Regional determinants of access to entrepreneurial finance: a conceptualisation and empirical study in Norwegian startup ecosystems

Abstract

This paper presents hypotheses and a novel examination of the influence of a set of conditional factors concerning regional industries, startup culture, ecosystem collaboration and non-financial investor resources on perceived access to startup finance. We conducted a survey of 131 nascent, early-phase or mature startups and founders associated with entrepreneurial ecosystems in rural and urban Norway. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Two main findings are that (1) startups that open up for outside involvement at an earlier phase experience better perceived access to finance and (2) unrelated ventures in homogenous industrial regions find it harder to attract finance. However, we found only a weak, indirect effect of ecosystem collaboration on perceived access to funding, which was mediated by access to non-financial resources. This study represents a rare empirical contribution to the literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems, and the findings provide empirical support for the feedback loops in ecosystems that have previously been theorized in the literature. These issues should be considered by policymakers who wish to promote ecosystem development.