Abstract

Comparing one hyper-growth venture with one moderate growth venture, we show that growth paths critically depend on the founders’ capability to leverage BAs’ and VCs’ financial and cognitive resources in an ongoing process of interaction. Dynamically matching specific entrepreneurs’ and investors’ decision-making styles is critical for shaping heterogeneous growth paths, as investors and entrepreneurs interact. Specifically, sharing a predictive decision-making style among VCs, BAs and entrepreneurs facilitate mutual communication and shared understanding in the joint pursuit of ambitious growth targets. To the contrary, matching non-predictive and purely control-oriented entrepreneurs with BAs featuring an identical decision-making style locks the venture into a moderate growth trajectory. This has practical implications for entrepreneurs searching for the adequate funding strategy, and for equity investors in their assessment of entrepreneurs’ cognitive profiles.

Plain English Summary

Decision-making style in entrepreneurial finance and growth: how matching predictive entrepreneurs with predictive VCs and business angels boosts venture growth. Predictive decision-making boosts strong venture growth when shared by entrepreneurs, business angels (BAs), and venture capitalists (VCs) alike. Purely control-oriented entrepreneurs get locked into moderate growth when teaming up with control-oriented BAs, unless they dynamically adapt their decision-making style as a result of their interaction. Matching of decision-making styles appears hence to be crucial to sustain growth. Decision-making styles are not necessarily static, and the various actors may adapt their approach to changed circumstances. Certain BAs may play a prominent role in the process of change. Dynamic matching is a relevant avenue for future research. Our findings have also practical implications for the various actors in the field of entrepreneurial finance. Investors targeting especially strong growth should team up with highly predictive entrepreneurs only.

中文翻译：

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创业融资与成长中的决策风格

摘要

将一家高速增长的企业与一家中等增长的企业进行比较，我们发现增长路径在很大程度上取决于创始人在持续互动过程中利用 BA 和 VC 的财务和认知资源的能力。随着投资者和企业家的互动，动态匹配特定企业家和投资者的决策风格对于塑造异质增长路径至关重要。具体而言，风险投资、商业银行和企业家之间共享预测决策风格有助于在共同追求雄心勃勃的增长目标时促进相互沟通和共享理解。相反，将非预测性和纯粹以控制为导向的企业家与具有相同决策风格的 BA 相匹配，将风险锁定在适度增长的轨道上。

简单的英语摘要

创业融资和增长的决策风格：预测型企业家与预测型风投和商业天使的匹配如何促进风险增长。当企业家、商业天使 (BA) 和风险投资家 (VC) 等人共享时，预测性决策会促进强劲的风险增长。纯粹以控制为导向的企业家在与以控制为导向的 BA 合作时会被锁定在适度增长，除非他们通过互动来动态调整他们的决策风格。因此，决策风格的匹配似乎对维持增长至关重要。决策风格不一定是静态的，不同的参与者可能会根据变化的情况调整他们的方法。某些 BA 可能在变革过程中发挥重要作用。动态匹配是未来研究的相关途径。我们的研究结果对创业金融领域的各个参与者也具有实际意义。瞄准特别强劲增长的投资者应该只与高度预测的企业家合作。