Purpose - This paper argues that policymakers and academics should place more emphasis on maximising the additional benefit created by entrepreneurial support programs and impact investments. It demonstrates a robust approach to advancing this field of research by using qualitative methods to determine the variables that may predict the additional benefit a firm will gain from funding. Design/methodology/approach - The research is based on 60 semi-structured interviews averaging 1.5 h each; 45 with entrepreneurs that did or did not receive funding from a business plan competition in Nigeria, 15 with relevant elites. Detailed World Bank panel data on program participants further validated responses and supported conclusions. Findings - Numerous factors that may explain additional benefit were uncovered, including those that vary the need for external funding and those that vary access to it. Research limitations/implications - Qualitative methods explored variables previously assumed to be unobservable. Future studies are necessary to test the results quantitatively. Social implications - Understanding the characteristics that indicate ex ante which firms would most benefit from support will help policymakers, impact investors and development institutions to more effectively allocate capital. Originality/value - This paper addresses the paucity of research into increasing additional impact and demonstrates the value of pursuing it. Methods used to suggest additionality variables for such programs and many of the factors highlighted are unique to this study. The research is also based on unique access to the participants and un-anonymised data from a significant World Bank study, and on substantially more interviews than previous papers.

中文翻译：

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在重要时为企业家提供支持：优化资本分配以产生影响

目的-本文认为，政策制定者和学者应更加重视最大限度地提高企业家支持计划和影响投资所创造的额外利益。它通过使用定性方法确定可以预测公司将从融资中获得的额外收益的变量，展示了一种推进该研究领域的强大方法。设计/方法/方法-这项研究基于60个平均每次1.5小时的半结构式访谈；在尼日利亚，有45名企业家获得或未从商业计划竞赛中获得资金；还有15名相关精英。世界银行关于计划参与者的详细小组数据进一步验证了回应并支持了结论。调查结果-发现了许多可以解释额外收益的因素，包括那些改变对外部资金的需求的人以及改变对外部资金的获取的人。研究局限性/含义-定性方法探索了以前认为不可观察的变量。未来的研究对于定量测试结果是必要的。社会影响-理解事前表明哪些公司将从支持中受益最大的特征将有助于决策者，影响投资者和发展机构更有效地分配资本。原创性/价值-本文解决了增加额外影响的研究不足的问题，并展示了追求它的价值。用于建议此类程序的额外性变量的方法以及突出显示的许多因素是本研究所独有的。