Typologies of bootstrap financing behavior in small ventures

Abstract

Bootstrapping behavior in small ventures is examined in this study through a prism of typologies to advance our understanding of entrepreneurial behavior. Based on a survey of 91 entrepreneurs in small ventures and interviews with 10 entrepreneurs, this study develops a taxonomy of strategies for bootstrapping behavior and explores the strategies' constitutive elements and underlying logics. The statistically identified ‘chunks’ of entrepreneurial bootstrap behavior formed a basis for further qualitative exploration and confirmation of a taxonomy of such behavior. The study offers a multifaceted image of bootstrap financing practiced in small ventures by proposing discriminating strategy profiles. By delineating the nature of three entrepreneurial strategy profiles and their underlying logics, and highlighting their effects, the present research contributes to the understanding of how small ventures orient themselves to resource mobilization and gives insights into why entrepreneurs use specific bootstrapping strategies. The taxonomy outlines three bootstrap financing strategies for resource mobilization in small ventures: ‘quick-fix bootstrappers’, which emphasize temporary access to resources and prefer internally oriented activities for such purposes; ‘proactive bootstrappers’, which focus on operational resource issues; and ‘efficient bootstrappers’, which prefer activities that are externally and vertically oriented, up or down in the value creation chain.