The relationship between the business-formation process and the use of government or outside counselling is examined, by differentiating, among a total group of 78 small-firm owners, between those who created their ventures and those who bought them. The group of venture initiators was found as having requested government help in one-third of the start-ups, while none of the business buyers had resorted to such support. At the same time, the first group displayed a more internal locus of control disposition than the other, thus reinforcing earlier findings about entrepreneurs. Both groups, however, were strongly internal-oriented compared to general populations. SOMMAIRE: À partir d'un groupe de propriétaires, créateurs ou acquéreurs, de petites entreprises, l'auteur établit le rapport entre le processus d'établissement et le recours au counselling gouvernemental ou exterieur. On constate que le tiers des propriétaires qui ont créé leur entreprise ont demandé l'aide du gouvernement, contre aucun parmi ceux qui s'en sont portés acquéreurs. On a également constaté que le premier groupe avait une nette tendance à établir Ie siège du contrôle à l'interieur des structures comparativement aux autres, ce qui renforce les constatations précédentes au sujet des entrepreneurs. Toutefois, les deux groupes à l'étude mettaient un accent beaucoup plus prononcé sur le controle interne que le reste des entreprises.

In the last decade, there has been an exponential rise in mobile phones in both developed and developed countries. In light of that, this paper investigates whether the expansion of such mobile networks leads to increased entrepreneurial activity. By conducting panel regressions, I find the degree to which various stages of entrepreneurial activity is affected by increased mobile phone subscription rates. I use data from 80 countries from 2007 to 2015 and parse out the different effects between developing and developed countries, and between males and females. I find that larger mobile networks encourage entrepreneurship, particularly in the early stages, with a larger benefit experienced by developed countries compared to developing countries. In addition, more females than males engage in early-stage entrepreneurship due to increased mobile phone subscription rates in developing countries. However, an opposite trend is observed in developed countries. Finally, I also consider potential implications on economic development as a result of such increased business formation.

<p>This bachelor thesis sets its goals in explaining the e-business idea formation. This paper inflicts different aspects of a e-business formation with the purpose of explaining the importance of analysis and reasoning, simulation and execution and careful approaches toward the goal. This thesis explores some of the principal issues surrounding the formation of an e-business. The main objective is to research small and middle sized enterprises preparations in the are mentioned above for success factors, renewing. This paper suggests to businesses that have the goal of entering the market to evaluate their different options when forming their strategies, as I see it the e-business should be the means to an end and not the end it self.</p>

This bachelor thesis sets its goals in explaining the e-business idea formation. This paper inflicts different aspects of a e-business formation with the purpose of explaining the importance of analysis and reasoning, simulation and execution and careful approaches toward the goal. This thesis explores some of the principal issues surrounding the formation of an e-business. The main objective is to research small and middle sized enterprises preparations in the are mentioned above for success factors, renewing. This paper suggests to businesses that have the goal of entering the market to evaluate their different options when forming their strategies, as I see it the e-business should be the means to an end and not the end it self.

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Chemmanur / My dissertation consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, I study the impact of a place-based tax credit policy, the Opportunity Zone program created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, on local private investments and entrepreneurship. Using a difference-in-differences approach and comparing census tracts designated as Opportunity Zones and other eligible but non-designated tracts, I find that the policy has drawn significantly more private investments to economically distressed areas. Surprisingly, however, these private investments have led to decreases in local new business registration. The decrease in entrepreneurship was mainly in the non-tradable sector, which is more sensitive to local conditions than the tradable or construction sector. Further robustness tests suggest that the above results are causal. I provide one explanation for the above findings that more private investments went to existing and older firms in Opportunity Zones, discouraging potential entrepreneurs from competing with the better-financed firms locally. In the second chapter, I examine how changes in investor protection regulations affect local entrepreneurial activity, relying on the heterogeneous impact of a 2011 SEC regulation change on the definition of accredited investors across U.S. cities. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I show that cities more affected by the regulation change experienced a significantly larger decrease in local angel financing, entrepreneurial activity, innovation output, employment, and sales. I find that small business loans and second-lien mortgages became entrepreneurs’ partial substitutes for angel investment. My cost-benefit analysis suggests that the costs of protecting angel investors through the 2011 regulation change outweigh its benefits. In the third chapter, which is co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Harshit Rajaiya, we address three important research questions by using a large sample of angel and venture capital (VC) financing data from the Crunchbase and VentureXpert databases and private firm data from the NETS database. First, we analyze the relative extent of value addition by angels versus VCs to startup firms. We show that startups financed by angels rather than VCs are associated with a lower likelihood of successful exit (IPO or acquisition), lower sales and employment growth, lower quantity and quality of innovation, and lower net inflow of high-quality inventors. We disentangle selection and monitoring effects using instrumental variable (IV) and switching regression analyses and show that our baseline results are causal. Second, we investigate the complementarity versus substitution relationship between angel and VC financing. We find that a firm that received a larger fraction of VC or angel financing in the first financing round is likely to receive a larger fraction of the same type of financing in a subsequent round; however, when we include other non-VC financing sources such as accelerators and government grants into the analysis, a firm that received angel (rather than other non-VC) financing in the first round is also more likely to receive VC financing in a subsequent round. Third, we analyze how the financing sequence (order of investments by angels and VCs across rounds) of startup firms is related to their successful exit probability. We find that firms that received primarily VC financing in the first round and continued to receive VC financing in subsequent rounds (VC-VC) or those that received primarily angel financing in the first round and received VC financing in subsequent rounds (Angel-VC) have a higher chance of successful exit compared to those with other financing sequences (VC-Angel or Angel-Angel). / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Les repreneurs non familiaux deviennent de plus en plus importants pour diverses raisons.Tout d’abord, les estimations indiquent qu’un nombre croissant de fondateurs de petites et moyennes entreprises sont en voie de quitter leurs entreprises. Ensuite, et de façon concommitante, un nombre croissant de repreneurs familiaux se désintéressent ou ne disposent pas de l’aptitude nécessaire pour reprendre l’entreprise familiale. En conséquence, il se développe un marché de l’investisseur constitué des repreneurs non familiaux potentiels, en situation de sélectionner l’entreprise qui rencontre le mieux leurs attentes. D’autre part, la nature de la composition des actifs de la firme a changé et les actifs immatériels représentent à présent l’un des aspects les plus déterminants dans le succès de la majorité des entreprises. Il est communément accepté que ces actifs sont principalement responsables de la valeur de l’entreprise et de sa croissance dans de nombreuses industries. Cependant, l’étude du lien entre ces actifs et la transmission de PME hors du cercle familiale a été négligée jusqu’à présent.L’objectif de cette étude est d’apporter un éclairage sur la pertinence perçue des actifs immatériels dans le cadre du processus de transmission de PME, et ce de la perspective du repreneur n’appartenant pas au cercle familial. Au sein de ce processus, l’accent est mis sur la phase de préparation, lors de laquelle les repreneurs non familiaux potentiels recherchent et analysent les firmes cibles prometteuses.Sur base d’une démarche scientifique reposant sur des approches mixtes, déployées de façon séquentielle, la présente recherche consiste en une enquête quantitative, administrée en ligne, et impliquant des associations de commerce allemandes ainsi qu’une série d’entretiens qualitatifs menés avec des repreneurs non familiaux de PME allemandes.Les résultats apportent une nouvelle perspective sur la transmission d’entreprise, plus spécifiquement au regard des processus de sélection utilisés par les repreneurs non familiaux. Ainsi, cette étude contribue au développement de la littérature de plusieurs manières. Tout d’abord, une approche alternative de traiter de la transmission de PME en adoptant la perspective des repreneurs non familiaux est proposée, en tenant compte de leur modusoperandi. Ensuite, la vue traditionnelle de la transmission d’entreprise est élargie en considérant les actifs immatériels comme étant des éléments décisifs dans la phase de préparation. Enfin, ces résultats sont résumés dans un cadre qui fournit un aperçu sur les actifs immatériels dans le cadre de la sélection d’entreprise.Au regard du nombre croissant de PME en attente de transmission vers de nouveaux propriétaires, il est fondamental de comprendre la pertinence des actifs immatériels dans la dynamique de la transmission d’entreprise (et en particulier, dans la transmission non familiale). Ceci peut ainsi supporter les professionnels (par exemple, propriétaires, repreneurs potentiels, conseillers) et faciliter le développement de mesures adéquates pour améliorer la qualité de la transmission d’entreprise. / Non-family successors are becoming more and more important because of different reasons. Firstly, forecasts show that an increasing number of founders of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are waiting to leave their firms. Secondly, at the same time an increasing number of family successors are uninterested in or ill-suited to company succession. Consequently, it can be talked about as an investor market bringing prospective non-family successors in a position to select the company that best matches their expectations.On the other hand, the nature of a firm's asset composition has changed and intangible assets are now seen to represent one of the crucial aspects determining company success in most companies. It is generally acknowledged that these assets are chiefly responsible for company value and growth in most industries. However, the link between them and non-family succession in SMEs has so far been neglected.The aim of this study is to shed light on the perceived relevance of intangible assets in the SME succession process from the non-family successor perspective. In the process, the focus is on the preparation stage where prospective non-family successors seek and analyse promising target firms.Acquired on the basis of a sequential mixed methods approach, the present body of research material consists of a quantitative web-survey involving German trade associations and a series of qualitative interviews conducted with non-family successors of German SMEs.The findings provide a new perspective on company succession, specifically in regard to selection processes used by non-family successors, and thus this study contributes to the literature in several ways. Firstly, an alternative approach to dealing with company succession in SMEs by adopting the perspective of non-family successors is proposed, taking their modus operandi into account. Secondly, the traditional view of company succession is enlarged by considering intangible assets as being the decisive elements in the preparation stage. Finally, the findings are summarised by proposing a framework which provides insights into critical intangible assets in terms of company selection.Given the increasing number of SMEs waiting to be transferred to new owners, an understanding of the relevance of intangible assets is fundamental to our understanding of the dynamics of company succession (and non-family succession in particular). This in turn may also help practitioners (e.g., incumbents, prospective successors and advisors) to facilitate the proposal of suitable measures to improve the quality of company succession.

Business leaders venturing in the microbrewing business sector experience long delays due to federal, state, and city requirements unique to this industry. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by microbrewers in cases bounded by the fulfillment of the same licensing requirements to launch a microbrewery in Madison County, Alabama. The dynamic capabilities framework served as the conceptual framework for this study. A purposive sampling of 4 microbrewers who possessed tacit knowledge about the microbrewery licensure process participated in face-to-face semistructured interviews providing in-depth information about their strategic approaches. The overarching research question addressed the strategic approaches microbrewers used to complete the microbrewery licensure process. Data analysis included the verbatim transcription of interviews coded for common patterns and themes. The following themes emerged from the data analysis: learning from other brewers, flexible strategic approach, establishing a brewery first, attaining licensing second, business planning strategies, and regulatory echelons for microbrewing licensing. The 4 participants reported that learning from other brewers and applying a flexible strategic approach were the preferred strategies to navigate the licensure process in becoming a commercial microbrewer. The implications for social change include reduction in gap between understanding and effective strategies to fulfill microbrewing licensing that could benefit communities by promoting business creation, employment, and added taxation revenue from craft beers produced, sold, and consumed locally.