This paper is a first attempt at differentiating the problems of finance of the privately held small businesses from their larger counterparts. Small businesses, though not concerned with the problems and opportunities associated with publicly traded firms, have different types of complexities,...

Two main approaches have been utilized to explain the relationship between entrepreneurs and their investors. The first is based on the separation of ownership and management i.e. the so-called principal-agent approach. The second emphasizes trust and cooperation in the relationship. This...

The paper presents an adverse selection-based explanation of the fact that some entrepreneurs choose to finance multiple projects together by issuing a single security and other entrepreneurs decide to finance each project separately. We consider the financing problem of an entrepreneur who has...

Existing theories of the firm are silent with respect to cross-sectional differences in performance or characteristics of firms attributable to different types of managers. We hypothesize that the investment, financing and dividend decisions of founders differ systematically from those of...

There is now extensive evidence on short-term performance improvements in buy-outs, but little relating to the longer-term. This paper examines the relatively neglected area of the longevity and longer-term effects of smaller buy-outs. In terms of longevity, the evidence presented shows that the...

In planning for succession of ownership, oftentimes the owner of a private business seeks to sell the business to either family members or employees. Arranging outside financing may be difficult or costly, making internal financing attractive. Self-cancelling installment notes (SCINs) provide an...

China's short stock market history has already seen three merger waves, yet little is known of the performance drivers of acquirers. Using an acquirer's announced target value as the proxy of the firm's acquiring capacity, the link between that and its operational and/or financial conditions was...

The one-share, one-vote rule applicable to the governance of most business firms provides for proportional voting power which differs substantially from proportional shareholdings of investors. This problem is particularly acute in small firms where several (or many) shareholders may hold...

This study examines the early stage investment activity of UK serial investors, individuals who have made at least three private investments. Two distinct groups emerged; one which invested on their own all the time ("solo serial investors") and the other which invested with others almost...

Despite the recent increase in research on informal venture capital there are many aspects of this market for which no information exists. One such issue is exits. This exploratory study is the first to address this issue. It is based on a survey of 38 active business angels in Finland who had...