Firms‘ resource base is one of the determinants of their capacity to innovate. When firms’ internal base of financial, intangible or technical resources is not sufficient to realize innovation projects, resources provided by other stakeholders can mitigate innovation constraints. This cumulative dissertation intends to shed light on innovation-related collaborations and interactions of three specific kinds of actors. The first article investigates the role innovation plays for investors when screening and evaluating potential investment targets and explains to which extent the investors’ behavior re-orients towards the implementation of innovation-pushing measures once being invested. Also, the second article refers to the interaction between investors and innovative firms: Subsequent to a derivation of an industry-specific business model pattern, the second article analyzes whether and how financing of new and innovative digital health ventures differ between Europe and USA. Adopting a single case study approach, the third article focuses on the interaction between corporate accelerators and innovative firms and identifies shortcomings of Telefonica’s corporate accelerator Wayra.:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical background of dissertation 3 Purpose and focus of dissertation 4 Overview and summaries of dissertation articles 5 First article: The Role of Innovation in Venture Capital and Private Equity Investments in Different Investment Phases 6 Second article: Venture Capital in the Digital Health Industry: Analyzing and Comparing Funding Environment and Business Models of Digital Health Start-ups in USA and Europe 7 Third article: Start-ups in a Corporate Accelerator: What is Satisfying, What is Relevant and What can Corporates Improve? 8 Contribution of dissertation 9 Limitations of dissertation 10 Future Research 11 References

Bakgrund: Utvecklingen inom handeln med aktier går ständigt framåt. Idag finns en enorm mängd information tillgänglig online för alla att granska och använda.Tack vare det gynnsamma läget, digitala tjänster samt att du med endast några knapptryckningar kan köpa aktier är intresset på marknaden stort. Antalet privata aktieägare fortsätter att öka och utgör idag 84% av aktieägarna i hela Sverige. Samtidigt som antalet investerare och utbudet växer saknas det underlag om vilken typ av information de privata investerarna använder sig av vid investeringsbeslut. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka informationskanaler som de privata aktiespararna använder vid investeringsbeslut och vilken de anser har mest betydelse. Syftet med studien som helhet är att få en ökad förståelse för vilken information som leder till att beslut om köp tas av de privata aktiespararna. Metod: I studien används den kvantitativa metoden där en webbaserad enkätundersökning har genomförts och skickats ut genom Aktiespararnas riksförbund. Slutsats: Resultatet av studien visar att de privata aktiespararna påverkas av de personliga faktorerna som tid, kunskap och erfarenheter sedan tidigare. De anser sin egen riskbedömning som betydelsefull och har en tendens att påverkas av hembias. Men resultaten visar också att majoriteten inte påverkas av dispositionseffekten. Den informationskanalen som används mest är affärstidningar samt att de finansiella rapporterna är betydelsefulla för investeringsbeslutet. Det framkom också att de privata aktiespararna är mest intresserade av information angående företagens lönsamhet. Resultaten av studien kan ses som en början på ytterligare forskning inom ämnet. / Background: The world of stock trading is constantly evolving. Today, an incredible amount of information is available on the internet for anyone to review and access. Thanks to the favorable situation, digital services and the fact that you can buy shares with just a few clicks, the interest in the market is great. The number of private shareholders continues to grow and currently accounts for 84% of shareholders across Sweden. At the same time as the number of investors and the range of products is growing, there is a lack of data on the type of information private investors use when making investment decisions. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate which information channels private equity investors use when making investment decisions and which they consider most important. The aim is to gain a better understanding of what information leads to purchase decisions being made by private equity investors. Method: The study uses the quantitative method where a web-based survey has been conducted and sent out by Aktiespararnas riksförbund. Conclusion: The results of the study show that private equity investors are influenced by personal factors such as time, knowledge and past experience. They consider their own risk assessment as important and tend to be influenced by home bias. However, the results also show that the majority are not influenced by the disposition effect. The most used information channel is business magazines and financial reports are important for the investment decision. It also emerged that private investors are most interested in information regarding company profitability. The results of the study can be seen as a start for further research on the topic.