This paper examines the impact of the New Economy on the relationship between corporate debt policy and firm investment opportunities. One distinctive feature of new economy firms is their high level of investment opportunities. We study whether the impact of investment opportunities on...

This study examines the extent to which individual demographic characteristics of owners influence capital structure decisions. Using the Federal Reserve's 2003 Survey of Small Business Finances, we estimate the joint effects of traditional capital structure determinants and manager age, gender,...

We study the implications of ownership and its induced incentives on firm survival on the stock market for young and high-tech firms. Using a unique data set of all 341 firms listed on the Neuer Markt, the German counterpart of the NASDAQ, our results differ from studies on more traditional...

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 projectś feasibility. Our...

Start-ups mostly have only limited internal financing. Post-entry performance should thus strongly depend on the availability of new external capital. In this study we analyze the impact of financial constraints on the performance of Swiss start-ups. Since we use cohort data, we have for some...

This paper empirically examines the evaluations of 537 ventures in high-growth industries performed by 251 experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and executives. These experts evaluated ventures by reading succinct summaries of the ventures, without meeting the founding teams, and their...

Pro forma estimation of financial statements often builds on constant ratios to sales revenue. While constant ratios may be relevant for established firms operating in predictable industries, they yield noninformative and possibly misleading information when applied to new firms, and...

Entrepreneurs who deal with a venture capital firm (VC) for the first time often find themselves unprepared for the experience. The financing terms (deal structure), which specify the percentage of the firm's common stock that goes to the VC often require that the entrepreneur forfeit a large...