"The performance benefits of firm status have been well-documented in the literature. While recent work in management has shown that status advantages may be transferable across markets as a proxy of entering firm’s quality, the limits to the transferability of status advantages, particularly across national borders, have not been fully studied. This research program proposes to study this question in three related parts: (1) How do physical, cultural and institutional distances between home and host countries influence the transfer of status-based advantages? (2) How do transnational ties, especially those of migration and trade, influence the transferability of status advantages? (3) How do country-level status differences influence the transfer of firm-level status advantages in cross-border trade?This study will examine these questions in the context of cross-border venture capital investments. This context not only provides an opportunity to examine how status advantages transfer across national borders, but also a deeper understanding of cross-border venture capital flows, a topic of increasing importance to foster innovation and economic growth. The empirical study will examine the likelihood of venture capital firms to enter a new country, and the amount of their investment in the country, with a longitudinal data set that compiles secondary data on investments between a sample of countries.The study will contribute to the literature and practice in two ways. First, it will contribute to the management literature by examining the contingencies around the transfer of status advantages. Second, it will contribute to the entrepreneurship and innovation financing literature by documenting the pathways of cross-border investment as a function of firm-level status advantages. Third, it will inform practice by providing a guideline to firms and policy makers about how venture capital firms choose where to invest."