ABSTRACT Start-ups that are members of accelerator programs gain the experience necessary for further development and selling the solutions offered on the market, and most importantly, they establish relationships with corporations. The established relationships represent the starting point for further market negotiations concerning start-ups’ need to carry out commercial sales of products and services. This paper aims to explore the preferred forms of collaboration between start-ups and corporations once the acceleration phase is over. There are four basic forms of interaction in the post-acceleration phase: 1) purchase of services and products, 2) licensing, 3) venture building, 4) acquisition of/investment in the start-up. Next, the attitudes of start-ups towards each of the above-mentioned forms of collaboration were examined, and it was verified whether these attitudes change depending on the start-up characteristics. The characteristics encompassed (a) the start-up development phase, (b) the moment of establishing collaboration with the corporation, (c) the length of market operation, (d) the average level of monthly revenues, (e) international experience of key personnel. The survey was carried out on a population of 101 start-ups that collaborated with corporations by participating in acceleration programs managed by start-up accelerators.

ABSTRACT Contrary to the mainstream view that crowdinvestors make investment decisions for utilitarian motives like financial returns, this study suggests that making an investment decision in equity crowdfunding is multifaceted. Drawing on Self‐Determination Theory and incorporating insights from Prospect Theory, the research is based on 15 semi‐structured interviews with crowdinvestors from the US and Europe, representing nine equity crowdfunding portals. With the aim of exploring the psychological dimensions underpinning the motivation in their investment decisions, through a combination of thematic and framework analysis, the study found that psychological dimensions of motivation like personal agency, eudaimonic well-being and self-transcendence influence the decision to participate in equity crowdfunding fostering self-efficacy, self-actualisation and social wellness; that is, they provide a sense of self-endorsement to take on the risk associated with an investment choice. The study proves that such self-validation acts as a form of cognitive reappraisal to make decisions in uncertain contexts. It contributes to literature by extending prior applications of Self-Determination Theory to equity crowdfunding through new empirical insights on the psychological factors behind investor motivations. Also, the study for the first time combines SDT with Prospect Theory while providing actionable insights for leveraging communication tools that foster investor agency and active participation.

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, impact investing has received increasing attention in the financial literature. Along with this increased attention, new challenges have emerged, driving a growing academic debate, particularly concerning impact assessment and transparency. Despite the increasing interest in impact investing, a comprehensive literature review of emerging challenges is still lacking. Our study contributes to filling this gap by mapping the evolving landscape of impact investing through a bibliometric analysis of 116 peer-reviewed studies, from 2012 to 2024, with a specific focus on emerging challenges and threats. With the adoption of VOSviewer, we map major research streams and new risks, including greenwashing and impact washing, which erode stakeholder trust and jeopardize the efficacy of the entire impact investing field. Our findings emphasize the need for clearer impact measurement guidelines and standardized impact reporting mechanisms in order to enhance transparency and prevent unethical practices, thereby fostering sustainable development.

ABSTRACT This study, using an innovative longitudinal quantitative methodology, investigated the equity funding gap for start-up and scale-up stage green technology (“Greentech”) companies. It reports the role innovation and technology plays to address environmental challenges. Evaluation of the last decades’ equity funding environment using Beauhurst data for UK Greentech companies suggests that funding in relative and total terms has increased. The findings suggest there is an increased pipeline of viable Greentech companies and that their financial access has broadened with the enhanced funding from venture capital, business angel and crowdfunding investors. However, despite improvements in the supply side, challenges remain for hardware-based Greentech companies to access larger scale funding, especially at the scaling-up stage and across all funding rounds in the UK. Analysis of PitchBook data shows that compared with the US and other major European markets, UK investors are more risk averse, and consequently reluctant to provide sufficient scale-up funding, giving rise to a structural investment funding gap that tends to undermine UK Greentech development. Public sector finance institutions perform an important role to close the Greentech investment gap, leveraging private finance through targeted support for Greentech companies at all stages of their development.

ABSTRACT This paper examines venture capital (VC) syndication strategies employed to mitigate the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in strong versus weak institutional conditions. This study utilizes a comprehensive dataset of 41,008 VC deals across 74 economies between 1 January 2018 and 30 June 2022. Using a multi-level mixed-method approach, we demonstrate that during the COVID-19 pandemic VCs avoided syndication as a risk-mitigation strategy in seed and early-stage VC investments particularly in regions with strong legal frameworks where syndications were more common pre-pandemic. However, the tendency of VC investors to avoid syndication under heightened risk was moderated by founder-CEO leadership; VCs selectively embraced syndication in founder-led firms. The novel contribution of this study is that while VC investors typically avoided syndications to mitigate agency risks in high-risk settings, during the pandemic they instead rallied around founder CEOs – viewed as risk buffers – in syndicated deals, a strategy previously observed in early-stage and emerging market investments. The study also reveals that VCs avoided investment in larger deals during the COVID-19 pandemic, consistent with efforts to mitigate risk.

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the relationships between dual-class ownership structure, agency costs, and institutional investors. We find that institutional investors act as a mechanism to reduce agency costs in dual-class firms and influence corporate governance decision-making. Dual-class firms are more efficient in asset investing and appear less engaged in underinvestment or overinvestment issues when institutional investors have property rights. These findings support the hypothesis that institutional investors promote the long-term vision in settings where the managers have greater control rights above cash-flow rights. We find that private equity activism acts as a complementary mechanism to reduce agency costs.

ABSTRACT We examine the impact of government venture capital (GVC) on the green innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by simultaneously considering the state and market logics embedded in GVC firms. Drawing on a longitudinal analysis of VC-backed SMEs in China over 2009–2019, we find that SMEs with GVC backing demonstrate superior green innovation performance compared to those purely backed by independent venture capital (IVC) firms. Furthermore, we find that this positive relationship between GVC involvement and green innovation is weakened by regional political uncertainty and the presence of IVC firms. Our study contributes to the literature on the financing of green innovation by highlighting how GVC firms’ distinct state logic helps overcome the barriers to funding and nurturing SMEs’ green innovations. We also advance the GVC literature by revealing how institutional logics interact with regional institutional environments to facilitate SMEs’ green innovations.

ABSTRACT The rapid growth of equity crowdfunding (EC) has widened investment opportunities for a diverse array of investors, yet research examining how their characteristics shape preferences for EC campaigns remains relatively limited. This paper seeks to investigate the impact of financial literacy and financial self-efficacy on the perception of attractiveness of EC campaigns while also considering gender dynamics. Through an experimental approach involving the presentation of 24 equity crowdfunding campaigns with real data to 185 participants and applying structural equation modeling to the data, we observed that financial self-efficacy mediates the negative impact of financial literacy on the perceived attractiveness of EC campaigns. Additionally, the study revealed women’s heightened propensity towards sustainability-oriented investments, which is further reinforced by their level of financial literacy. These findings underscore the significance of financial literacy and financial self-efficacy in shaping investment decisions within alternative markets and highlight the existence of gender differences. Findings contribute to bridging the gap in the literature by offering a comprehensive analysis of previously unexplored characteristics of EC investors, informing policy-makers, scholars, and practitioners.

ABSTRACT The Credit Risk Mitigation Warrants (CRMW), as the primary tools for supporting bond financing for Chinese private enterprises, have the capacity to guide the market in reducing risk concerns associated with private enterprises and alleviating their financing challenges. Consequently, CRMW has garnered sustained attention and support within the bond market. Few empirical studies have analyzed the effects of CRMW on private enterprise bonds in the Chinese market. Using a sample of 1,171 bonds issued by 210 private firms between 2018 and 2020, we conducted an empirical analysis to examine CRMW’s effect on the enthusiasm for private enterprise bond subscriptions and issuance costs. We find that private enterprises issuing bonds with CRMW can significantly increase the enthusiasm for bond subscriptions. CRMW’s effects in expanding such enthusiasm are more evident among high-rated private enterprises. The CRMW is more effective in non-listed, smaller-asset enterprises, while the effects of reducing bond issuance costs are more significant in lower-rated private enterprises. This study provides precise empirical evidence for lowering the difficulty of private corporate bond financing for CRMW. The study also addresses the debate in existing literature regarding whether CRMW reduces the cost of debt financing for private enterprises, and provides references for policy improvements related to CRMW.