Co-Editors:
Fabio Bertoni, Emlyon Business School
Stefano Bonini, Stevens Institute of Technology
Vincenzo Capizzi, University of Piemonte Orientale
Massimo Colombo, Politecnico di Milano
Mike Wright, Imperial College
Sophie Manigart, Ghent University Vlerick Business School
Overview
Digitization changes quite dramatically both entrepreneurs’ business models and their implications for the type and timing of finance that support them. At the same time, digitization opens new financial channels that rejuvenate traditional venture capital, debt other entrepreneurial finance channels, e.g. by offering new target search technologies for venture capitalists or new methods to assess risk for debt providers.
The emergence of innovative funding sources for new ventures has substantially increased the complexity of the start-up financing eco-system. Different types of crowd-investors, business incubators and accelerators, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and venture debt have complemented traditional venture capital and business angel funding as providers of financing to innovative new companies. These new opportunities to raise funds for both new and established ventures increase the risk of bubble formation, fraud and unintended consequences for investors. These increased risks warrant extended analysis and new regulatory policies.
Additionally, digitization has given rise to a new breed of entrepreneurial companies active in the financial services sector, including banking and insurance. These or companies aim to either offer a better experience to the end customer or improve the efficiency of the financial services sector. While billions of dollars have been invested in the industry around the globe, there is little research about the specific role of these companies, about their impact on their customers, on other entrepreneurial companies and on incumbents, and about what drives their success.
Despite the profound impact of these innovations on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, our knowledge of their functioning, of the interactions between companies and financial backers, and between different financial backers with potentially diverging goals and interests, is still limited.
Potentially interesting themes include, but are not restricted to, the following:
• Digital business models and the demand for entrepreneurial finance
• Alternative platform-based financial channels
• Scaling and time compression of digital sources of finance
• Digitization of traditional entrepreneurial finance providers
• New forms of digital-based corporate venture capital
• Role, impact success of companies
• Digitization and the geography of entrepreneurial finance
• How do traditional and new investors work together
• New and differentiated funding paths available to startups with an innovative mix of investors
• How new forms of finance and innovations shape entrepreneurial companies
• The changing ecosystem and the challenges for regulatory authorities
• ICOs as a new segment of traditional capital markets
• The impact of ICOs on the evolution of crowdfunding and other funding sources
Submission Process and Deadline
Submissions should meet ETP guidelines and be submitted to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/etp by June 30, 2019 (please indicate that it is for the special
issue, Digitization and the Market for Entrepreneurial Finance). All manuscripts will be reviewed as a cohort for this special issue. Authors of papers that get a “revise and resubmit” decision after the first review round, will be invited to a workshop organized by Emlyon Business School to further enhance the quality of the papers.
For questions about this special issue, please contact the co-editors: Fabio Bertoni (fabio.bertoni@polimi.it), Stefano Bonini (sbonini@stevens.edu), Vincenzo Capizzi (vincenzo.capizzi@unibocconi.it), Massimo Colombo (massimo.colombo@polimi.it), Mike Wright (mike.wright@imperial.ac.uk), or Sophie Manigart (sophie.manigart@vlerick.com)