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Canada has lagged in access to capital for high-potential, growth-oriented new ventures, but has made considerable strides in the past decade. This study aims to examine the evolving state of the market for risk capital in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a critical assessment of government policy from the perspective of angel investors and diverse communities of entrepreneurs.

A thematic analysis was conducted of seven COVID-19 roundtable discussions hosted by the National Angel Capital Organization that included 51 global and national-level business and political leaders. The analysis extracted the most salient details from the discussions, distilling them into timely and actionable insights for policymakers.

The analysis suggests that the government’s economic policy response to the COVID-19 crisis fails to address the sudden liquidity problems faced by new ventures. Entrepreneurs and angel investors have remained resilient, rallied as a community and demonstrated an extraordinary level of trust. Traditionally under-represented communities of entrepreneurs are more affected by the crisis than others.

The findings and recommendations are of relevance to policymakers interested in post-COVID-19 economic policies to address the unique challenges faced by start-ups and ensure their full contribution to economic recovery.

The paper presents several policy recommendations and proposes a novel framework to describe the impacts of the pandemic on different categories of start-ups.

The purpose of this paper is to depict the effects and relative importance of technological, organizational, environmental and managerial factors on the organizational performance of start-up businesses.

This research’s primary data was collected from 389 start-up companies in Malaysia. Principle component analysis and the orthogonal model with Varimax rotation method are used to perform exploratory factor analysis test. Structural equation modelling is also used in confirmatory factor analysis to explore the relationships between independent and dependent variables.

The findings suggest positive effects of technological and environmental characteristics on the organizational performance of start-up businesses. The managerial characteristics do not have any positive effect on the organizational performance of start-up businesses. The organizational characteristics split into two parts: the availability of internal financial resources, which positively affects the organizational performance of start-up businesses; and the availability of business incubation, which does not have any important effect. Moreover, start-up companies should choose the one with the highest perceived advantage as it would have the most significant positive effect on their organizational performance. In addition, it was detected that venture capitalists’ (VCs) support has the most positive influence on organizational performance and social customer relationship management adoption even more than governmental supports in the context of Malaysia.

The proposed framework of this research can be used not only as a research tool for examining determinant factors affecting organizational performance of start-up businesses but also by governments, VCs and other investors to detect best-performing start-up businesses.

This paper sets out to assess the market for start‐up finance in the UK for high growth potential entrepreneurial firms.

The paper uses data from the UK's Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys between 2001 and 2003 to assess the scale of equity finance in the UK. It further examines the strengths and weaknesses of the UK financial markets for supporting high growth potential firms on the basis of an additional survey of 60 experts conducted during September and October 2003.

The paper suggests that there are areas of the market that are strongly served by existing financial mechanisms. However, there is a perception amongst business support agencies, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs alike that the size of investments in the formal venture capital market has been increasing and that companies seeking investments above this level, up as high as £2 million, may be restricted in their access to finance. The paper tests this qualitative finding on a number of empirical data sources and finds that there is indeed an “equity gap” of between £150,000 and £1.5 million. It concludes that lack of finance in this area represents a brake on the expansion of high growth potential businesses in the UK.

The empirical data covered in this paper are from three large‐scale surveys of the adult population in the UK. While this is robust as a reflection of what is happening amongst the whole spectrum of business start‐up activity, the methodology was not originally conceptualised as a mechanism for assessing the scale of the equity gap. This evidence was gained from a qualitative survey of actors in the market. Further research should survey high growth potential firms and financiers themselves in more detail to develop the analysis on a more systematic basis.

The research will be of interest to policy makers who seek appropriate mechanism for developing a funding “ladder” to support businesses through the growth process. It identifies a clear gap in the market for growth finance that is evidence on which to base funding priorities in the future.

Academic and policy attempts to quantify the scale of the equity gap in the UK have been limited by availability of longitudinal and systematic data. As a result, they have tended to be largely qualitative in nature and prone to anecdote. Many of these studies do corroborate the findings reported here, but this does represent a first attempt to provide a quantification of the equity gap and thus should be of interest to policy makers, practitioners and academics alike.

Venture capital and private equity.

This case is suitable for II MBA/Executive MBA (venture capital and private equity/entrepreneurship/business models/managing family business) courses.

Soliton is a technology and software services company with operations in India and the USA providing machine vision products and virtual instrumentation services. Soliton was started by Ganesh Devaraj in 1998 after his return from the United States after higher studies. Ganesh hails from a business family in Coimbatore that had interests in the textile spinning sector. The family had been in the textile business since the early 1940s and had revenues of Rs 400 million and employed about 700 people. Ganesh, not wanting to continue in the traditional family business, ventured into the technology sector using his academic and professional experience. His family was supportive of his venture and funded his company for the first two years of operation and for scaling up operations. Ganesh is now evaluating various sources of raising additional capital at a time when there was general slowdown in the automobile sector as a result of the global financial crisis.

The goal of this case study is to illustrate the complexities that exist in financing growth of companies in uncertain times. This following are the expected learning outcomes: discuss and understand the nuances between different sources of early stage funding: personal wealth, family, and angels; compare and contrast the differences between family funding and venture funding; and highlight the benefits and limitations of family funding.

Teaching notes are available.

This study aims to analyze the contribution of business angels (BAs), defined as wealthy individuals who provide risk capital to entrepreneurial firms without family connections, in Estonia, an emerging country in Eastern Europe.

This study compared the data of the financial and non-financial performance of BA-backed firms with that of “twin” non-BA-backed firms, extracted from all Estonian unlisted firms using propensity score matching.

The results of the comparative analysis showed that BAs were patient enough to allow their investees to spend for future growth rather than squeezing profit from increased sales. This is not patience without options for a BA in a situation in which the investee's sales are deteriorating, but rather deliberate patience in the presence of options for a BA where the investee's sales growth is increasing, contrary to conventional investor behavioral principles. It also showed that BAs' post-investment involvement did not make a direct contribution to their investees' sales, although BAs contributed to the sales increase through BA funding itself.

This study has two unique research contributions. First, it shows that the patience of BAs was not a by-product but was intentional, and adds to the debate on whether BAs are patient investors. Second, there are only a few studies on the contribution of BAs to their investees in emerging countries; this study aims to help fill this research gap using the case of Estonia.

This study explores the experiences of Jordanian entrepreneurs in using traditional and technological methods to finance their firms and the factors affecting their choices of financing methods.

The researchers applied a qualitative approach, conducting 24 semi-structured interviews with Jordanian entrepreneurs who have experience with traditional or technological financing methods.

Users of technological financing methods preferred them given the ease of obtaining the fund and the opportunity to test the project’s viability, while users of traditional methods preferred them due to clear goals and regular meetings with the investors, and benefiting from the investor’s mentoring and networks. However, traditional methods were seen as needing more time, requiring high costs and facing pressure from investors for quick results, while technological methods were seen as requiring dealing with too many individuals. Users of both types of methods were critical of the current regulations regarding entrepreneurial firms in Jordan.

This study contributes to our knowledge by exploring preferences of entrepreneurs and problems facing them in funding their firms in the emerging economy context of Jordan. Findings of this study can, to some extent, be extended to similar emerging economies and assist in creating a better environment for entrepreneurship in these countries.

A key element in the development of a technology, a company or an industry is the availability of finance. While much effort has been directed at understanding the roles of venture capital, angel investment and public investment, there does not appear to be much analysis of the industry-level effects as a new industry is emerging. In this chapter, we investigate the patterns of public and private investments and the role of government in support of financing the emergence of science and technology industries. We also examine the criteria used by venture capitalists in their assessment of investment opportunities regarding new technology-based ventures. We focus on the analysis of investment at stage between prototyping and commercialisation of a new technology. This stage has been labelled as the ‘valley of death’ from an investor perspective, which reflects greater risks for investors due to the high level of both technology and market uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the influence of entrepreneurs’ human and relational capital on the rapid internationalization of their firms from two economically different contexts.

This study was developed using data that were collected from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of Spain and Chile. A logistic regression analysis was used to examine and compare the influence of some elements of entrepreneurs’ human and relational capital on the likelihood of their firms’ rapid internationalization.

The results revealed that Chilean entrepreneurs rely more on their formal education or experience to rapidly internationalize their firms. In contrast, Spanish entrepreneurs complement their formal education with their relational capital to conduct international entrepreneurial activities.

The implications of this study are related to the role that public policies play in promoting these types of entrepreneurial initiatives.

This study presents several contributions. First, it advances the understanding of entrepreneurial internationalization in emerging economic contexts. Second, it provides a comparative study regarding entrepreneurial internationalization, which is considered a fundamental current in the field of international entrepreneurship. Finally, this comparative study improves our understanding of the influence of different economic contexts on entrepreneurial internationalization.

El objetivo de este trabajo es comparar la influencia del capital humano y relacional de los emprendedores de dos contextos económicamente diferentes sobre la rápida internacionalización de sus empresas.

Este estudio se desarrolló utilizando datos recopilados del Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) de España y Chile. Se utilizó un análisis de regresión logística para examinar y comparar la influencia de algunos elementos del capital humano y relacional de los emprendedores sobre la probabilidad de que lleven a cabo una rápida internacionalización de sus empresas.

Los resultados revelaron que los emprendedores chilenos dependen más de su educación formal o experiencia para internacionalizar rápidamente sus empresas. Por el contrario, los emprendedores españoles complementan su educación formal con su capital relacional para llevar a cabo actividades empresariales internacionales.

Las implicaciones de este estudio están relacionadas con el rol que juegan las políticas públicas en la promoción de este tipo de iniciativas emprendedoras.

Este estudio presenta varias contribuciones. Primero, avanza en la comprensión de la internacionalización emprendedora en contextos económicos emergentes. En segundo lugar, proporciona un estudio comparativo sobre la internacionalización emprendedora, que se considera una corriente fundamental en el campo del Emprendimiento Internacional. Finalmente, este estudio comparativo mejora la comprensión de la influencia de los diferentes contextos económicos en la internacionalización emprendedora.