Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Microfinance Institutions’ Criteria On Small Business Financing In Cameroon, Serge Messomo Elle

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

This study uses MFIs as a unit of analysis to examine the factors of human, financial and social capital that increase the financing of microenterprises’ identification of opportunities and exploitation in Cameroon .To attain this objective, a questionnaire was used to collect data from 207 MFIs and analyzed using descriptive and multiple linear regression models. The results revealed that when it concerns the financing of opportunity identification, only human capital variables of Prior knowledge and Business training increase the financing of microenterprises by MFIs in Cameroon. Regarding the opportunity exploitation on the contrary, accumulated business knowledge, business skills and customer …

Fintech Projects And Initial Coin Offerings: A Research Note, Andrea Moro, Dao Wang

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

We explore the determinants of success of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) defined as whether the ICO was successful in raising the funds. We look at financial and technical information disclosed by the ICO as well as the information disclosed by third parties about the ICO and the level of legal protection granted. We discover that even if both hard information (financial and technical) and soft information (social media and legal protection) matter, nevertheless a more relevant role is played by the technical information. Based on our analysis, we identify areas that need further investigation in the context of ICOs.

Strategic Alliances Between Banks And Fintechs For Digital Innovation: Motives To Collaborate And Types Of Interaction, Milan Frederik Klus, Todor Stefan Lohwasser, Friedrich Holotiuk, Jürgen Moormann

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

In times of digitalization, established firms operating in the financial services sector increasingly form alliances with start-up companies to satisfy the customers´ demand for rapid innovation and cope with the growing dynamics of markets. Technology-enabled innovation challenges traditional business models of incumbent institutions (e.g., banks) and requires them to adapt swiftly to the needs of the digital age. However, young firms providing technological solutions for the financial services industry (fintechs) also face difficulties, such as meeting regulatory requirements and winning the trust of potential customers. To compensate for these shortcomings and to exploit synergies, banks and fintechs are increasingly pooling …

The Survival Of The German Fintech Market: An Accounting-Based Valuation, Leonard Stuckenborg, Jens Leker

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

The purpose of this paper is to examine the essential characteristics of the financial statements of FinTech start-ups and to investigate which figures of balance sheets are suitable indicators of failure for this still rising group of start-ups. We conduct a quantitative analysis of 595 annual reports of FinTech start-ups issued between 2007 and 2016. Our study reveals that the balance sheets have a high share of current assets and often show losses not covered by equity. Based on the financial variables, the period of three to five years after foundation could be identified as critical phase for the future …

Start-Up Financing In The Digital Age – A Systematic Review And Comparison Of New Forms Of Financing, Maximilian Klein, Florian Neitzert, Thomas Hartmann-Wendels, Sascha Kraus

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Start-ups are seen as the leading force in dynamically growing economies. Limited financing opportunities often prevent entrepreneurs from realizing their innovative business ideas or taking growth opportunities. However, in the context of the technological revolution, a fundamental change in the entrepreneurial finance landscape is observed. Innovative, digital financial instruments such as Business Angel Networks, Crowdfunding, or Initial Coin Offerings provide young companies with attractive financing opportunities. Although a large number of studies focus on start-up financing in the digital age, the literature is still fragmented. By providing a systemic literature review of 85 high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1990 …

Small Business Lending And Social Capital: Are Rural Relationships Different?, Robert Deyoung, Dennis Glennon, Peter J. Nigro, Kenneth Spong

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

We test whether rural versus urban location, and the amount of social capital present in those locations, influence the performance of Small Business Administration (SBA) 7(a) loans originated between 1984 and 2012. On average, we find that rural loans are about 11% less likely to default than urban loans, and that a standard deviation increase in social capital reduces default by about 5%. Surprisingly, these two effects are largely independent of each other, even though social capital is substantially higher in rural places than in urban places. Our findings advance the small business lending literature and offer insights for a …

Assessing The Value Of Ventures: Crowd Investors Vs. Sophisticated Investors, Marco Bade

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Recent regulatory approaches in crowdfunding democratize capital markets. Adverse wealth effects may arise because of information asymmetry. Firoozi et al. (2017) argue that crowdfunding has wealth-reducing effects on crowd investors because they systematically assign less value to good ventures, and more to bad ventures. This paper aims to take a more differentiated perspective by incorporating two dimensions of uncertainty determining ventures’ value. It further takes into account that different investor types learn different information. This yields new findings concerning the assessment of venture value by crowd investors and sophisticated investors. Crowd investors’ may be able to better assess venture value, …

Reward-Based Crowdfunding Technological Projects Determinants Of Success: A Quantitative Study, Khalid Mahmoud Fadlelmula Elkhidir

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Crowdfunding success in terms of the achievement of target capital in reward-based crowdfunding projects is impacted by many factors (e.g., past created projects, campaign duration, pledged capital). This paper studies the determinants of success rate (pledged capital/target capital) or (P/T) in successful technological crowdfunding projects. The quantitative study started by data collection of 328 successful Kickstarter technological crowdfunding campaigns which are later decreased to 289 due to model censorship. Tobit model was adopted as the censored linear regression model to determine the existence of relationships between the dependent variable (P/T) and the independent variables. Results suggest that success rate is …

Toward A Corporate Finance Theory For The Entrepreneurial Firm, James S. Ang

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Corporate finance for the entrepreneurial firm is fundamentally different from that of the traditional firm. The standard problems and solutions to both investment and financing are reformulated in this paper. The formulation is intended to capture two distinguishing features of entrepreneurial finance: 1) Although new ventures yield negative returns on average, they are in aggregate welfare increasing for the economy, after considering their positive externalities. 2) Due to new ventures’ lack of consistent cash flows, which precludes the use of debt, the debt versus equity financing choice is replaced by the choice between the entrepreneurs’ desire for wealth versus control; …

Do Private Firms Benefit From Trading In The Private Securities Market?, Robert Loveland, Eric Fricke, Sinan Goktan

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

The trading of private securities has recently gained greater visibility and importance with the advent of organized, private security exchanges. This paper uses data on IPO firms that list on the SharesPost private securities exchange platform to examine the potential benefits of a listing. Specifically, we test whether a listing reduces IPO underpricing or enables liquidity provision to firm employees. Controlling for endogeneity, we find no evidence that a pre-IPO listing on SharesPost lessens IPO underpricing. However, we also find that SharesPost-listed companies are able to pay their employees less in cash and more in stock and stock options than …

Small And Medium Enterprises' Risk Exposures And Mitigation Approaches In Nigeria, Joshua Solomon Adeyele, Olubunmi Florence Osemene

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Risks militating against small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been on the increase due to how risks mitigations are conducted by the owners/operators. Although thorough understanding of businesses undertaken by the owners of SMEs enables them to have a clear picture of risks affecting their businesses so as to act in proactive manner in order to mitigate or avoid the impending risks. To assess the risk exposures of SMEs, a random sampling technique was used to select 209 SMEs within Lagos and Benin City. Both descriptive and inferential statistics such as Phi and Gamma were used to analyse the data …

Duratable Enterprises Inc., Spencer D. Evans, Hal B. Heaton

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

In late 2017, DuraTable received a number of unsolicited inquiries regarding its interest in selling out in a going private transaction, mostly from private equity firms. Since the chairman of the board and founder, Gary Reynolds, was approaching retirement age and the largest single shareholder who had provided the seed capital to start the company was over 80 years old, Mr. Reynolds was willing to consider a sale and provided information to four or five of them to prepare bids. DuraTable was a closely held company with relatively few individuals holding the vast majority of shares. As such, DuraTable’s shares …

A High-Tech Start-Up’S Debt Financing Strategy: Implications For Valuing Soft Information, Hyunsung D. Kang

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

How does entrepreneurial financing differ from traditional financing? This study sheds new light on this central question of entrepreneurial finance literature by exploring the distinctive role of soft information in a high-tech start-up’s debt financing. Entrepreneurial investors can obtain soft information from strong relationships with potential investees and use the information to evaluate and select promising investees. Using a dataset on 683 SBA 7(a) loan activities involved with information technology based start-ups, this study provides empirical evidence that high-tech start-ups tend to experience a lower rate of default if they are located close to the lending banks and the lending …

Profitability Ratios In The Early Stages Of A Startup, Erkki K. Laitinen

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

This study develops a mathematical framework to analyze the time series of profitability ratios in the early stages of a startup. It is assumed that the expenditure of the startup grows at a steady rate and generates a proportionally identical flow of revenue in each period. The profitability in terms of the internal rate of return (IRR) and the lag structure of revenue flows are assumed constant over time in describing the adjustment process towards the steady state. The startup is assumed to expense in each period a constant part of periodic expenditure and beginning-of-the-period assets. The adjustment processes of …

Financing Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises In Thailand: The Importance Of Bank Loans And Financing Diversification, Harri Ramcharran

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Bank loans are the main sources of financing the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) sector of the Thai economy. This sector contributes to about 37% GDP and employs about 80% of the labor force. Recent data indicate a decline in bank lending; this necessitates the efficient use of available funds and strategies to diversify SME financing. Using data from 2007 – 2014, we analyze the performance of this sector by applying several measures of productivity. We find average productivity to be greater than one for: (a) SME output per unit of SME and (b) SME output per Baht loan. This …

Property And Pecuniary Risk Exposures: An Investigation Into Smes’ Shutdown And Mitigation Methods In Nigeria, Joshua Solomon Adeyele, Olubunmi Florence Osemene, Idowu Emmanuel Olubodun

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Business Interruption (BI) insurance is not popular among the operators/owners of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. This study is an attempt to investigate causes of SMEs’ failure and to assist the owners on how to use BI to protect both the physical assets as well as future profits of their businesses. Hence, 389 SMEs were purposively selected from four major cities in Niger Delta Region (NDR) in Nigeria for this purpose. The statistical tools used for analysis were Phi and Cramer’s V. The extent of SMEs losses through means of sourcing for materials and strategy employed to transfer …

The Evolution Of Financing Structure In U.S. Startups, Carmen Cotei, Joseph Farhat

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

In this article we examine how startup businesses finance their operations over time. We employ the Latent growth modeling technique to test the financial growth cycle theory developed by Berger and Udell (1998). The data used in this study is the Kauffman Firm Survey, the largest longitudinal data set comprised of a random sample of U.S. startups launched in 2004 and surveyed annually through 2011. Consistent with the predictions of financial growth cycle theory, in the startup stage, entrepreneurs rely on initial insider capital sources such as personal savings, financing offered by friends and family, quasi-equity, and personal debt. Over …

Value Added As The Tax Base For Enterprise Income, Nicos Zafiris

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

The paper addresses the long standing asymmetry in the tax treatment of debt and equity costs through a direct comparison of two hypothetical regimes based exclusively on income taxation, broadly defined, and value added taxation. The model presented widens existing debate to encompass the choice between entrepreneurial and contractual use of inputs generally and including labour, as well as capital. Using representative functional forms and numerical illustrations the analysis explores the effect of the tax regimes on firm decisions concerning input selection, output level and vertical integration. The greater neutrality of value added taxation is shown to produce gains in …

Private Equity In Family Firms: Drivers Of The Willingness To Cede Control, Marisa Henn, Prof. Dr. Eva Lutz

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Our aim is to empirically examine how reasons for using private equity (PE) and prior experience with PE affect the willingness of privately held firms to cede company control. Based on a questionnaire entailing 75 privately held firms backed by PE, we show that family firms cede less control than non-family firms when entering a PE transaction. However, if firms seek funds due to challenges related to ownership changes, the difference between family firms and non-family firms decreases. Moreover, we find that family firms sell more company shares if they are run by a PE-experienced manager.

Returns To Tilapia Fish Farming In Ghana – Implications For Tilapia Pooled Investment Vehicles, Kwami Adanu, Mawufemor Adanu

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

In Ghana, the private sector’s response to financing constraints associated with aquaculture investment has been to employ Pooled Investment Vehicles (PIVs). Unfortunately, several of these PIVs faced insolvency with huge losses to investors as returns promised investors turn out to be unrealizable. The premise of this study is that such insolvency problems occur mainly because of the lack of reliable data on likely returns and risk associated with Tilapia farm investments. This study improves on the “single value” profitability estimates of previous studies by performing Value at Risk (VaR) analyses on estimated farm-level returns, and 5,000 Monte Carlo simulation …

Risk Appetites And Empirical Survival Pattern Of Small And Medium Enterprises In Nigeria, Joshua S. Adeyele Dr., Osazee G. Omorokunwa Dr.

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

ABSTRACT

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are vital to economic growth and development of a nation. However, many of them fail in the first five years of incorporation due to their exposures to risk financing and strategies employed to meet customers’ need during business shutdown. Hence, this study is designed to verify how SMEs’ risk financing affect their continuity, and to model their survival patterns in context of risk financing and risk management approach employed by the operators. Two hundred and nine copies of valid questionnaire distributed to the respondents were filled and returned. Cramer’s V and multiple regressions were …

Capital Markets Financing For Agricultural Business Development In Tanzania; A Case Of Cocoa Farming In Kyela And Rungwe Districts, Godfrey Frank Molela

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

This study tries to explore the financing opportunity for smallholder cocoa farmers available at capital markets through enterprise growth market (EGM) financing window. The research findings from 122 cocoa farmers revealed that, in average a single cocoa farmer needed Tshs. 551,808.12 per acre as capital investment in a given season. At the time of data collection the cocoa prices at London and New York futures markets were Tshs. 6,266.75/Kg and Tshs. 6,148.62/Kg respectively at prevailed rates which were far above the production cost. In this case the envisaged gross margin was sufficient to service issuers’ interest of running their business …

Information Asymmetry And Adverse Wealth Effects Of Crowdfunding, Fathali Firoozi, Abol Jalilvand, Donald Lien

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012 in the U.S. expanded the capital markets so that entrepreneurs can appeal directly to non-traditional small crowd investors for investment funds. The final rules and forms of the JOBS Act became effective in May 16, 2016. Existing literature is thus relatively small but contains ample praises for expected positive consequences of the new crowdfunding laws for the capital markets and for the crowd in general but has only limited analysis on the prospect of adverse wealth effects of crowdfunding for the crowd investors. A limited number of existing studies have highlighted …

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, Antti Fredriksson, Daniela Maresch, Matthias Fink, Andrea Moro

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

A bank’s lending decision is affected by the amount of information it can access and by its capability to manage this information. The latter aspect implies that the bank has to decide whether borrowers should be managed in a local branch of the bank or in its headquarters. By looking at a sample of Finnish banks, the present research investigates a bank’s capability to extract profitability from both locally and centrally managed firms. We find that banks are able to properly discriminate between firms: those which should be managed by loan managers with expert knowledge in the bank’s headquarters due …

Start-Up Funding Via Equity Crowdfunding In Germany – A Qualitative Analysis Of Success Factors, Martin Angerer, Alexander Brem, Sascha Kraus, Andreas Peter

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Entrepreneurs often struggle to find sufficient funding for their start-ups. A relatively new way for companies to attract capital is via an internet platform, locating investors who in return receive something in return for their ventures. Equity crowdfunding is one of several types of crowdfunding, and is also known as crowdinvesting in the German-speaking realm. This article predominantly advances the scientific knowledge regarding the success factors of equity crowdfunding for German start-ups. The study conducted nine qualitative interviews with start-ups and crowdinvesting platforms. Its first result is that German start-ups select crowdinvesting because (1) it is a funding opportunity and …

Turkish Smes’ Use Of Financial Statements For Decision Making, Howard E. Vanauken, Semra Ascigil, Shawn Carraher

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

With a sample of 91 small Turkish firms, this study examines the factors that affect the use of financial statements, and the important information they contain, to make decisions. A principal components analysis identifies three key variables that determine the use of financial statements: experience, confidence, and knowledge. Logit analysis reveals that these three variables are significantly associated with whether Turkish business owners use financial statements to make decisions. These results can help business owners and service providers for these businesses understand what affects their use of financial statements and the process by which financial statements get incorporated into decisions.

On The Behavior Of Entrepreneurial Factor Supply To The Firm, Nicos Zafiris

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

This paper draws on an existing, but little used, approach to the choices governing the supply of ‘entrepreneurial’, in the sense of ‘residually remunerated’, resources to an enterprise, especially post start up. It focuses in particular on the hybrid ‘own factor demand/supply curve’ to the firm of Bronfenbrenner (1960), but attempts to treat such supply in conjunction with ‘contractual’ employment of resources, thus making use of gearing and portfolio concepts. To achieve this, it is found necessary for the hybrid schedule to be reinterpreted and recast as the locus of the relevant utility maximising choices. A model is presented which …

Commercial Bank Small Business Lending Pre And Post Crisis, Kevin T. Jacques, Richard Moylan, Peter J. Nigro

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

We analyze small business lending at U.S. commercial banks, how it has changed over time and how it differs by bank size. Specifically, we examine the impact of government policy intervention on small business lending in the aftermath of the financial crisis. We find several important results. First, we find that the Troubled-Asset Relief Program’s (TARP) $200 billion Capital Purchase Program (CPP) had little impact on the banks that received capital injections’ small business lending. Second, the Small Business Loan Fund (SBLF) lending program appears to have been a success as banks participating in the loan fund increased their lending …

Risk Management In The Venture Capital Industry: Managing Risk In Portfolio Companies, Dorian Proksch, Wiebke Stranz, Andreas Pinkwart, Michael Schefczyk

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Managing risk is one of the main activities of venture capital companies. Despite the fact that this topic is of high practical relevance, only little research was published on risk management performed by venture capital companies in their ventures. Hence, we conducted a structured literature review which was the basis for developing five hypotheses concerning measures to decrease failure risk in venture capital-backed ventures. We tested these hypotheses with an empirical data set of 93 venture capital-backed ventures in Germany using original deal data from nine different venture capital funds using a structural equation model. We showed that the experience …

Pass-Through Valuation, Robert M. Hull, David P. Price

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Noted scholars argue that (1) economic models of capital taxation have been inadequately adapted to owner-managed enterprises and (2) capital structure researchers have used the wrong models while also improperly measuring key variables. Thus, a model that can overcome these problems should be of interest to academics when teaching capital structure theory and practitioners when determining optimal debt levels. This paper contributes to capital structure practice by using a model that is adaptable to owner-managed enterprises like pass-throughs while also containing relevant variables that are measurable. This paper should be valuable to academics and practitioners in the following ways. First, …