Understanding the rationale of Business Angels behind the adoption of an exit-centric approach to investing

Details

Supervisors

Janssen, Frank

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This thesis aims to examine and understand the behavior of Business Angels towards the adoption of an exit-centric approach to investing. This thesis first depicts the Business Angel scene and the studied behavior. Among other things, it has been observed that Angels mostly do not have a clear exit strategy, even though exits are at the core of Angel investing. Then, the Theory of Planned Behavior, the theoretical framework used in the empirical part, is explained. The practical part of this thesis aims at underlying relevant salient beliefs explaining an Angel’s intention to adopt an exit-centric approach. Those beliefs were identified from the literature and from the insights obtained in the empirical part, namely from three interviews conducted with Business Angels. Nine salient beliefs predominantly shared by the respondents have indeed been identified and retained. Those beliefs partly explain the behavior of Business Angels and indicate that Business Angels hold a favorable attitude towards the studied behavior, are moderately socially pressured to perform the behavior, and exert a comparatively low perceived control over the behavior. The conclusion of this study leads to think that Business Angels want to adopt an exit-centric approach, to some extent, but face some impediments preventing them from doing so.