Saeid Abbasian

Exploring the financing gap between native born women- and immigrant women-owned firms at the start-up stage : Empirical evidence from Swedish data

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence which identifies the impact of ethnicity and other relevant variables on external capital acquisition among Swedish women-ow ...

Gender and the use of external business advice: a Swedish study

Purpose – The aim of this study is to examine whether there are significant differences between female and male entrepreneurs’ use of consultation during business start-ups. Design/methodology/approach – Using several statistical tools, including ANOVA and seemingly unrelated regressions, empirical analyses are conducted on a unique and firm-level panel database of 837 female- and 1926 male-owned active small firms. Findings – The results indicate that gender may be an important variable in the use of advice among small business owners in Sweden. Female owners in this study are shown to be more eager than male owners to use external business advice, and do so to a higher extent. Practical implications – One implication of this study is that firms may not be able to use all business advice types simultaneously during their start-up stage, so an ordered list of consultancy services would help them prioritize and adjust their needs accordingly. Because the use of business advice is context-based, the finding...

Attitudes towards participation in business development programmes : An ethnic comparison in Sweden

Purpose – The aim of the study is to investigate whether there are any differences between the attitudes towards participation in development programmes of entrepreneurs who are immigrants and thos ...

Business advice strategies of immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there are any significant differences between native Swedish and immigrant entrepreneurs in business advice sought at start-up. Design/methodology/approach – The study, based on a unique and large database consisting of 304 immigrant and 2,512 native-owned firms, applies several univariate and multivariate statistical methods including ANOVA and regression analysis. Findings – According to the results there are certain similarities and differences between Swedish native- and immigrant-owned firms concerning the type of external business advice they seek. The results suggest there are significant differences between native and immigrant-owned firms for four of 20 types of advice received. Native-owned firms, on average, tend to seek more advice on accounting and on the choice of business form as well as the help of a knowledgeable person. On the other hand, immigrants seek, on average, more advice on export questions than their native counterparts. ...

Gender as a determinant of informal capital in the financing of small firms' start–ups: Swedish data

This research explores the differences in informal capital acquisition between female- and male-owned firms in the start-up stage in Sweden. A binary logistic regression model is used to analyse a ...

The determinant of external financing at the start-up stage : Empirical evidences from Swedish data

Small firms in general have limited access to funding, which is a major problem for entrepreneurs. In particular, this problem is evident for women and ethnic minority groups. The purpose of the st ...

Ethnicity and acquisition of external capital at start-up stage: differences between small native Swedish- and immigrant-owned firms

The aim of the study was to explain empirically the differences in external financing between native- and immigrant-owned small businesses in terms of ethnicity and other relevant variables. A sample of 2,814 native- and immigrant-owned small businesses, based on a unique and comprehensive database gathered through interviews, was analysed employing several univariate and multivariate methods. The results suggest that ethnicity is an important explanatory variable differentiating between acquisitions of external capital at start-up stage. Owner characteristics such as age, experience of starting businesses and education also have an impact on finance-seeking behaviour and thereby on the acquisition of external capital. The findings indicate that characteristics of the firm, such as personal start-up capital, firm size, legal form and industrial sector, do partly influence access to external capital. Since knowledge about this issue is limited, the results of this study add to our understanding of variables affecting the behaviour of small business endeavours in seeking funding at start-up.

The anthropology of climate change: an integrated critical perspective, by Hans A. Baer and Merrill Singer

The anthropology of climate change: an integrated critical perspective, by Hans A. Baer and Merrill Singer

A Review of “The anthropology of climate change: an integrated critical perspective”, by Hans A. Baer and Merrill Singer: Abingdon and New York, Routledge, 2014, 244 pp.,

The anthropology of climate change: an integrated critical perspective, by Hans A. Baer and Merrill Singer

137.05 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-73590-2; (ebook) ISBN 078-1-315-81870-2

This paper provides evidence on ethnic differences in bank debt financing among small Swedish firms at the start-up stage. The empirical analysis is carried out on a sample of small firms consisting of 2,814 native- and immigrant-owned firms for year 2008. The method of binary logistic regression analysis was mainly performed to analyse the data. The empirical results suggest that immigrant-owned firms tend to use less bank debt than their native counterparts. Moreover, the variables related to human capital, previous experience of starting a business, university education and an additional job beside the business have a positive impact on the use of bank debt. There is also a positive influence of personal start capital and the size of firm in terms of number of employees on access to debt capital. However, firm characteristics, legal form and industry affiliation affect the debt funding negatively, indicating that firms with less formalised legal status operating in less developed market segments and with less physical capital are less likely to have access to debt capital.