; relevant choice-of-law rules and methodologies; and the scope of the arbitration agreement, including the possibility of host states presenting counterclaims in investment treaty arbitration. Ultimately, it argues that in investor–state arbitration, national and international law do not only coexist but may be applied simultaneously; they are also interdependent, each complementing and informing the other both indirectly and directly for a larger common good: enforcement of rights and obligations regardless of their national or international origin.</p>

Ever since the colonial era, attempts have been made throughout the various regions of Africa at building supranational units chiefly for administrative and legal convenience. Examples of such attempts include the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the East African High Commission and the federations in former French West and Equatorial Africa, all of which were attempts at forging a supranational nation state. These experiments laid the foundation for further supranational initiatives in post-colonial Africa. In this respect, every region in Africa has either experimented with or is currently experimenting with the idea of supranational regional organisations. This article aims at investigating selected attempts at supranationalism on the continent, the successes and failures of such experiments, and the lessons to be learnt from them. As Africa embarks on the journey of solidifying its unity through the establishment of leviathan continental institutions, efforts should be geared towards building on the experiences of past and present experiments at the sub-regional level. Such experiments offer instructive lessons as they are rooted in similar historical and social contexts. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

The World Bank legal review gathers this input from around the world and compiles it into a useful resource for all development practitioners and scholars. The subtitle of this volume, legal innovation and empowerment for development, highlights how the law can respond to the chal-lenges posed to development objectives in a world slowly emerging from an economic crisis. The focus on innovation is a call for new, imaginative strategies and ways of thinking about what the law can do in the development realm. The focus on empowerment is a deliberate attempt to place the law into the hands of the poor; to give them another tool with which to resist poverty. This volume shows some of the ways that the law can make an innovative and empowering difference in development scenarios. Development problems are complex and varied, and the theme of innovation and empowerment naturally has a broad scope. Consequently, this volume reaches far and wide. It considers the nature, promise, and limitations of legal innovation and legal empowerment. It looks at concrete examples in places such as Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America. It considers developments in issues with universal application, such as the rights of the disabled and the effectiveness of asset recovery measures. The theme of legal innovation and empowerment for development complements substantive and institutional sensibilities in current development policy. Substantively, development policy discourse seems to have moved away from tacking hard toward statist policy or neoliberal policy. Although this brief introduction cannot do justice to the richness and complexity of these contributions, it does consider each focal point in turn.

No abstract available

This thesis investigates how International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) come to act within an organizational context. In particular, the thesis explores how the requirements for goodwill accounting and leasing influence organizational calculative practices, transforming and shaping operations management. Drawing on actor-network theory, this study moves away from a priori distinctions, following the construction and mobilization of accounting numbers across institutionalized boundaries within and around the organization. The empirical investigation took place in a large, worldwide active media group that is listed on a European stock exchange. The group is a particular interesting setting because of its diverse business structure and its German code-law accounting roots. Business combinations are a major growth factor within the industry and a high degree of decentralization in the organization placed responsibility for investment decisions at low hierarchical levels. Goodwill accounting and impairment testing were therefore highly significant calculative practices in the group. The study finds that the constitutive role of the financial reporting standards in the organization both solves tensions and dilemmas around the number and creates new ones when crucial interests are lost in translation. These tensions and dilemmas arise between the aim of standardization and closure for the construction of a legitimate value of the future, and the aim to mobilize numbers in order to motivate and create value for a future. Originally intended for the financial representation of organizational substance and performance, the standards become associated with operations management activities, helping to create the faithful records that sum up the organization. This interrelation helps to close concern around the representation of the future in a ‘fair’ value by distributing the calculative practices over a wide network of actors spanning inside and outside the organization. However, the relationship also forces a connection between calculations and ambitions that otherwise would have preferred to stay separate. This thesis offers a new perspective on IFRS implementation by emphasizing organizational activities. Through a focus on integration and the link between financial and management accounting, the ‘implementation problems’ highlighted in previous literature gain a refined theorization. When taking organizational practice seriously, integration becomes a process that may find temporal stability but will never be final. In the process, conflicts might be solved but new dilemmas will arise. In turn, concepts like decision usefulness, comparability and earnings management cannot exist in a stable form but are rather constructed in networks that disregard commonly assumed boundaries inside and around the organization.

It is widely acknowledged that entrepreneurial companies play a key role in shaping a local economy. Entrepreneurial companies are a source of growth and innovation for an industry and provide jobs for the local population. However, entrepreneurs of high growth oriented companies rarely have the capital to finance their innovative ideas themselves and therefore also have to accept the risks associated with assessing and acquiring the necessary finance resources from other investors. The goal of this dissertation is to study the impact of venture capital (VC) finance on such entrepreneurial finance decisions. Although VC investors are a highly focused and specialized kind of investors that offer a wide range of differentiated services, it is to date still unclear how VC investors may reduce agency costs for other potential investors. The first study of this dissertation studies the effect of VC finance and associated VC ownership for finance decisions from other investors who have the potential to invest in these companies. This study demonstrates that VC ownership results into a larger supply of finance for the entrepreneurial company. Second, I find that VC ownership results into an even larger positive effect on capital investment decisions from equity investors as VC finance is typically also associated with the implementation of an equity-oriented corporate governance mechanism in entrepreneurial companies. VC ownership does not have an effect on the supply of finance from financial debt investors, however. Nevertheless, I find that debt finance is equally available for companies with VC ownership as compared to companies without VC ownership, which is a surprising result given the high risk associated with high growth companies that raise VC finance. Another important finding of this study is that the positive effect of VC ownership is stronger for repeated VC finance versus non-repeated VC finance. In fact, these results indicate that the effect of VC finance for entrepreneurial companies’ finance decisions is considerably larger if VC investors commit to further finance the company. The second study of this dissertation extends the first study and explores the effect of VC ownership on entrepreneurial finance decisions in different institutional settings. Although the effect of VC ownership is not limited to one specific institutional context, this study shows that its impact on entrepreneurial finance decisions is stronger in countries with a better quality of law enforcement and in countries where the entrepreneur is able to obtain a fresh start after bankruptcy. Specifically, in countries with a better enforcement of law, VC investors are more effective in reducing agency problems between entrepreneurs and potential investors. The attractiveness of a fresh start after bankruptcy will also be higher for an entrepreneur who raised VC finance, as VC investors focus more on maximizing the value of their portfolio rather than on the survival of individual firms. The third study acknowledges the fact that VC investors are not all equal and explores which VC investor types have more bargaining power versus the entrepreneur and how such differences in VC investor bargaining power affect company valuations in VC investment rounds. VC investor bargaining power is important because company valuations are the outcome of negotiations between the VC investor and the entrepreneur. We show that university VC firms and government VC firms negotiate lower valuations compared with independent VC firms. The proprietary deal flow of university VC firms and the limited competition in niche markets in which government VC firms compete will directly increase their bargaining power versus the entrepreneur, which these VC investor types then further exploit by negotiating lower company valuations compared with independent VC investors. Although differences in VC investor type did not affect entrepreneurial finance decisions in the first and second study, they do affect the equity stake that an entrepreneur will have to give up in order to raise VC finance and in order to a have a greater access to entrepreneurial finance from potential investors in the future.