Audretsch, David B.; Bönte, Werner; Mahagaonkar, Prashanth - Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, … - 2009
External finance is central for nascent entrepreneurs, people in the process of starting new ventures. We argue that … nascent entrepreneurs use patents and prototypes in order to signal their ability to appropriate the returns from their … innovation as well as the project's feasibility. Our analysis of 900 nascent entrepreneurs finds that patents and prototypes …