Veroniek Collewaert

Angel Investors’ and Entrepreneurs’ Intentions to Exit Their Ventures: A Conflict Perspective

This study examines the relationships among angel investor–entrepreneur relationship conflicts, task conflicts, and goal conflicts on the one hand and their intentions to exit on the other. I evaluate the hypotheses with survey data from 65 angel investors and 72 entrepreneurs belonging to 54 ventures located in either California or Belgium. Regression analyses indicate that entrepreneurial intentions to exit are higher for entrepreneurs who face more task and goal conflicts. Angel investors’ intentions to exit are only increased when faced with more goal conflicts. Together, these results indicate the importance of taking into account investor–entrepreneur relations when studying their respective exit processes.

The relationship between slack resources and the performance of entrepreneurial firms: : The role of venture capital and angel investors

In this study, we seek to further delineate factors that condition the relationship between slack resources and firm performance. To do so, we develop and test a model that establishes the role of venture capital (VC) and angel investors as powerful external stakeholders who positively moderate the slack-performance relationship. In addition, we provide more insight into this relationship by examining differences between these two types of private investors and by examining the role of their ownership stakes. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 1,215 private firms, including VC-backed firms, angel-backed firms and similar firms without such investors. We find that the presence of VC investors positively moderates the relationship between both financial and human slack resources and firm performance, while angel investors only positively moderate the effect of human resource slack. Further, VC investors are only marginally better at helping entrepreneurs to extract value from human resource slack than angel investors and they are no better when it comes to financial slack. Finally, we find that the impact of financial and human resource slack on firm performance is more positive in VC-backed firms when investors hold high ownership stakes, an effect which is significantly stronger than when angel investors hold high ownership stakes.

Trust between entrepreneurs and angel investors: exploring positive and negative implications for venture performance assessments

The study of trust-related outcomes has had a long tradition in the organizational literature. However, few have considered potential darker sides of trust or have explored its effects in the setting of entrepreneurial ventures. This study does so by examining how perceptions of entrepreneurs and angel investors concerning the degree of trust in their relationship impact the latter’s assessments of venture performance. Hypotheses are tested using survey data from the lead entrepreneur and angel investor of 54 ventures. Results indicate that angel investors evaluate portfolio company performance more positively when they perceive high trust, whereas entrepreneurs’ trust perceptions are negatively associated with angel investors’ assessments of venture performance. Further, these effects are partially mediated by the quality of information exchanges between both parties. Together, these findings point to the benefits as well as threats that come with the presence of strong trust in entrepreneur–angel investor relationships.

How Does Angel Investor–Entrepreneur Conflict Affect Venture Innovation? It Depends

This study examines how angel investor–entrepreneur task conflicts are related to portfolio company innovativeness and how this relationship is moderated by the level of agreement on priorities, diversity of entrepreneurial experience, and the level of communication. Using survey data gathered from 54 teams of angels and entrepreneurs in Belgium and the United States, we show that the negative relationship between task conflict and innovativeness is more severe when the teams have lower levels of agreement on priorities, when there is less diversity of experience in the team, and when the teams communicate more frequently.

When Passion Fades: Disentangling the Temporal Dynamics of Entrepreneurial Passion for Founding

This study examines how and why entrepreneurial passion for founding changes over time. In particular, we propose that in the founding phase of a ventures lifecycle entrepreneurs’ founding identity centrality will remain stable over time. We also propose, however, that in our sample and time period studied, entrepreneurs’ intense positive feelings for founding will decrease over time. On the basis of theories of positive illusion, self-regulation and role theory, we further hypothesize that venture idea change, change in role ambiguity and entrepreneurs’ feedback-seeking behaviour are factors that help explain the rate of change in entrepreneurs’ intense positive feelings for founding. Using a three-wave longitudinal research design, we find that among a sample of 112 entrepreneurs’ identity centrality does not change over time, whereas intense positive feelings for founding decrease over time. Moreover, the more entrepreneurs change their venture ideas, the weaker their decrease in intense positive feelings. Further, we show that entrepreneurs who frequently seek feedback suffer less from reduced positive feelings in response to higher increases in role ambiguity as compared to entrepreneurs who seek less feedback.

Relocation to get venture capital: a resource dependence perspective

Using a resource dependence perspective, we theorize and show that non-venture-capital-backed ventures founded in U.S. states with a lower availability of venture capital (VC) are more likely to relocate to California (CA) or Massachusetts (MA)—the two VC-richest states—compared to ventures founded in states with a greater availability of VC. Moreover, controlling for self-selection, ventures that relocate to CA or MA subsequently have a greater probability of attracting initial VC compared to ventures that stay in their home state. We discuss the implications for theory, future research, and practice.

Equity crowdfunding, shareholder structures, and firm performance

Research question/issue. This paper provides a first‐time glimpse into the postcampaign financial and innovative performance of equity‐crowdfunded (ECF) and matched nonequity‐crowdfunded (NECF) firms. We further investigate how direct and nominee shareholder structures in ECF firms are associated with firm performance. Research findings/insights. We find that ECF firms have 8.5 times higher failure rates than matched NECF firms. However, 3.4 times more ECF firms have patent applications than matched NECF firms. Within the group of ECF firms, we find that ECF firms financed through a nominee structure make smaller losses, whereas ECF firms financed through a direct shareholder structure have more new patent applications, including foreign patent applications. Theoretical/academic implications. Our findings suggest that there are important adverse selection issues on equity crowdfunding platforms, although these platforms also serve as a catalyst for innovative activities. Moreover, our findings suggest that there is a more complex relationship between dispersed versus concentrated crowd shareholders and firm performance than currently assumed in the literature. Practitioner/policy implications. For policy makers and crowdfunding platforms, investor protection against adverse selection will be important to ensure the sustainability of equity crowdfunding markets. For entrepreneurs and crowd investors, our study highlights how equity crowdfunding and the adopted shareholder structure relate to short‐term firm performance.