What do we mean when we talk about business angels? Some reflections on definitions and sampling

Sofia Avdeitchikova, Hans Landström and Nils Månsson-super-1

Venture Capital, 2008, vol. 10, issue 4, 371-394

Abstract: Early research on business angels recognized a couple of methodological obstacles that significantly have hindered knowledge accumulation about the phenomenon. In this article we will reflect upon these methodological obstacles with focus on definitional issues and sampling techniques. The purpose is to provide a framework that systemizes and inter-relates the variety of definitions within the field as well as to critically review the sampling techniques currently applied in the research field. We maintain that researchers need to make conscious definitional choices when conducting studies of informal investors and business angels, and argue that changing the unit of analysis from investor level to deal level can help to avoid definitional inconsistencies. Further, we suggest two alternative ways of creating high quality samples of business angels and informal investors -- the random sample approach and the multi-sample approach. Both procedures reduce the sample bias and allow for longitudinal analysis which is argued to be essential in future research.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13691060802351214 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:veecee:v:10:y:2008:i:4:p:371-394

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TVEC20

DOI: 10.1080/13691060802351214

Access Statistics for this article

Venture Capital is currently edited by Colin Mason and Richard T. Harrison

More articles in Venture Capital from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().