Engagement of business angels during the post-investment stage

Abstract

The major part of the research conducted has a focus on one type of investor – venture capitalists. The academic literature about business angels remains underdeveloped. Be-cause of that, they are the least understood source of funding for the start-ups, especial-ly during the post-investment stage. This study concentrates on the finding ways of en-gaging the business angels during the post-investment stage, through the lens of psycho-logical capital as the crucial factor of engagement as well as the framework of psycho-logical ownership, to investigate the underlying emotional and cognitive state of angel investors during the venture development and growth.

The main research question is ‘How angel investors can be more engaged during the post-investment stage?’ The question was answered by discovering the psychological characteristics of angel investors, defining the angel investors’ engagement and the ways how to increase psychological capital. The study adapted qualitative approach, enabling the researcher to explore the phenomenon and expand the knowledge about angel inves-tors’ engagement. The semi-structured interviewing and surveying were chosen for this research and in total nine business angels had participated in the study. The business angels had more four and more years of operational experiences in the investment field.

The empirical data confirmed the assumption that activating different capitals of engagements can increase the integration of the business angels into the venture beyond financial involvement. It was also concluded that non-financial factors of the engage-ment can equally impact on the engagement of angel investor as well as applicability of the investor’s expertise, knowledge and experience from the venture’s founder point of view. Thus, this study provides important managerial implications for the founders on how to engage angel investors more during the post-investment stage in the venture de-velopment.