Abstract:    With the increasingly fierce competition in the global market, Chinese companies have gradually begun to try international operations, and internationalization strategies have increasingly become a regular option for Chinese companies′ overall strategies. When entering into overseas markets, start-ups may face more serious obstacles and difficulties due to their "new creation weakness". As an investor with a natural and highly compatible nature with startup companies, venture capital has played a key role in the growth and development of the company. However, few scholars have considered the impact of venture capital on the choice and implementation of corporate internationalization strategies. In addition, with the continuous development of international innovation networks, companies in emerging economies have also adopted international operations as a key strategy for the growth and development of enterprises. However, the existing researches on the relationship between internationalized operations and corporate innovation performance mainly take developed countries as research objects and have not yet obtained consistent research results. Moreover, unlike developed countries′ internationalization paths based on ownership and technological advantages, enterprises in emerging economies have relatively weak innovation capabilities. Acquiring more advanced technologies and improving innovation capabilities are often important drivers of their internationalization strategies. Therefore, in China, an emerging economy with relatively insufficient innovation capabilities, how does the implementation of internationalization strategy affect the innovation performance of enterprises? 
    However, in the existing literature, when examining the relationship between internationalization strategies and corporate innovation performance, the differences between the depth of internationalization and the extent of internationalization on corporate innovation performance have not been distinguished, but some scholars find that the effects of internationalization in different dimensions on corporate performance and corporate value are not consistent. At the same time, the existing literature does not consider the regulatory role of the important factor of venture capital in studying the impact of internationalization strategies on corporate innovation performance. 
    Based on this, this article attempts to make up for the above research gap. Taking the companies listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange′s Growth Enterprise Market from 2010 to 2016 as research objects, this paper explores the impact of venture capital on the company′s internationalization strategy through two-dimensional subdivision of international operations. And further investigate whether the internationalization strategy can improve the innovation performance of the enterprise and how the venture capital affects the effect of the internationalization strategy on the innovation performance of the enterprise. The research finds that: (1) venture capital intervention has a positive effect on the formulation and implementation of the enterprise′s internationalized depth strategy and breadth strategy; (2) the implementation of the internationalized in-depth development strategy by the company can significantly improve the innovation performance of the company. However, the international breadth development strategy has failed to have a positive impact on the innovation performance of enterprises, but venture capital intervention can positively regulate the relationship between the depth of internationalization or the breadth of internationalization and the innovation performance of enterprises. When an enterprise receives the support of venture capital, the implementation of an international development strategy by the enterprise, whether it is to deepen the depth of internationalization or expand the breadth of internationalization, can significantly improve the innovation performance of the enterprise, that is, the involvement of venture capital can effectively enhance the role of innovation value-added of international development strategies, and thus enhanced the positive impact of internationalization strategy on the enterprise innovation performance. After further investigating the differences of whether the venture capital institutions exited after the company went public and the role of venture capital institutions with different characteristics in regulating the relationship between internationalization strategies and corporate innovation performance, it is found that venture capital institutions can only adjust the relationship between internationalization strategy and corporate innovation performance by continuing to hold shares after the company is listed. When private background, foreign background, high-reputation background venture investment intervention, long-term investment period of venture capital institutions, joint investment strategies of multiple institutions, and ability to participate in corporate governance, venture capital are more positively regulated the relationship between the internationalization strategy and the innovation performance of enterprises, and the promotion effect of the implementation of internationalization strategies on the innovation performance of enterprises is more significant. 
    On the one hand, the research results not only help to enrich the research perspective in the field of internationalization behaviors of enterprises, but also expand further the relevant mechanism for venture capital to play an innovative value-added role, and on the other hand, the difference in the impact of internationalization behaviors of different dimensions on corporate innovation performance can provide useful inspiration and reference for Chinese enterprises to improve effectively their innovation ability and accelerate their pursuit of innovation under the background of high-quality development.

Key words:  venture capital, internationalization strategy, enterprise innovation performance, venture capital institution characteristics