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Entrepreneurship contributes substantially to the modernization and commercial development of an economy. Access to financial resources is key to the successful operation of new ventures which is arrested by COVID-19. Therefore, the present study aims to address the architecture of entrepreneurial finance since the inception of COVID-19. The research adopts a Systematic literature review approach to study the 127 articles chosen for analysis. The findings reveal the usage of novel sources of finance such as crowdfunding, and Initial Coin Offerings during COVID-19. Apart from this, the research also encapsulates the contributions of the articles on venture capital, P2P lending, and angel finance. Also, the study highlights promising avenues for future research focusing on different financing options and drivers of financing choices. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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The Covid-19 pandemic caused negative consequences for the economic growth and national wealth of countries worldwide. In 2020 the GDP per capita growth was -4,3% worldwide and -5% in Azerbaijan. However, in 2021, it was 4,8% and 5,1% in accordance, indicating Azerbaijan's economic potential. At the same time, Azerbaijan takes only 80th place from 132 countries in the Global Innovation Index Rank, which is not sufficient and requires further innovation development of the country. Also, Azerbaijan is the 34th of 190 countries in the Ease of Doing Business rank. Still, according to the Enterprise Surveys made by the World Bank, 23,7% of firms in Azerbaijan choose access to finance as their biggest obstacle. At the same time, the average world indicator is 14,2%, and the average one in Europe and Central Asia is 9,4%. Therefore, this research aims to prove the hypothesis about the positive impact of entrepreneurship financial opportunities and the business environment on the country's innovation development and national wealth. In the first stage, a bibliometric and analytical analysis was carried out using the tools of the Scopus database, the VOSviewer, and Google Trends. In the second stage, a sample of 20 countries was formed. It includes the top 10 leaders in the Global Innovation Index Rank with high-income economies (as benchmark countries for innovation development, according to which Azerbaijan should increase its position) and the top 10 leaders with upper-middle-income economies (similar to Azerbaijan). The informational base consists of data from the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the World Economic Forum for the last 10 available years. In the third stage, the correlation analysis was made to identify the relationship between the indicators of entrepreneurship financial opportunities and business environment (financing of SMEs, venture capital availability, domestic credit to the private sector, ease of doing business, ease of starting a business, ease of getting credit, ease of resolving insolvency, protecting minority investors, number of new limited liability companies, new business density) and the indicators of the country's innovation development (Global Innovation Index) and national wealth (total wealth per capita). And at the fourth stage, the impact of entrepreneurship financial opportunities and business environment on the country's innovation development and national wealth was determined based on regression modeling results. The obtained results could be useful for scientists in further research on this issue and for government officials in improving the state's economic policy.
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Science and technology parks (STPs) are curated locations where new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and other SMEs and firms can conglomerate and promote a culture of innovation. Overall, the aim is to construct a sustainable high-value tech entrepreneurship ecosystem, and to this end we present here some recent and novel concepts derived from approaches using a data-driven statistical foundation. This paper considers studies on the organic growth of young start-up science and technology parks by authors who have used big data, econometric analyses, panel data and computer simulations. The results and concepts are derived from industrialized countries, notably Sweden and the UK, and may well be applicable to many regions and emerging economies. The findings are of interest to regional development, technology entrepreneurs considering choosing an STP to inhabit, as well as those in STP central teams, specializing in management and enterprise development, including the sustainable growth of new parks.
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PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic transformed angel investment meetings from in-person to online. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether this move affected angel investors' perception of subjective behavioral cues in pitch sessions within a large Brazilian angel group.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed an exploratory approach using a triangulation process that combined observation, documents and interviews. Data collected by observation, document studies, and interviews were themed, coded, and organized during the research.FindingsThe move from in-person to online pitches did not seem to affect levels of trustworthiness or arrogance as angels assessed more message content during Q&A sessions. Body movement, gestures and "eye gaze” (i.e. the look on a presenter's face) played a central role in passion assessment during in-person meetings. Body language was highly limited during online sessions and tone of voice became the main source of passion assessment.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study suggest that pitches at online meetings affect angel investors' perception of founders' subjective cues, particularly cues pertaining to passion. Entrepreneurs should be trained to convey passion with tone of voice and to improve their body language in the context of webcam use. The interviews with volunteer sampling were subject to volunteer bias. Additionally, the findings may be affected by cultural context.Practical implicationsA practical contribution of this study is to highlight the need for entrepreneurs to be trained for online pitches. In an online setting, body language is limited, but it is still possible to use one's hands and tone of voice to connect better to investors.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it captures the transition of angel investment meetings from in-person affairs before the pandemic to online meetings during the pandemic crisis. These unique circumstances provided a real-world laboratory to observe founders' subjective cue effects on angel investment decision-making.
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There are significant differences in innovation performance between countries. Additionally, the pharmaceutical sector is stronger in some countries than in others. This suggests that the development of the pharmaceutical industry can influence a country's innovation performance. Using the Global Innovation Index (GII) and selected performance measures of the pharmaceutical sector, this study examines how the pharmaceutical sector influences the innovation performance of countries from the European context. The dataset of 27 European countries was analysed using simple, and multiple linear regressions and Pearson's correlation. The findings show that only three indicators of the pharmaceutical industry - pharmaceutical Research and Development (R&D), pharmaceutical exports, and pharmaceutical employment - explain the innovation performance of a country largely. Pharmaceutical R&D and exports have a significant positive impact on a country's innovation performance, whereas employment in the pharmaceutical industry has a slightly negative impact. Additionally, global innovation performance has been found to positively influence life expectancy. The authors further outline the implications and possible policy directions based on these findings.
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Drawing from the extremely novel impact investing landscape and the limited existing literature on the topic, it appears that investing in social enterprises should come at the cost of partially sacrificing financial returns to invested capital. This paper investigates the existence of this tradeoff by assessing how the performance of impact investing funds compares to that of traditional private equity and venture capital operators. Focusing on portfolio firm operating performance, we construct a dataset of 85 impact-investing observations and 5310 traditional observations over the period ranging from 2009 to 2020, in order to compare the performance of the traditional investor-backed firms with those of sustainable companies participated by social impact investors. Advanced matching methods such as Radius and Kernel matching suggest that the composition of the shareholding structure significantly affects the profitability of the company, with traditional firms outperforming their socially-concerned counterparts. Looking instead within the subsample of impact investor portfolio companies, and focusing only on the post-investment observations, we analyze how the percentage owned by the impact investors impacts the performance of the owned companies. The results show that, similarly to traditional ownership, a greater share controlled by impact investors leads to higher returns.
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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting startup development and the entrepreneurship ecosystem's contribution to it.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative methodology is used for data collection from different startup owners working across Pakistan. It is a cross-sectional descriptive study, which investigates the causal effect of variables at a definite point in time. Non-probability convenient sampling was used for selecting available startups from the incubation centers. The sampling framework consists of the founders of the startups that have been previously incubated at any of the selected incubation centers.FindingsRegression analysis results from 165 responses of entrepreneurs and incubation centers demonstrate that the most important factors affecting startup development were financial access, government support, marketing challenges, education, technology and managerial skills in order of occurrence. Entrepreneurship ecosystem also proved to have a very positive impact on the relationship of these factors with startup development.Practical implicationsIn this paper, the factors that affect the development of startup are analyzed and recommendations are provided.Originality/valueThis research is comprehensive, as we have collected data from actual entrepreneurs and incubation centers to explain how entrepreneurs initiate their startup business by considering their managerial skills. As such, this study is unique in that the data comes from newly developed incubations centers in one of South Asia's fastest-growing economies.
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Amid the pandemic of COVID-19, the collaborative innovation network of enterprises is conducive to the sharing of innovation resources, knowledge transfer, and technology diffusion, which is closely related to the improvement of corporate technological innovation performance. From the perspective of corporate reputation in the field of venture capital investment, and based on transaction cost theory, basic resource theory and reputation effect theory, this paper discusses the evolution mechanism of corporate technological innovation network, constructs an integrated model for the relationships between heterogeneous venture capital investment, corporate reputation and technological innovation network evolution, and then examines the impact of different types of heterogeneous venture capital investment on the evolution mechanism of technological innovation network, as well as the mediating effects of corporate reputation. Through the empirical analysis of the data obtained from the survey of 500 enterprises, the research shows that that independent venture capital is more conducive to enhancing the internal corporate reputation and promoting the evolution of technological innovation networks towards being self-centered;corporate venture capital is more conducive to consolidating the external reputation of enterprises and promoting the evolution of technological innovation networks towards being holistic. Corporate reputation has some mediating effects on the relationship between heterogeneous venture capital and technological innovation network evolution. © 2022
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A high level of uncertainty accompanies investment decisions, hence, VCs attempt to reduce their risk through a thorough examination of potential investment cases. Especially during the seed and start-up phases of a new venture, when detailed reports and historical track records are still lacking, the investment manager's trust in the entrepreneurial team has a major impact on investment decisions. To explore the process of trust formation, we conducted 11 semi-structured in-depth expert interviews with VC investment managers. Thereby, the COVID-19 crisis provided unique circumstances of exclusively digital communication and allowed us to develop a fine-grained understanding of trust within the VC context. Building on previous research about organizational trust and 674 interview minutes, we found that trustworthiness develops to trust over time as the vulnerability of both parties increases. Furthermore, our results reveal that the VCs' perception of the founders' trustworthiness is mainly influenced by examining the founders' work environment, a founders' reputation in the VCs' network, and face-to-face communication. Such personal meetings allow VCs to assess founders, shape the investor's gut feeling, and develop an interpersonal relationship as they allow for more room talking about personal information rather than business talk. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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We examine possible reallocation effects generated by the COVID-19 outbreak by analyzing the patterns of venture capital (VC) investments around the globe. Using transaction-level data and exploiting the staggered nature of the spread of the virus, we document a shift in VC portfolios towards firms developing technologies relevant to an environment of social distancing and health pandemic concerns. A difference-in-differences analysis estimates significant increases in invested amount and number of deals in such areas. We show heterogenous effects related to the experience of VC investors, as well as their size and organizational form.
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We present the publication trends in the literature on venture capital financing during crises and highlight the top publishing source with the most contributing authors in their affiliated countries using bibliometric and content analysis of 115 documents retrieved from the Scopus database. This study provides insight into the theme with the help of co-occurrence, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling analysis. The authors' keyword co-occurrence analysis shows the spatial links among the articles based on venture capital during the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The top productive and influential source is the journal Venture Capital, followed by Small Business Economics and the Journal of Business Venturing. The Journal of Business Venturing is the top journal in terms of citations per document. The United States is the most contributing affiliated country having strong links with several nations. The publications on crisis-led venture capital increased significantly after the financial crisis of 2008.
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We present the publication trends in the literature on venture capital financing during crises and highlight the top publishing source with the most contributing authors in their affiliated countries using bibliometric and content analysis of 115 documents retrieved from the Scopus database. This study provides insight into the theme with the help of co-occurrence, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling analysis. The authors' keyword co-occurrence analysis shows the spatial links among the articles based on venture capital during the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The top productive and influential source is the journal Venture Capital, followed by Small Business Economics and the Journal of Business Venturing. The Journal of Business Venturing is the top journal in terms of citations per document. The United States is the most contributing affiliated country having strong links with several nations. The publications on crisis-led venture capital increased significantly after the financial crisis of 2008.
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New Zealand has a reputation for being a nation reliant on the economic contributions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as renowned for its creativity and use of its geographical advantage. This positive image needs to be tempered by the country's failure to reach its full potential through embracing widespread entrepreneurship. Much of this suboptimal achievement can be attributed to the below OECD-average investment in research and development (R&D) activities and a fledgling venture capital (VC) market. Fiscal investment by the public and private sectors has been low, notwithstanding an increasingly number of government initiatives. The lack of certainty for businesses has been exacerbated by politics, evidenced by numerous changes to R&D-related legislation. The evidence until early 2020 indicated steady improvement in investment until the untimely impact of COVID-19. As of late 2021, the level of investment is mixed in part reflecting the impact of COVID-19. This chapter seeks to provide an overview of New Zealand's (NZ's) efforts to encourage entrepreneurship through incentivising R&D activities and other fiscal-related measures. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Purpose: Biotechnology has gained such prominence in the past years that approximately 50% of new drugs developed worldwide are of biotechnological origin. Some of the Covid-19 vaccines are a good example of this development. However, biotechnology R&D projects are characterized by high costs, prolonged development times, and a high degree of uncertainty and failure. Only few types of financial agents undertake such risky investments, among which are venture capital firms. In this paper, we analyse the signals that influence suchlike venture capital investment decisions. The very high level of risk, which differentiates biotechnology firms from other technology companies, justifies an analysis focused solely on biotechnology firms.Design/methodology: Hypotheses about the effectiveness of these signals are validated by means of a probit regression with panel data on a sample of 210 biotechnology companies established in Spain over a ten-year period.Findings: A positive and negative signalling effect has been found for some of the phenomena analysed, which validate the proposed model.Research limitations/implications: A convenience sample has been used for methodological reasons. Some phenomena that could have some effect on the venture capital investment decisions have not been possible to observe.Practical implications: It can be crucial for biotechnology firms for their managers to know which characteristics make these firms attractive to venture capital firms. Additionally, it is important to be aware of signals that, instead of favouring investment decisions, deter them.Originality/value: This is the first study conducted for the Spanish industry to focus on the first venture capital investment - rather than the typical focus on the amount invested-as an event that mitigates the information asymmetry level, and which includes also a distinction between four types of strategic alliance, the use of a probit regression with panel data, and a quantitative analysis on the biotech industry.As the Spanish biotechnology and venture capital industries differ from those established in other European countries, this work offers new elements of analysis, description, and comparison of these industries. In addition, the construction of a database on a sample of 210 Spanish biotechnology firms is unprecedented and can be used for future research.
ABSTRACT
Amid the pandemic of COVID-19, the collaborative innovation network of enterprises is conducive to the sharing of innovation resources, knowledge transfer, and technology diffusion, which is closely related to the improvement of corporate technological innovation performance. From the perspective of corporate reputation in the field of venture capital investment, and based on transaction cost theory, basic resource theory and reputation effect theory, this paper discusses the evolution mechanism of corporate technological innovation network, constructs an integrated model for the relationships between heterogeneous venture capital investment, corporate reputation and technological innovation network evolution, and then examines the impact of different types of heterogeneous venture capital investment on the evolution mechanism of technological innovation network, as well as the mediating effects of corporate reputation. Through the empirical analysis of the data obtained from the survey of 500 enterprises, the research shows that that independent venture capital is more conducive to enhancing the internal corporate reputation and promoting the evolution of technological innovation networks towards being self-centered;corporate venture capital is more conducive to consolidating the external reputation of enterprises and promoting the evolution of technological innovation networks towards being holistic. Corporate reputation has some mediating effects on the relationship between heterogeneous venture capital and technological innovation network evolution.
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Making the financial industry a solider mainstay of the real economy is of great concern for China in the midst of economic reform. For China, leveraging venture capital (VC) to enhance a firm’s technological innovation capability (TIC) is an important means of actualising its innovation and development strategy, as well as a must-do to realise sustainable development. In this study, firms that went public from 2010 to 2020 on the A-stock market were used as samples to study the effects of VC on TIC and the relevant mechanism based on the difference-in-differences (DID) method. As research findings show, VC can improve TIC through the medium of the internal incentive and external constraint easing effects. The contributory role of VC in TIC varies with firm size, ownership, and industry type. A range of robustness tests, including the PSM, variable substitution, and instrumental variable methods, further strengthened the reliability of the conclusions. This study can enlighten policymakers on how to implement comprehensive resource factor market reform to build a favourable innovation environment that materialises the role of marketisation.
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Purpose>The study was designed to investigate the bidirectional causation between the real estate market characteristics (residential property prices/rents (including PTR), office rents) and the rise of coworking spaces (CSs) in the peripheral areas of Germany.Design/methodology/approach>Based on the desk research, the authors constructed their own database of 1,201 CSs. The authors gathered data on the residential and office prices and rents on a district level. To identify real market differences between districts with and without CSs, the authors applied the t-test for independent samples.Findings>The second-highest number of CSs were found to operate in the office market peripheries. This phenomenon should be explained by a search for lower office rents, which CSs seek. Most CSs in the peripheral areas of Germany were only recently established in tourist-oriented regions in the south and north of Germany. In this paper, the authors confirmed that the strength of peripheral CSs lies in the hybridity of their operations: for the majority of CSs, running a CS is a non-core business. The authors argue that the role of CSs is rather limited in attracting real estate investors and boosting the real estate market in the peripheral areas of Germany.Practical implications>The research shows that peripheral locations are attracting CSs to significant extent. The study shows that CSs can be part of corporate real estate or workplace strategies. As the majority of peripheral CSs are located in tourism areas, the subletting of vacant spaces could be a lucrative business model for hotels, particularly in the times of pandemics. Therefore, further research should focus on the role of tourist areas in the implementation of CSs model.Originality/value>The focus of this study (CSs in peripheral areas) is original. Additionally, applying the real estate perspective to study the location of CSs is novel as well.
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The onset of the coronavirus pandemic quickly raised concerns that the associated economic disruption would result in a collapse in angel investing which—given their critical role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem—would have an adverse impact on entrepreneurial activity. Given the discretionary nature of investing in new and early-stage entrepreneurial businesses, the uncertainty about the impact of COVID-19 on their financial assets (e.g. shares, property) was expected to prompt angels to pause their investment activity. Meanwhile, those angels who continued to invest were expected to focus on their existing portfolios rather than making new investments. A further source of disruption was the shift in the investment process from face-to-face to online meetings. The evidence that emerged in the early months of the pandemic indicated that there had been a significant decline in angel investing. But by the autumn of 2020, there were clear signs of a recovery in angel investing. Moreover, contrary to expectations there has not been a sustained shift by angels to making follow-on investments in their portfolio companies and away from new investments. The resilience of angel investing reflects several factors. The confidence of angels increased as the COVID vaccine roll-out programme started, driving economic recovery and as they became more familiar with the new business environment. Moreover, entrepreneurs who had deferred seeking funding in the early months of the pandemic had return to the market. Angels also had the opportunity to see more deals as investment pitching moved online. Both angels and angel groups had also become more accustomed to the digital environment for connecting with people and more comfortable in investing in people that they had never met. And attractive investment opportunities had emerged as entrepreneurs developed creative and innovate solutions to the problems arising from the disruptions created by COVID. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide since 2020 has, undeniably, negatively influenced the global economy and environment. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are among the worst-hit victims of COVID-19, particularly in developing countries. As primary channels financing SMEs, what roles have private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) played in this crisis? Using the 2010-2021 data of 4462 listed companies, we aimed to assess the impact of PE/VC on financial risk among Chinese SMEs. We constructed a capital structure selection model to assess the risk preference of PE/VC and explored the roles of PE/VC in the financial risk management of enterprises during COVID-19. Based on both theory and empirical evidence, PE/VC negatively impacts the financial risk of enterprises, implying that intervention by the management of PE/VC can aggravate the financial risk. However, in reality, PE/VC positively impacted enterprise financial risk during COVID-19. Thus, the government should implement some easing policies to stimulate access and investment policies of PE/VC as well as provide more practical policies to support investment institutions in China and other counties.
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Digitization is changing our world, creating innovative finance channels and emerging technology such as cryptocurrencies, which are applications of blockchain technology. However, cryptocurrency price volatility is one of this technology’s main trade-offs. In this paper, we explore a time series analysis using deep learning to study the volatility and to understand this behavior. We apply a long short-term memory model to learn the patterns within cryptocurrency close prices and to predict future prices. The proposed model learns from the close values. The performance of this model is evaluated using the root-mean-squared error and by comparing it to an ARIMA model.