Juan Roure

Executive forum: Public support for the business angel market in Europe – a critical review

Abstract Various levels of government have implemented instruments to promote business angel investment, often mirroring those used to support the institutional venture capital market. The paper reviews the existing practices at a point in time when intervention in the field of business angels is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Governments are looking for innovative ways to enhance business angel investments and the evolution of the policy in the field is rather trial and error based. We see a shift from classical support to network creation and improvement of the fiscal environment, towards guarantee schemes for angel investments and co-investment schemes. This latest, most recent, approach is analysed by a detailed case study of the Belgian Business Angels Plus (BA+) scheme, which matches the financing provided by a business angel investor and the entrepreneur. In its initial two and a half years of operation the BA+ scheme has received close to 70 applications, of which just over 20 have been rejected. The characteristics of the deals financed by BA+ applicants are similar to those found in the average investment in Belgium. Following up the companies applying for the BA+ loan shows that the programme has so far avoided incurring significant losses. However, it is not possible to determine if lack of finance was one of the reasons for the bankruptcy of the companies that did not secure the additional loan.

European venture capital: Strategies and challenges in the 90s

The growth of European venture capital in recent years has been dramatic, but it faces serious issues in the 1990s, such as industry growth rates, competition, rates of return and the Single European Market itself. Roure, Keeley and van der Heyden studied 34 major European venture capital firms to get views which would assist strategists and public policy makers. The authors also look ahead in the 1990s. Among the interesting results are further growth in venture capital, with strong financial support from pension funds and life assurance companies, greater competition and lower returns among venture capital firms, and a shift of investment away from early-stage firms to more fully established ones.

Managing internationally: International dimensions of the managerial task

Following a review of the literature on managing internationally, Juan Roure, Jose Luis Alvarez, Carlos Garcia-Pont and Jose Nueno challenge the conventional view. This says that international managers are generalists with a global mind set, and that in the process of internationalisation the internal and external tasks of the manager are affected equally. The authors use field research to demonstrate that global managers are less in evidence than is commonly believed, regional management is more widespread than global management, and the internationalisation of managers affects their internal activities more than their external ones. Internal and external tasks of managers are mapped, and future lines for research identified.

New technological ventures: is success preordained?

The authors present a longitudinal study of 15 ventures, to identify important differences in the management characteristics and processes between successful and unsuccessful companies. The 15 are a stratified sample from a database of 68 on which the authors have detailed data from the original business plans. Management turnover, ability to resolve conflicts, meeting development goals, and other indicators of management behavior did not vary between the successful and unsuccessful firms, nor did adaptability. Once the product was introduced, companies encountering difficult markets adapted quickly by developing new products-but without success. Thus the initial product choice is crucial, and seems to be better if the team which makes it is relatively complete, representing diverse functions.<<ETX>>