Bootstrap financing refers to measures that entrepreneurial ventures undertake to preserve liquidity (e.g., reducing expenses, collecting receivables, delaying payments, preselling). Prior research shows that bootstrap financing is an important enabler for the growth of resource-constrained early-stage ventures. However, little is known about the use of bootstrap financing in crises, during which the preservation of liquidity is particularly salient. We investigate the determinants of bootstrap financing in the 2020 COVID-19 crisis using a sample of 17,046 German entrepreneurial ventures. We formulate hypotheses about the determinants of bootstrap financing from a necessity, human capital, and opportunity cost perspective. Among others, our results show that the severity of the crisis for the venture, the level of private consumption, and self-employment experience are positively associated with an increased use of bootstrap financing measures. Our study contributes to the literature on bootstrap financing and illuminates how entrepreneurial ventures maintain liquidity in crises.

Plain English Summary Economic downturns or crises often lead to financial distress for ventures. To survive such tumultuous times, ventures need to preserve their liquidity. Bootstrap financing refers to measures that entrepreneurial ventures take to preserve liquidity (like sending payment reminders, paying invoices later, reducing tax advances, reducing commercial rent). Because little is known about how bootstrap financing is used during crises, we investigate how it was used during the COVID-19 crisis. Our study builds on a survey of 17,046 German entrepreneurial ventures and self-employed individuals. We find that the use of bootstrap financing is positively related to how severe the crisis was for the venture along with the level of private consumption and self-employment experience of the venture’s owner. In contrast, a negative association exists with private liquidity, business liquidity, how long before the owner retires, and part-time self-employment. The positive association between self-employment experience and bootstrap financing indicates that targeted entrepreneurship education programs or webinars should focus on inexperienced entrepreneurs so that these individuals are prepared to use bootstrapping methods to maintain liquidity during crises.

自举融资是指创业企业为保持流动性而采取的措施（例如，减少支出，收取应收款，延迟付款，预售）。先前的研究表明，自举融资是资源受限的早期风险投资成长的重要推动力。但是，对于在危机期间使用自举融资的情况知之甚少，在此期间，保持流动性特别重要。我们使用17,046家德国创业企业的样本调查了2020 COVID-19危机中自举融资的决定因素。我们从必要性，人力资本和机会成本的角度提出关于自举融资决定因素的假设。除其他外，我们的结果表明，企业危机的严重程度，私人消费水平，和自营职业的经验与自举融资措施的使用正相关。我们的研究为有关自举融资的文献做出了贡献，并阐明了创业企业如何在危机中保持流动性。

普通英语摘要经济不景气或危机通常会导致企业陷入财务困境。为了在这样的动荡时期中生存，企业需要保持其流动性。自举融资是指创业型企业为保持流动性而采取的措施（例如发送付款提醒，以后付款，减少预付款，减少商业租金）。由于对危机期间如何使用自举融资知之甚少，因此我们研究了如何在COVID-19危机中使用自举融资。我们的研究以对17,046家德国企业家和个体经营者的调查为基础。我们发现，自举融资的使用与企业面临的危机严重程度以及企业所有者的私人消费水平和自营职业经历密切相关。相反，私人流动性，商业流动性，所有者退休前的时间以及兼职个体经营之间存在负相关关系。自营职业经验和自筹资金之间的正相关关系表明，有针对性的创业教育计划或网络研讨会应着重于没有经验的企业家，以便这些人准备在危机期间使用引导方法来保持流动性。