Entrepreneurial Financing, Advice, and Agency Costs

This paper studies the interplay between advice and agency costs in entrepreneurial financing. We show that advise may exacerbate agency problems, because the agent may use it at the investor's expense and thereby hurt investors. Depending on the magnitude of the agency problem, optimal financing relationship may induce full, partial, or no advice. Because the trade--off between the positive and negative effect of entrepreneurial advice is delicate, investors need to control the information flow carefully. This explains the dual role of financing and consulting by investors in entrepreneurial financing.