Empirical Studies in International Entrepreneurial Finance

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies in entrepreneurial finance around the world. The first essay empirically compares the impact of entrepreneurship on GDP, unemployment, exports, and patents by examining three international datasets. The findings of this essay point to institutional and cultural impediments to the effectiveness of entrepreneurship around the world. The impact of entrepreneurship is significantly mitigated by excessively strong creditor rights that limit entrepreneurial risk taking. Furthermore, the data indicate that cultural attitudes associated with low risk taking limit the effectiveness of entrepreneurship. The results of this essay also show how different definitions of new business entry matter for empirical analysis of entrepreneurship across countries. The second essay documents angel investors investment behaviors and performances around the world as compared with private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds. Angel investors finance small high growth entrepreneurial firms in exchange for equity. Unlike PE/VC funds, which invest capital from institutional investors, angels invest their own money. We compare the impact from legal and cultural conditions on disintermediated angel finance versus intermediated PE/VC finance. The data indicate that, relative to PE/VC funds, angel investors are more sensitive to stock market conditions, legal environments, and Hofstedes cultural conditions. The data further indicate that investee firms funded by angels are less likely to successfully exit in either an IPO or acquisition, on average, whether those angels are involved in the first round or later stages. iii The third essay studies the different effects of legal and institutional factors on private equity divestment strategies of IPOs and acquisitions in the emerging markets. The data indicate that PE fund managers have a higher probability of successful exits in countries with better business and legal environments. We also find that PE investors are better able to mitigate the potential costs associated with inefficient and corrupt business environments to increase the probability of exits by IPOs in countries with higher levels of corruption. Moreover, our findings suggest that market shocks arguably concentrated in the developed markets result in a negative ripple effect as the probability of successful exits decreases for PE investors in emerging markets.