This dissertation thesis concentrates on Venture Capital in the form of Business Angel investments in innovative companies in the Czech Republic. Primarily, the general knowledge of the Business Angel investments among entrepreneurs and students, the utilization rate of angel investments and the terms of cooperation between investors and entrepreneurs were analyzed. The main objective of this work is to design a methodological procedure of optimal cooperation between Business Angels and innovative entrepreneurs that has had a positive impact on the prosperity of all stakeholders. The theoretical framework summarizes the importance of Venture Capital as a source of funding new and innovative technology companies. Moreover, it focuses on realized research concerning angel investment in the USA and Great Britain. The primary research was realized in the form of interviews with investors and entrepreneurs, who had raised capital from Business Angels. As well, was realized five year long research among the students of universities all over the Czech Republic via questionnaire. Based on the analysis of secondary research and results from qualitative and quantitative research, were designed a normative model, descriptive model and methodology of cooperation between Business Angels and entrepreneurs. The proposed models and methodology respect the international practice, and the outputs have been tailored to the Czech environment as well.

The dissertation includes a critical essay on Jorie Graham's "The Guardian Angel of the Little Utopia and a full-length collection of poetry entitled Moonlight in Quota. The essay is a critical examination which argues that Graham's poems question Western anthropocentric thought through her constant arrangement of particular images (flowers, yellow sky, leaves) and her subsequent questioning of such intellectual and linguistic arrangements. Graham grapples with ideas of perception, questions the historical concepts of truth and knowledge, and engages in linguistic play both musically and imagistically. Each section is tied together by some overriding theme or persistent image: 1.) forgetting, Mexican-American border scenes 2.) poverty and faith shown through images of marginalized characters 3.) Artistic creation as a means for the survival for the "other."

Under de senaste åren har risk kapitalmarknaderna stått inför flera signifikanta problem. Den svenska VC industrin har minskat med över 60 % sedan Dotcom-kraschen. Antalet aktiva VC- företag har minskat i antal från 100-200 till endast 5-10 större VC-företag. Jämför man dagens marknad med hur den såg ut innan Dotcom-kraschen, så fanns det betydligt fler aktiva företag inom den svenska VC-industrin. Nya finansieringsformer har trätt in på marknaden som bland annat Evergreen fonder och crowd-funding. Den svenska VC-industrin har kännetecknats av en "rensning" av marknaden var tionde år, och var femte år uppstår en mindre krasch på marknaden. De svenska riskkapitalaktörerna har tagit en högre risk än vad som faktiskt var motiverat. Syndikatinvesteringar görs för att undvika investerarnas enskilda risk. Detta fenomen kan illustreras genom de två lyckosamma Svenska investeringarna, Spotify och iZettle. Riskkapitalmarknaden har varit karakteriserad av legala hinder vilket skapat flera stora problem. Trots detta finns det positiva trender och förändringar som idag genomförs på marknaden. Dett kommer lyfts fram ytterligare i arbetet. Bland annat har det diskuterats att införa ett skatteavdrag vilket anses vara fördelaktigt för riskkapitalbolagen. Detta arbete fokuserar huvudsakligen på de olika finanseringsformerna och de olika marknadsaktörerna. Fokus ligger på utvecklingen av industrin och dess aktuella trender, men även på den kommande framtiden. Studien är baserad på intervjuer med marknadsaktörer och på befintlig forskning vilket ger en god insikt i den Svenska riskkapitalbranschen.

Early-stage investors increasingly impact the surging video game industry. Thus, understanding their thought processes provides vital insight for entrepreneurs. This thesis explores how early-stage investors assess investment opportunities in the Swedish game industry by presenting semistructured interviews with three prominent angel investors. Thematic analysis was performed on the interview data to extract significant themes regarding investors’ thought processes. Themes were then contrasted with previous research on investor decision-making to establish emergent patterns in the game industry. Results indicate that investors regard the composition and reliability of the team and pursue long-term involvement in companies. It is particularly important for teams to inspire trust. If investors can connect to teams personally, it facilitates successful long-term collaboration. Future research should focus on interviewing investors in other flourishing game markets, such as the U.S. or Chinese. Congruent results may lay the foundation for a framework to aid developers with acquiring funds in the broader game industry.

This essay explores how adolescent girls in two pieces of children’s fiction are portrayed in children’s literature from the start and end of the 20th century to examine how they perform their gender in relation to expectations as informed by the Angel in the House discourse. Anne of Green Gables and the Harry Potter series were published at the start and end of the twentieth century, and both texts engage with the discourse. Using Judith Butler’s theory of Gender Performativity, this essay demonstrates that the Angel in the House discourse continues to influence expectations of how adolescent girls should behave, particularly with regards to being responsible for upholding the moral code to ensure the social standing of their family. However, they differ in regard to other aspects of the discourse, indicating that parts of the discourse appear to have lessened over the course of the 20th century.

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Entrepreneurs perceive and manage risk differently than investors (Palich & Bagby, 1995). As a result, entrepreneurs may underestimate the extent to which their ventures are perceived to be risky by a potential investor. Consequently, the entrepreneur is left with making assumptions that could be detrimental in obtaining the necessary capital to launch and grow the business. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a common set of perceived critical risk factors among a group of experienced investors that would cause them to reject a deal out of hand. The research methodology chosen for this study was the Delphi Technique, which consisted of three rounds of surveys with a group of 18 experienced Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. The process identified 82 critical risk factors across 7 categories. Over half of these factors were rated between ‘Important’ and ‘Critically Important’ at a consensus rate of greater then 70%. Each participant reported an average of 11 critical risk factors, yet they rated more than 40 as ‘Important’ or ‘Critically Important’, suggesting there are conscious and subconscious factors involved in the decision process. Subjective factors such as relationship were rated with higher importance than more objective measurable factors such as revenue or market share. Venture Capitalists, as a group, had higher rates of consensus than the Angel Investors and there were distinct differences between each group regarding which factors are most important. The study is significant because it rated subjective based factors along with objective factors showing that investors tend to place more importance on trust and relationship building in the early stages of the investment process. The study also provided a framework for understanding the complexity of investment decision-making for the benefit of investors, entrepreneurs, and those who educate and mentor entrepreneurs. Finally, the study is significant for helping entrepreneurs understand the differences in perspective between Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists.

Early in the 1850s, a greater number of Chinese immigrants began to enter the United States, leading to a Sinophobic frenzy that would continue for decades. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Americans sought to exclude the Chinese literally and figuratively. Americans employed negative imagery to demonstrate the necessity of excluding the Chinese in order to “protect" white America. The negative imagery that became Americans' common view of the “Chinaman," enabled the United States to enact discriminatory laws without compunction. In the face of intense persecution and bitter discrimination, many would simply have given up and returned to their homeland. However, the Chinese were determined not to give in to Americans' desire to exclude them. Though often viewed as a passive and stoic race, in reality the Chinese were proactive and eloquent defenders of their rights, and used two primary means of resistance to resist American exclusion: legal appeals and poetry. In response to their literal exclusion, the Chinese utilized the United States judicial system, litigating cases that either reduced the force of discriminatory laws or abolished them all together. In so doing, they managed to alter U.S. legal history, setting new precedents, and requiring judges to rule regarding the rights of non-citizens and the balance of power between state and federal governments, especially with regard to immigration policy. With regard to their figurative exclusion, the Chinese were similarly vehement in their defense. On the walls of the Angel Island barracks, where many of the Chinese immigrants were incarcerated during the Chinese exclusion acts, Chinese inmates carved and painted poetry emphasizing their sense of self-worth and their anger at the American “barbarians." The immigrants employed imagery that counteracted and even reversed the widely held negative images of the Chinese in American literature and speeches. As such, the poetry became a source of strength, a rallying cry providing the Chinese with the courage and determination to combat American prejudice. Previous studies have largely ignored the Angel Island poetry and none have brought the poetry into the discussion of the Chinese immigrants' legal battles, this thesis seeks to do both.

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