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The growing prevalence of social entrepreneurship has been coupled with an increasing number of so-called “impact investors”. However, much remains to be learned about this nascent class of investors. To address the dearth of scholarly attention to impact investing, this study seeks to answer four questions that are central to understanding the phenomenon. What are the defining characteristics of impact investing? Do impact investors differ from traditional classes of investors and, if so, how? What are the motivations that drive impact investment? And, what criteria do impact investors use when evaluating potential investments?

A partially inductive study based on semi-structured interviews with 31 investors and ethnographic observation was conducted to explore how impact investors differ from other classes of investors in their motivations and unique criteria used to evaluate ventures seeking investment.

This study reveals that impact investors represent a unique class of investors that differs from socially responsible investing, from other types of for-profit investors, such as venture capitalists and angel investors, and from traditional philanthropists. The varied motivations of impact investors and the criteria they use to evaluate investments are identified.

Despite the growing practitioner and media attention to impact investing, several foundational issues remain unaddressed. This study takes the first steps toward shedding light on this new realm of early-stage venture investing and clarifying its role in larger efforts of social responsibility.

Angel investments are increasingly getting specialized. In recent years, start-ups are raising pre-seed funding before seed-stage funding. Investors in pre-seed and seed-stage companies commonly are angel investors. The purpose of this paper is to understand the differences between these two groups of angel investors.

Data for this study obtained from angel funding deals from the sources such as Venture Intelligence, VCCEdge, Keiretsu Forum, Dealcurry and The Chennai Angels. A total of 732 angel investments made by 405 investors during 2014–18 were used in the analysis. Non-parametric tests and regression estimations were used to identify the differences between angel investors investing in pre-seed and seed-stage ventures. An index was developed to measure the extent of syndication in angel investments and used as an independent variable in the regression.

There are significant differences between angel investors investing in pre-seed and seed-stage ventures. The results show that angels with more industry-specific experience make a higher proportion of investment in seed-stage ventures. Seed-stage ventures attract investors from Tier-1 cities, whereas the pre-seed stage has higher investors from smaller cities. Though the investment size is smaller, the extent of syndication is greater in pre-seed stage investments.

To differentiate the angel investments between pre-seed and seed-stage funding, this study uses data from Indian start-ups. Further, this study develops a composite syndication index to measure the extent of syndication in angel investments and assesses its impact on an angel investor’s choice of pre-seed stage investments.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the development of business angel networks (BANs) in emerging countries such as Chile and Colombia to understand how institutions affect their development.

This is a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study based on a comparative analysis between countries, with the BANs in Chile and Colombia as the unit of observation. The comparative analysis was made in relation with the creation, operation and sustainability of the BANs. The study interviews the partners/managers of the active networks in each of the countries, as well as key informants, totalling 12 interviews.

BAN activity in Chile and Colombia is quite recent, and the countries are on a similar level of development. However, in the long term, depending on how the cultural aspects evolve in both countries and the interest that the State may have in developing business angel activity, the results could be indeed different.

Business angel activity in Latin America is quite recent; nevertheless, this activity is increasing in the region. In that sense, this comparative analysis between Colombia and Chile contributes to a better understanding of business angel markets in Latin America and also to obtain better insights into the core challenges that these markets face in emerging countries due to the existence of institutional voids. This paper is a contribution for further knowledge of BANs in emerging countries’ economies from an institutional perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the characteristics of high net worth individuals (HNWI) as potential angel investor in Antofagasta, the main mining resource periphery in Chile.

Using the resource periphery approach and angel investing, the authors apply a survey to a sample of 37 HNWI in this region. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics.

Descriptive results show that the characteristics of these individuals do not significantly differ from those exhibited by angel investors in developed countries and that HNWI show a relative high willingness to become angels and to form a network.

This paper has some limitations regarding the size and scope of the sample. It is a relatively short sample that does not allow to make more sophisticated analysis and it is only regional and, therefore, it is not possible to make a comparison at a national level.

From the perspective the design of policies and programmes oriented towards the promotion of a high potential start-ups in resources peripheries, it is essential to know what the characteristics of HNWI are and their propensity to become angel investors.

Research on angel investment has been traditionally based on the experience of core regions in developed countries. This type of funding source, however, can play a significant role in the promotion of development and diversification in resource peripheries due to the limited access that these areas have to traditional capital funds and the orientation of angel investment towards innovative ventures, but studies from this perspective are very scarce. In this sense, this paper is pioneer in this topic in peripheral regions.

El objetivo de este artículo es identificar y analizar las características de las personas con alto patrimonio neto como potenciales inversionistas ángeles en Antofagasta, la principal fuente de recursos minerales en la periferia de Chile.

A través del enfoque de las periferias de los recursos naturales y la inversión ángel, se aplicó una encuesta a una muestra de 37 personas con alto patrimonio neto en esta región. La información recogida fue analizada usando estadística descriptiva.

Los resultados muestran que las características de estas personas no difieren significativamente de los inversionistas ángeles en países desarrollados y muestran un fuerte deseo de ser inversionistas ángeles y formar una red.

Este artículo presenta algunas limitaciones en relación al tamaño y el alcance de la muestra. Es una muestra relativamente pequeña y no permite realizar análisis más sofisticados y es solo a nivel regional y, por lo tanto, no es posible comparar a nivel nacional.

Desde la perspectiva del diseño de políticas públicas y programas orientadas a la promoción de empresas de alto potencial de crecimiento en las periferias de recursos naturales, es esencial conocer las características de las personas con alto patrimonio neto y su propensión a convertirse en inversionistas ángeles.

La investigación sobre inversión ángel ha estado tradicionalmente enfocada en la experiencia de las regiones centrales de los países desarrollados. Sin embargo, esta alternativa de financiamiento puede jugar un rol preponderante en la promoción del desarrollo y la diversificación en las periferias de recursos naturales debido al limitado acceso a fuentes de capital tradicionales y la orientación de la inversión ángel hacia emprendimientos innovadores en estas regiones. Los estudios desde esta perspectiva son muy escasos. En este sentido, este artículo es pionero en la investigación de la inversión ángel en las regiones periféricas de recursos naturales.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore whether and how angel investors’ emotions unfold in the investment opportunity evaluation process as they interact with the social environment. Complementing recent research that has emphasized the financial calculations, we add angel investors’ own emotional arousal to the list of tools that may help them to rate investment opportunities.

Drawing on semi-structured qualitative interviews, we develop a phenomenological analysis of the investment opportunity evaluation process at the level of angel investors’ lived experience.

Our findings indicate that when angel investors use their emotional arousal in evaluating investment criteria, they engage in a developmental process characterized by three elements: subjective validation, social validation, and investment decision.

We illuminate how discrete emotions can complement rational considerations in the opportunity evaluation journey. Capturing the nature of emotion as action oriented, embodied, socially situated, and distributed, we embrace its adaptive socially situated dynamics.

Taking a step toward better understanding of the soft aspects in the relationship development that leads to investments, we hope this study will help not only those entrepreneurs who need funding but also those policymakers who design new incentives that improve the flow of investment into promising new ventures.

We demonstrate how angel investors’ emotions can complement their rational considerations in the investment opportunity evaluation process as they interact with the social environment. Identifying boundary values for the conditions that are necessary and sufficient to advance in the process, we have demonstrated how emotion can serve as a driving or restraining force not only during subjective validation but also during social validation.