Business angels

Colin Mason

Chapter 3 in Field Guide to Entrepreneurial Finance, 2026, pp 32-63 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: As the largest source of seed and start-up capital, business angels play a critical and distinctive role in funding entrepreneurial businesses. Their economic significance has been recognised by governments with various measures introduced to promote angel investing. The first half of this chapter reviews the major themes in business angel research since their role was identified in the early 1980s, covering their characteristics, investment decision-making criteria, investment processes, investments, post-investment engagement with their investee businesses and financial returns. The second half of the chapter suggests future research directions. It concludes by highlighting how research has become increasingly theoretically grounded and based on the statistical analysis of quantitative data but questions whether the increased use of quantitative data and consequent lack of interaction with angels and entrepreneurs has been at the cost of relevance.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Angels; Investment Decision Making; Value-Added Contributions; Investment Returns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035342495
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