Do business angels have an entrepreneurial orientation?

Abstract

This research extends existing theory on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the EO-performance relationship of entrepreneurial firms to business angels. Business angels are high net worth individuals who invest their own money in early stage, new entrant, high risk, unlisted entrepreneurial firms. Because of their investment focus, the environments they operate in tend to be dynamic and changing where there is a need for them to be structured organically to respond to uncertainty and change. Underpinning the research is the notion that business angels need to be consummate entrepreneurs to be successful in undertaking their investment activities. The research identified the EO construct as relevant for describing the decision making activities and processes of business angels. Business angels do demonstrate an EO. In addition, all three of the underlying EO dimensions (proactiveness, innovativeness and risk taking) were identified as being related to the profitability-growth performance scale used in this research.