Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,0, University of Mannheim (Chair of Strategic and International Management, Prof. Dr. Matthias Brauer), language: English, abstract: The landscape of entrepreneurial finance is currently subject to a process of transformation, driven by globalization, technological advancements, regulatory adjustments, and the emergence of winner-take-all markets. These factors jointly pave the way for new forms of financing, which differ significantly from traditional forms in terms of investor structure, experience, and behavior. To analyze how startups can ensure financial coverage in the light of these changing conditions, this review compares strategies of attracting traditional and new types of investors from a signaling perspective. In business practice, this topic is highly relevant, as many young startups require substantial amounts of external capital to grow, but often have no objective firm data to provide to investors. Thus, the selection of effective “soft” signals about startup quality, preferably aligned with the preferences of the respective investor group, can decide about short-term survival and long-term performance. Findings include that the most promising signaling strategies for traditional forms of financing are based on startup characteristics, i.e. what a firm is. In contrast, the most effective signals for new forms of financing are based on startup actions, i.e. what a firm does. Moreover, while personal networks have been found to be highly relevant for traditional forms, online networks increase the funding prospects for new forms of financing. Through a consolidation and analysis of the current state of research in leading management, entrepreneurship, and finance journals, this review aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the issue and identifying avenues for future research.

More extensive regulations, new technologies, and new means of communication have significantly changed the financing landscape for startups and small to medium-sized companies (SMEs). This volume provides a contemporary research-based overview of the latest trends in entrepreneurial finance and outlines expected future developments. Starting with the status quo in market regulations and the financing structure of SMEs, it addresses a broad range of new financing alternatives for innovative startups (e.g. business angel financing, venture capital and corporate venture capital), as well as recent social phenomena (e.g. crowdfunding and initial coin offerings (ICOs)). Incorporating qualitative, quantitative and mixed analytical methods, the book contributes to a better understanding of the financing world by reflecting both the researcher’s and the practitioner’s perspective.

This book offers cutting-edge insights into the changing landscape of entrepreneurial finance, as digital technologies play an increasingly dynamic role in the world economy. Assessing the rapid development of innovative technologies in entrepreneurial ecosystems, it contributes to a wider discussion on the role that technology plays in facilitating and commercializing ideas in the context of global finance.

This book provides an updated view of new trends in entrepreneurial finance, with the aim of guiding academics and non-academics alike that want to gain a deeper understanding of this field.It collects recent contributions from scholars from all over the world. Each chapter provides new empirical or theoretical evidence on fundamental issues related to entrepreneurial finance, including business angels, crowdfunding, Initial Coin Offerings, Mini bonds, public support and more. Besides reviewing the recent trends in the field, the book also highlights new avenues for research, and implications for practitioners.

There is no doubt that the proliferation of entrepreneurial activity is a current trend. Start-ups enable an effective transformation of knowledge, generating high added value to society. The objective of this book is to address the financing of the entrepreneurial process as a necessary element to articulate a solid business fabric, based on taking advantage of new opportunities. The book is structured in two parts. The first part takes as a reference the lack of financing in the entrepreneurship process and analyses different sources of financing available to entrepreneurs depending on the phase in which the project is located. The second part of the book analyses innovation and its links to the financing of start-ups, addressing the impact of emerging technologies and fintech services and the support of artificial intelligence. Finally, the book concludes with an examination of decentralized finance (DeFi), as an idea that is changing the financial world, giving rise to new financial paradigms.

This book examines the adverse effects of complexity, information asymmetries, transaction costs, and uncertainty on investors’ decision making. It suggests mitigating those effects using appropriate and matching signals, and analyzes a sample of 903 German startups to quantitatively highlight the distinct financing patterns and characteristics of high-tech startups. It then investigates the reasons for these patterns on the basis of a qualitative study that includes 34 interviews with investors and entrepreneurs in the US and Germany and an international expert panel. Lastly, it presents a framework that matches complexity factors with appropriate productive signals.

More extensive regulations, new technologies, and new means of communication have significantly changed the financing landscape for startups and small to medium-sized companies (SMEs). This volume provides a contemporary research-based overview of the latest trends in entrepreneurial finance and outlines expected future developments. Starting with the status quo in market regulations and the financing structure of SMEs, it addresses a broad range of new financing alternatives for innovative startups (e.g. business angel financing, venture capital and corporate venture capital), as well as recent social phenomena (e.g. crowdfunding and initial coin offerings (ICOs)). Incorporating qualitative, quantitative and mixed analytical methods, the book contributes to a better understanding of the financing world by reflecting both the researcher’s and the practitioner’s perspective.

The advent of the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, brings about both opportunities and challenges that are likely to set developed economies even farther apart from emerging economies. This book, through the perspective of researchers in the emerging markets, presents analyses on a number of issues important to entrepreneurial finance, such as debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, stock market efficiency, resource allocation and consumption, and sustainable development. It aims at improving our understanding of the financing needs as well as the financial risks involved in entrepreneurial endeavors in less developed settings in the new era.

This book examines the proliferation of new sources of entrepreneurial finance and how these sources have the potential to make it easier for ventures to raise capital and grow. To date, entrepreneurial finance literature has developed a rich tradition of research on venture capital and angel finance. However, the emergence of 'new' sources of finance - such as crowdfunding - and the limited attention paid to 'traditional' debt financing and financial bootstrapping offer opportunities to explore, from different points of view and theoretical perspectives, the challenges that ventures face. The objective of this book is to explore these new and traditional sources of finance; suggest how these phenomena can be better understood conceptually; and guide new ways of understanding the topic in future, especially for researchers. The introduction outlines the new sources of entrepreneurial finance, and in comparing them with more traditional sources, proposes challenges in our conceptual understanding of these new and traditional sources. The subsequent chapters deal with important topics, including looking at the way different funding sources may interact; factors that impede family firms from getting external funding; how best to succeed with equity crowdfunding by looking at pre-selection processes; considering differences in perceptions towards funding sources arising from whether entrepreneurs are native born or immigrants; factors to consider when funding specialized assets in high uncertain sectors such as biotechnology; and the internationalization of business angel activity. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Venture Capital journal.