Seeding new ventures - green thumbs and fertile fields: individual and environmental drivers of informal investment

This study explores individual and country-level environmental drivers of informal "seed" investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship): "classic love money", "outsider", "kin owner" and "classic business angel" investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterrise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone interiews with 257,793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5,960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes, perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research.informal investment, individual drivers, environmental drivers, entrepreneurial careers, business ownership, new venture financing

Seeding New Ventures - Green Thumbs not Fertile Fields: Individual and Environmental Drivers of Informal Investment

This study explores individual and country-level environmental drivers of informal "seed" investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship): "classic love money", "outsider", "kin owner" and "classic business angel" investors. At the environmental level, we are interested in the role of economic development, income tax policies, start-up costs, pro-enterprise government programmes, availability of debt financing, entrepreneurship education and culture. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from telephone interviews with 257,793 individuals in 31 countries, including 5,960 informal investors, we report drivers for the four types of seed investment. Descriptive statistics are consistent with prior research: informal investors are likely to be older males who work full-time, earn high incomes, perceive start-up opportunities in the environment, and believe that they have the skills to start their own businesses. At the environmental level, we find that countries with higher percentages of informal investors are significantly likely to have higher levels of economic development, higher business start-up costs, higher levels of entrepreneurship education, lower income taxes and lower power distance. Other environmental effects on the four populations of informal investors are reported and discussed, as well as implications for practice, policy and future research

Informal Investments in Transition Economies: Individual Characteristics and Clusters

This paper investigates the factors driving informal investment in Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data, we find that the low rates of informal investment activity and the small amounts of investments in these countries are driven by entrepreneurial behaviors consistent with limited market economy experience. We extend prior studies by investigating the role of business ownership, and identify significant differences between individuals with and without business ownership experience in terms of having start-up skills, knowing an entrepreneur and fearing failure. Cluster analysis identifies seven distinct groups of informal investors, and reveals the heterogeneity in terms of investors’ age, gender, level of education, amount of investment, start-up skills, ownership status, income, opportunity perception and country of residence