IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cuf/journl/y2008v9i1p177-197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Probabilistic Theory Of Entrepreneurial Financing

Author

Listed:
  • Edmund H. Mantell

    (Department of Finance, Lubin School of Business, Pace University)

Abstract

This paper develops a theory of the entrepreneurial financing by venture capitalists. It focuses on the activities of the entrepreneur at the incipiency of the investment process: namely the solicitation event. The temporal series of financial commitments elicited from venture capitalists are assumed to have the characteristics of random variables. It is shown that the aggregate capital commitment secured by an entrepreneur in a finite time has stochastic properties corresponding to those of a statistical renewal process. The paper derives limiting conditions on the probability that entrepreneur¡¯s project will be aborted because of his failure to secure adequate funding commitments in a finite time. The entrepreneur¡¯s attitude towards risk determines the tradeoff between the expected aggregate capital commitment and the risk of abortion of the project.

Suggested Citation

  • Edmund H. Mantell, 2008. "A Probabilistic Theory Of Entrepreneurial Financing," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 9(1), pages 177-197, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2008:v:9:i:1:p:177-197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://aeconf.com/Articles/May2008/aef090108.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://down.aefweb.net/AefArticles/aef090108.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gavin C. Reid, 1999. "The application of principal-agent methods to investor-investee relations in the UK venture capital industry," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(4), pages 285-302, October.
    2. Oliver Hart, 2001. "Financial Contracting," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1079-1100, December.
    3. Haar, Nancy E. & Starr, Jennifer & MacMillan, Ian C., 1988. "Informal risk capital investors: Investment patterns on the East Coast of the U.S.A," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 11-29.
    4. Joshua Lerner, 1994. "The Syndication of Venture Capital Investments," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), Fall.
    5. Mason, Colin M & Harrison, Richard T, 1995. "Closing the Regional Equity Capital Gap: The Role of Informal Venture Capital," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 153-172, April.
    6. Maier, John II & Walker, David A., 1987. "The role of venture capital in financing small business," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 207-214.
    7. Ehrlich, Sanford B. & De Noble, Alex F. & Moore, Tracy & Weaver, Richard R., 1994. "After the cash arrives: A comparative study of venture capital and private investor involvement in entrepreneurial firms," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 67-82, January.
    8. Admati, Anat R & Pfleiderer, Paul, 1994. "Robust Financial Contracting and the Role of Venture Capitalists," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(2), pages 371-402, June.
    9. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Chan, Yuk-Shee, 1983. "On the Positive Role of Financial Intermediation in Allocation of Venture Capital in a Market with Imperfect Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(5), pages 1543-1568, December.
    11. Andrei A. Kirilenko, 2001. "Valuation and Control in Venture Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 565-587, April.
    12. Barry, Christopher B. & Muscarella, Chris J. & Peavy, John III & Vetsuypens, Michael R., 1990. "The role of venture capital in the creation of public companies*1: Evidence from the going-public process," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 447-471, October.
    13. Gorman, Michael & Sahlman, William A., 1989. "What do venture capitalists do?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 231-248, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mantell, Edmund H., 2005. "An ergodic theory of venture capital solicitation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 149-168.
    2. Andrew Metrick & Ayako Yasuda, 2011. "Venture Capital and Other Private Equity: a Survey," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(4), pages 619-654, September.
    3. Edmund H. Mantell, 2009. "A Theory of the Risks of Venture Capital Financing," American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Science Publications, vol. 1(2), pages 194-205, June.
    4. Baker, Malcolm & Gompers, Paul A, 2003. "The Determinants of Board Structure at the Initial Public Offering," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 569-598, October.
    5. Jens Burchardt & Ulrich Hommel & Dzidziso Samuel Kamuriwo & Carolina Billitteri, 2016. "Venture Capital Contracting in Theory and Practice: Implications for Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(1), pages 25-48, January.
    6. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    7. Gifford, Sharon, 1997. "Limited attention and the role of the venture capitalist," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 459-482, November.
    8. Balboa, Marina & Marti, Jose, 2007. "Factors that determine the reputation of private equity managers in developing markets," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 453-480, July.
    9. Mikko Jääskeläinen & Markku Maula & Tuukka Seppä, 2006. "Allocation of Attention to Portfolio Companies and the Performance of Venture Capital Firms," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(2), pages 185-206, March.
    10. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Lerner, Josh, 2010. "The Financing of R&D and Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-639, Elsevier.
    11. Douglas Cumming & Sofia Johan, 2007. "Advice and monitoring in venture finance," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 21(1), pages 3-43, March.
    12. Asim Mishra, 2005. "INDIAN VENTURE CAPITALISTS (VCs) INVESTMENT EVALUATION CRITERIA," Finance 0507002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Amit, Raphael & Brander, James & Zott, Christoph, 1998. "Why do venture capital firms exist? theory and canadian evidence," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 441-466, November.
    14. Chen, Hung-Kun & Liang, Woan-lih, 2016. "Do venture capitalists improve the operating performance of IPOs?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 291-304.
    15. André Gygax & Anna Griffiths, 2007. "Do venture capitalists imitate portfolio size?," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 21(1), pages 69-94, March.
    16. Schertler, Andrea & Stolpe, Michael, 2000. "Venture mania in Europe: Its causes and consequences," Kiel Discussion Papers 358, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner, 2001. "The Venture Capital Revolution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 145-168, Spring.
    18. N. Berger, Allen & F. Udell, Gregory, 1998. "The economics of small business finance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the financial growth cycle," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 613-673, August.
    19. M. Meuleman & S. Manigart & A. Lockett & M. Wright, 2006. "Transaction costs, behavioral uncertainty and the formation of interfirm cooperations: Syndication in the UK private equity market," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 06/359, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    20. Kanniainen, Vesa & Keuschnigg, Christian, 2004. "Start-up investment with scarce venture capital support," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1935-1959, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurial solicitations; Venture capital financing; Stochastic processes; Probability of entrepreneurial insolvency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2008:v:9:i:1:p:177-197. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Qiang Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/emcufcn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.