A simple single-period model of entrepreneurial capital structure choice under conditions of informational asymmetry is developed. The uncertain terminal cash flow generated by a business venture is assumed to depend on both the amount of effort provided by the entrepreneur and the quality of...

Using a nationwide sample of 14,424 new firms, we find that attractive human capital traits at business entry for entrepreneurs include high educational attainment, owners who lie in the middle of—as opposed to the tails of—the age distribution, and family business background. Attractive...

This study examines how risk evolves in private, venture capital backed companies. It finds that the stochastic Ito processes assumed for public companies probably apply to young, private companies as well. However, the parameters, drift rate and standard deviation, are generally higher. Venture...

This essay is intended to begin the elaboration of a theme: the interaction between the observed sizes of firms and their internal decision making procedures. This theme is a major one in the symphony of entrepreneurial activity. The entrepreneur, as the maker and changer of economic and...

There has developed within the past decade an increased interest among academicians and policy makers in the small companies and entrepreneurs of the world. Domestically, small business is viewed by the “true believers” as the engine that drives the machinery, citing innovation and job...

While academic research concerning capital structure of large corporations has been abundant in the finance literature, studies of small firms have been somewhat less common, and investigation of capital structure at origin (start-up) has been virtually nil. In this paper we present empirical...

This study replicates substantial portions of a study entitled “Criteria Used by Venture Capitalists to Evaluate New Ventures Proposals” by MacMillan, Siegal, and SubbaNarasimha. Results were similar to the earlier work. The differences observed can be attributed to history effects caused by...

The current study was undertaken to identify economic variables that could be identified as influential in new business formations and failures. Monthly formations and failures for each state, summed by regions and the entire USA, as reported by Dun & Bradstreet, are used. The time period is...

The beneficial economic effects of entrepreneurial activity can only be realised if such activity is relatively unconstrained in both product and factor markets, finance has been widely identified as a potential constraint on entrepreneurial activity due to either debt or equity gaps. However,...

About 70 percent of businesses are organized as sole proprietorships, and many business owners are not well-diversified, yet the finance discipline is largely silent regarding how to estimate the opportunity cost of capital for undiversified investors. In this paper, the Capital Market Line...