Against the background of the need for alternative and additional financing channels for SMEs in Europe, this paper analyses the market segment of debt funds. It provides a market overview and comprehensive insight into the results of the EIF Private Debt Survey, a new study that provides unique...

Management research is often obsessed with novelty or originality. This is understandable and in line with most other academic disciplines. Novel findings are more interesting and can have a huge impact on management theory and practice. However, novelty as a sine qua non criterion is...

Start-ups often post updates during equity crowdfunding campaigns. However, little is known about the effects of such updates on crowdfunding participation. We investigate this question by using hand-collected data from 71 funding campaigns and 39,399 investment decisions on two German equity...

This study presents the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis on the financial performance of family firms. Drawing on a sample of 380 studies, we find that family firms show economically weak, albeit statistically significant, superior performance compared to non-family firms. Furthermore,...

Firms that develop user innovations for their own use often find these innovations attractive to their competitors. Thus, the user innovator may consider vertical diversification, turning to manufacturing and selling its own innovation while keeping its original business as a user. The question...

This paper takes a holistic approach to investigate SME financing patterns in Europe by performing a cluster analysis including 12,726 SMEs in 28 European countries. The results reveal that SME financing in Europe is not homogenous but that different financing patterns exist. The cluster...

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) gained importance over the last years. Yet, only few studies have investigated CSR in German family firms. This study analyzes the CSR communication of 714 listed German family and non-family firms using a content analysis of CSR mission statements. We find...

Many start-ups chose to compete with incumbent firms using one of two generic strategies: cost leadership or differentiation. Our study demonstrates how this choice depends on whether the startup was founded out of necessity. Our results, based on a representative data set of 4,568 German...

Work effort varies greatly across employees, as evidenced by substantial differences in absence rates. Moreover, absenteeism causes sizeable output losses. Using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), this paper investigates absence behavior of family employees, i.e. workers...

This study presents the results of a meta-analysis of the financial performance of family firms. Drawing on a sample of 380 studies, we find that family firms show an economically weak, albeit statistically significant, superior performance compared to non-family firms. Furthermore, we find...