Anda di halaman 1dari 12

This article was downloaded by: [New York University]

On: 08 January 2015, At: 07:03


Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,
UK

Journal of Small Business &


Entrepreneurship
Publication details, including instructions for authors
and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsbe20

CAN BUSINESS SCHOOLS


PRODUCE ENTREPRENEURS? AN
EMPIRICAL STUDY
Russell M. Knight

School of Business Administration The University of


Western Ontario , London , Ontario
Published online: 02 Jan 2013.

To cite this article: Russell M. Knight (1987) CAN BUSINESS SCHOOLS PRODUCE
ENTREPRENEURS? AN EMPIRICAL STUDY, Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship,
5:1, 17-26, DOI: 10.1080/08276331.1987.10600283
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08276331.1987.10600283

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE


Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the
information (the Content) contained in the publications on our platform.
However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,
or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views
expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and
are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the
Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with
primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any
losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,
and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or
indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the
Content.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.
Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,
sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is
expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

CAN BUSINESS SCHOOLS PRODUCE


ENTREPRENEURS? AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
Russell M. Knight
School of Business Administration
The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

ABSTRACT

This study examines a sample of225 entrepreneurs who have graduated from the Western
Business School. Issues examined include characteristics such as whether family
members were entrepreneurs, the type of company which employed them before their
entrepreneurial career and reasons why they left that employment. The influence of
mentors, entrepreneurial ventures in university and reasons contributing to their decision
to become entrepreneurs are also investigated, as well as the influence of various courses
on their decision, especially entrepreneurship courses. Information on their type of
venture, sources offinancing, and educational background completed the survey while
suggestions to encourage entrepreneurial careers for business school students were
also sought.
The overall conclusions of the study are that potential entrepreneurs can be
encouraged (and discouraged) by business school programs, entrepreneurship can be
taught (and learned) in business schools and new ventures by entrepreneurial alumni
make tremendous case teaching materials for entrepreneurial courses.
SOMMAIRE

Cette etude porte sur un echantillon de 225 chefs d'entreprise qui son! des diplomes de Ia
Western Business School. Parmi /es questions traiteesfigurent les caracteristiques des
chefs d'entreprise. On a demande, par exemp/e, aux personnes interrogees si les membres
de leur famille etaient des chefs d'entreprise, le type de societe qui les a employees avant
qu'elles amorcent leur carriere d'entrepreneur, et les raisons qui les ont conduites aquitter
leur emploi. [.;article examine aussi /'influence des mentors, /es initiatives prises dans les
universites pour susciter /'esprit d'entreprise, /es raisons qui on! pousse les interesses a
devenir des chefs, de meme que /'influence exercee sur eux par divers cours, notamment
des cours sur /'esprit d'entreprise. Des renseignements sur leur type d'entreprise, leurs
sources de financement et leur formation completent /'enquete, qui demande, par
ailleurs, des suggestions pour favoriser /es carrieres de chef d'entreprise parmi /es eleves
des eco/es commercia/es.
[.;etude conclut que les programmes des ecoles commercia/es peuvent encourager
(ou decourager) les entrepreneurs en puissance, qu'il est possible de donner (et d'acquerir)
/'esprit d'entreprise dans les eco/es commerciales, enfin, que les initiatives nouvelles prises
par lese/eves entreprenantsfournissent du materiel de choix pour les cours sur /'esprit
d'entreprise.

INTRODUCTION
The controversy has raged for years over whether entrepreneurs are born or made,
whether they are creatures of their environment, or whether entrepreneurship can be
taught, especially in business schools. We believe entrepreneurship can be defined and
taught in the same sense that management, business or administration can be defined and
taught. In fact, let us for convenience in this study define an entrepreneur as the independent owner/manager of a business which is profit-oriented. Let us further restrict our area

17

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

of interest to entrepreneurs who are alumni of business schools, and Western's Business
School in particular.
We believe that business school graduates become entrepreneurs in spite of what
we, the faculty in business schools, teach them, rather than because of it. In this paper we
were interested in asking the entrepreneurial graduates of at least one business school why
they became entrepreneurs and how business schools might better prepare future
graduates for entrepreneurial careers. Our interest in this area was supported and increased
by several factors. The first of these was a study by a colleague at Western (l) who surveyed
Western's Business School Alumni and found that nearly 25 per cent of them were selfemployed, at least five years or more after graduation. This totally surprised many of us
at Western, since the School, like many others, purports to train its graduates for careers
in the larger business corporations in Canada and elsewhere.
Second, we were supported and encouraged by the administration at Western to
explore the reasons behind this phenomenon and how we might learn from and
encourage it, especially in terms of an insert in a mail out to all alumni.
Third, we encountered other colleagues, notably Ronstadt at Babson College,
doing research on entrepreneurial alumni, and they encouraged us to explore this area.

Previous Research in the Area


Various researchers have studied the issue of the educational background of entrepreneurs. Many have found (2) that they are not particularly well-educated, except that
high-technology entrepreneurs tend to be well-educated in technical areas, such as
engineering and science, with university degrees in those fields being common, but poorly
educated and inexperienced in business and management (3). But Ronstadt was perhaps
the first to examine alumni who became entrepreneurs (4) or who didn't (5) and trying to
assess how they differed from one another. He persuaded others (10) to join him in this
research and this study has used some of the questions developed by Ronstadt.
Among Ronstadt's conclusions were that research should concentrate on the
entrepreneurial career, rather than just one venture or point in time (4) and that
ex-entrepreneurs are important to study as well (5,6,7). He also studied alumni who
decided not to become entrepreneurs and contrasted them with his entrepreneur and
ex-entrepreneur samples (8).
Ronstadt's work may also be contrasted with that of Stevenson, who studied
Harvard's entrepreneurial alumni (9). He compared 344 self-employed alumni to
employees of both large and small firms and was surprised to find more than 25 per cent
employed in firms with under 50 employees with a "surprisingly high number selfemployed."
So all of this alumni-related research encouraged us to survey Western's entrepreneurial alumni.

Purpose of this Research


Analysis of the research discussed previously led to speculation about the alumni of
business schools, especially Western's Business School. We decided to survey Western's
entrepreneurial alumni regarding their backgrounds and attitudes. Issues to be explored
included each entrepreneur's reasons for entering his or her own business, the contribution of their business school experience to this entrepreneurial career and their suggestions on how the program should be changed to encourage more graduates into
entrepreneurial careers.
Some of the specific questions used were taken from Ronstadt's work, while most
of the issues were specific to Western Alumni. We hope that many of the results can be
generalized to other business schools and their graduates. The questionnaire used is

18

readily available from the author to other researchers who may wish to pursue similar
studies.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

Research Methodology
We used two methods to obtain our sample. The first was to include a self-addressed,
stamped card in material mailed out to all alumni of Western's Business School. The card
asked whether recipients were entrepreneurs and what type (independent, acquirer,
successor in a family or non-family business, franchise or corporate). We also asked if
they would be willing to help us by completing an appropriate questionnaire on their
experience. Questionnaires were prepared to cover three different categories, similar to
those proposed by Ronstadt, practicing entrepreneurs (the sample reported in this paper),
ex-entrepreneurs (those who have terminated an entrepreneurial venture), and serious
non-starters (those who seriously intend to start a venture of their own, but have not yet
done so).
In addition to this approach, word-of-mouth was used, by asking responding
entrepreneurs, faculty colleagues and students for suggestions of other Western alumni
entrepreneurs, who were then asked to co-operate. We obtained responses from over
70 per cent of this last category, but have no way of estimating the response rate from the
mail-back card approach.
Interviews have been held with about 40 of the sample of 225 to discuss certain
issues in more detail.

RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH


We assume that the sample of 225 practicing entrepreneurs is representative of the
population of Western Alumni entrepreneurs and, to some extent, business school alumni
entrepreneurs in general. The first surprise was that the sample of entrepreneurs was
evenly spread out over time by year of graduation, with 22.5 per cent having graduated
before 1960,25.7 percent in the 1960s, 3l.l per cent in the 1970s and 20.7 percent in the
1980s. Since the survey was done in the summer and fall of 1986, only I per cent had
graduated in 1986, but 1984 and 1985 were peak years in the sample, with about 5 percent
of the respondents having graduated in each of these years. Other peak years (with more
than 5 per cent of the respondents) included 1981, 1976, 1974 and 1960. It is worth noting,
however, that the 1980s are represented at the same rate as the 1970s and at a higher rate
than prior to 1970. Lemmon's work indicated that most Western alumni did not start
entrepreneurial careers until more than five years after graduation.
The age of the respondents was measured only at the point when they established
their first venture, which ranged from nine years of age to 65, with a mean of27. This was
younger than found in other studies, but may be biased by the question asking about the
age at the first venture, while other studies tend to concentrate on current ventures.
When asked whether they found their experience of being an entrepreneur
enjoyable, 49 per cent replied extremely enjoyable, 48 per cent very enjoyable, 3 per cent
somewhat enjoyable, and none replied "not enjoyable at all". In fact, one who replied
"somewhat enjoyable'' stated that things had improved since the time he had completed
the questionnaire and he would reply "very enjoyable'' if completing it later. So, overall,
one can conclude that Western's entrepreneurial alumni find their entrepreneurial
experience enjoyable.
Next, we asked about characteristics which they felt described an entrepreneur and
the results are shown in Figure 1. Since there were multiple replies, the totals do not add
to 100 per cent, but perhaps the most significant result is that only 8 per cent of the
respondents felt an entrepreneur to be a compulsive risk taker. However, when asked
whether they agreed with the statement that "Starting a new venture is very risky", 70 per
19

cent agreed, as shown in Figure 2. Since 47 per cent of the respondents reported that they
had previously terminated a venture, we believe that they spoke from experience in stating
that new ventures were risky, but entrepreneurs did not have to be compulsive risk takers.
Interviews supported the conclusion that these entrepreneurs feel they could manage
much of the risk.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

Previous Employment
The next area explored was what type of organization these entrepreneurs had been
employed by before starting their current venture, Figure 3. Of the total, 37 per cent had
left a large corporation with sales over $100-million. An additional 31 per cent had
worked for corporations under $100-million in sales and 19 per cent had been selfemployed previously. In fact, some of these self-employed individuals had undoubtedly
worked for larger corporations previously, so the percentages estimated above are low.
Only a minority (8 per cent) had worked with non-profit organizations (chiefly government or military), which are not entrepreneurial training grounds.
The reasons cited most often for leaving a previous corporate employer were the
desire for independence (23 per cent), frustration with the current job (10 per cent), and
an opportunity that became available (8 per cent). In a few cases, entrepreneurs had
continued to work for corporate employers, maintaining their ventures as a sideline or
part-time endeavour. Several of these stated they planned to leave their corporate jobs
once their ventures became proven. Only 23 per cent stated they would consider working
for someone else again and only if the circumstances were right.

Parental and Mentor Support


The next area explored was the issue of parental and mentor support in decisions to
become an entrepreneur. Almost half (48 per cent) had fathers who were entrepreneurs,
while 14 per cent claimed their mothers were entrepreneurs also. The majority (57 per
cent) said their parents influenced their decisions to become entrepreneurs, usually as role
models, but they also related many other ways, having to do with the environment in
which they grew up.
In addition, 33 per cent stated that their father was born outside Canada, while
only 12 per cent of the entrepreneurs were. The literature (2) confirms that immigrants and
their children are more likely to be entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons. Mentors other
than parents played a role for 32 per cent of respondents, usually as role model, but in
certain cases even as partners or investor.

Previous Ventures
A surprisingly high 35 per cent of respondents had ventures prior to graduation from
university, while almost half (47 per cent) had terminated a previous venture, usually
selling out (15 per cent) or shutting it down (13 per cent). The number of ventures cited
ranged from one to 45 with an average of 2.7. However, the largest percentage (42 per cent)
had been involved in only one venture, with 20 per cent citing two and 14 per cent three.
Most questions were addressed to the current or most recent venture.
When they left the Western Business School, 38 per cent had definite plans to start
a business of their own, so the large corporate employers helped a majority to consider
entrepreneurship as a career alternative.

Reasons Influencing the Entrepreneurial Decision


A total of 16 reasons which may have influenced the decision to become an entrepreneur
(with provision for additions of their own) are shown in Figure 4. The influences ranking
highest were the desire to be their own boss, the personal challenge involved, and wanting
to build something of their own, measured in two ways. The responses were weighted in
20

the three levels of importance and respondents were also asked to rank the three most
important factors.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

The Role of the Business School


When asked which businees school courses had proven the most useful in their entrepreneurial career, responses were as shown in Figure 5. When asked what subjects,
essential to entrepreneurial success, should receive more emphasis in the business school
program, respondent suggestions were many and varied. Most centred on the issues of
financial planning and arranging financing, as well as other topics now offered in the New
Enterprise Management course, which was not available when 62 per cent of respondents
attended the business school. Since only 18 per cent of respondents had taken this course,
many suggested topics were covered in this course and other recent additions to
the program.
However, most respondents conveyed the attitude that materials such as entrepreneurial cases and materials should be added to all courses at the business school. They
commented that business schools, and Western in particular, train their graduates
primarily for careers in large corporations, not even presenting the option of an entrepreneurial career. When asked to what extent their program at Western had prepared
them for an entrepreneurial career, only 2 per cent felt fully prepared, while 44 per cent
said "to a large extent". An additional32 per cent stated the business school had prepared
them to a moderate extent, 12 per cent to a small extent and 5 per cent not at all.
While 49 per cent of respondents had taken the undergraduate Honours Business
Program, they had thus taken the pre-business course 257, which includes a project to
develop a business plan. However, only 4 per cent felt this course had influenced their
interest in entrepreneurship to a great extent, 23 per cent to a moderate extent and 27 per
cent not at all (for a total49 per cent who took the course). As stated earlier, only 18 per
cent took the course in entrepreneurship, all of whom felt it had influenced their choice
of an entrepreneurial career. Of these, all cited visiting entrepreneurs and the business
plan project as significant factors in the course experience. In addition to the 62 per cent
who stated that the course was not available when they attended Western, another 7 per
cent were not interested at that time, while 7 per cent more felt they had higher priorities.
A further 2 per cent wished they had taken the course.
We also asked whether these entrepreneurs had attended any entrepreneurship
courses, conferences or seminars since leaving the business school, and 87 per cent replied
they had not. Courses attended varied widely on topics like venture capital, business
valuation and taxation, but many lamented the lack of any courses, etc., focussed on
entrepreneurship.

The Type of Venture Undertaken


The next section of the questionnaire explored the ventures and various aspects of their
size, debt and equity, ownership and type and age of venture. Of the sample, 26 per cent
were retail ventures, 11 per cent consulting with a wide variety of others. Over half (52 per
cent) of current ventures had been started in the 1980s, 31 per cent in the 1970s and 17 per
cent prior to 1970, the earliest being started in 1939. In terms of ownership, 43 per cent
operated as a solo entrepreneur, 36 per cent with one partner and 21 per cent with two or
more partners.
The type of venture desired varied as well, with 49 per cent seeking "a smaller
venture in terms of sales, but a highly lucrative one in terms of profits and personal
income". A further 26 per cent desired "a smaller lifestyle venture where neither large
sales nor large profits are a primary objective". The final 22 per cent, a surprising small
minority, desired "a high growth company in terms of sales, one that could go public or
21

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

that might be attractive to venture capitalists or other investors". The final 3 per cent did
not express a preference.
We next explored the percentage of the venture owned by the entrepreneur at its
beginning and currently, as shown in Figure 5. Share of ownership by the entrepreneurs
increased slightly, but not significantly. Similarly, debit-to-equity ratio varied from the
initial ratio to the current ratio, as shown in Figure 6, with debt decreasing as a percentage
of total funding, which grew from initial to current values as shown in Figure 7. Figure 8
shows initial sales goals and current sales levels, while Figure 9 illustrates sources of funds
used, both initially and currently, ranked by order of importance. In summary, personal
savings ofthe founder ranked twice as important as other sources, with supplier or trade
credit ranked second initially, closely followed by cash from earnings, family and friends
and bank loans, all of which were rated about equally. When rating current sources of
financing, founders and cash from earnings were rated about equally, closely followed by
trade credit, bank loans and family and friends, in that order.
Finally, we explored the correlations between the variables discussed earlier. All
of the following relationships were significant at the 0.05 level in chi-square tests.
Entrepreneurial fathers (and mothers) seem to lead to having mentors other than parents
as role models. These alumni also were more likely to have had a venture prior to
graduation, to have planned to have their own venture after graduation, and to start
growth-oriented ventures with partners. Undergraduates were more likely to have had
entrepreneurial parents, while MBAs tended to have had mentors other than parents.
MBAs also were more likely to have had a venture prior to graduation. Those who had
pre-graduation ventures were also more likely to have terminated a venture, presumably
MBAs returning to school or others with ventures during university winding them up
at graduation.
Alumni with entrepreneurial parents were also more likely to take the entrepreneurship course during their program and to seek other courses after university. It
seems that support from parents for their entrepreneurial careers tends to encourage them
to seek support elsewhere, from mentors, courses, etc. Those who took the entrepreneurship course in business school were also more likely to have planned to start their own
venture after graduation, although the reverse may be true, which may be the reason they
took the course. Those who took the course were also more likely to start growth-oriented
firms, with partners.
Those with ventures prior to graduation had usually started more ventures overall,
were more likely to have terminated a venture, and were less willing to ever work for
someone else again. MBA alumni tend to rate previous experience higher than
undergraduate alumni, since Western MBAs tend to have more work experience prior to
their MBA, while undergraduates lack full-time work experience prior to graduation.

CONCLUSIONS
The primary conclusion of the research is that business schools can produce entrepreneurs, albeit usually on the rebound from large corporations. One might conclude that
business schools can provide an option for their corporate refugee graduates. However,
most of the entrepreneurial alumni recommended that the business school should
introduce more materials, cases and visits by entrepreneurs in all phases of its programs
to encourage more graduates to choose an entrepreneurial career. The entrepreneurial
alumni express a high level of job satisfaction, have usually left a larger corporate
employer and are seeking independence, a desire to be their own boss, plus the challenge
of building something of their own. In addition, they are avoiding the frustration of the
large corporate environment.
Several surprises arose from the feedback, notably that 47 per cent had terminated

22

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

a venture, enhancing the theory that success follows failure in entrepreneurial ventures.
In addition, many respondents (35 per cent) had a venture before graduating, some
starting as early as nine years of age. The parents of these entrepreneurial alumni were
often entrepreneurial immigrants who have passed on the entrepreneurial urge to their
children as role models. The environment in which these entrepreneurs developed was
usually one which encouraged entrepreneurial careers. They have suggested that the
business school should join this list of environmental influences in encouraging entrepreneurial careers, if only in presenting an option for corporate refugees. This could best
be done by introducing more entrepreneurial role models. These should be in the form of
cases about entrepreneurial alumni who should visit classes to illustrate that even business
schools can produce entrepreneurs!
REFERENCES
I. Lemmon, J. C., "A Study of Business School Alumni", Working Paper Series,
School of Business Administration, University of Western Ontario, 1976.
2. Smith, N., The Entrepreneur and His Firm, Michigan State University, 1967.
3. Knight, R. M. and J. C. Lemmon, "A Study of Small and Medium Sized Canadian
Technology Based Companies", Technological Innovation Studies Program,
Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, Ottawa, September, 1978.
4. Ronstadt, R. C., "Entrepreneurial Careers and Research on Entrepreneurs",
Frontiers ofEntrepreneurship Research, Babson College, 1981.
5. Ronstadt, R. C., "Does Entrepreneurial Career Path Really Matter?", Frontiers of
Entrepreneurship Research, Babson College, 1982.
6. Ronstadt, R. C., Entrepreneurship: Test, Cases and Notes, Lord Publishing, Dover,
Mass., 1984a.
7. Ronstadt, R. C., "Ex-Entrepreneurs and the Decision to Start an Entrepreneurial
Career", Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson College, 1984b.
8. Ronstadt, R. C., "The Decision Not to Become an Entrepreneur", Frontiers of
Entrepreneurship Research, Babson College, 1983.
9. Stevenson, H. H., "Who are the Harvard Self-Employed?" Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson College, 1983.
10. Shuman, J. C., J. A. Steger, J. B. Kamm, and N.C. Teebagy, "An Empirical Test of
10 Entrepreneurial Propositions", Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson
College, 1986.

Figurel
Which of the following do you think describes an entrepreneur?
OJo of Responses

I.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Compulsive Risk Taker


Fiercely Independent
Aggressive, with Driving Ambition
Needs to Control Working Environment
Relaxed and Confident

Note:

8
38
56
66
22

Total adds to more than 100 per cent due to multiple responses.

23

Figure 2
Which of the following best expresses your reaction to the
following statement? "Starting a new venture is very risky"
OJo of Respondents

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

2
23
3
57
13
2

No, I Strongly Disagree


No, I disagree
I Do Not Know
Yes, I Agree
Yes, I Strongly Agree
No Response
Figure3
With what type of organization were you employed before
starting your current venture?

OJo of Respondents

I.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Self-Employed
Not-For-Profit Organization
Corporation with Sales Less than$10 Million
Corporation with Sales $10 Million- $100 Million
Corporation with Sales Greater than $100 Million
Other? (Student)

19
8
14
17
37
3

Figure4
The Importance of Various Reasons Contributing
to Your Decision to Become an Entrepreneur

Reason

Overall
Ranking

Desire To Be Own Boss


Personal Challenge
Wanted to Build Something on My Own
Previous Work Experience
Wanted Opportunity For a Venture
Wanted More Money
Frustrated With Prior Job
Wanted to Use Business Education
Bored With Prior Job
No Advancement Prospects in Prior Job
Wanted to Use Technical Education
Other (Family, Present Boss, Fun)
No Particular Reason
Dismissed From Prior Job
Laid Off From Prior Job
Otherwise Unemployed
About to be Unemployed

24

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
l3
14
15
16
17

%Stating
Very
Important

76
64
62
33
31
32
34
22
16
6
6
5
4
3
3
2
1

%Stating
Somewhat
Important

21
30
31
43
44
35
28
42
27
20
14
15
18
5
3
3
4

%Stating
Not
Important

3
6
7
24
25
33
38
36
57
74
80
80
78
92
94
95
95

l<'igure 5
Percentage of Current Venture
Owned by Entrepreneur, Initially
and Currently
OJo of Respondents
Initially
Currently

Amount of
Equity Owned

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

Whole (100%)
Majority ( > 500Jo)
50%
25% to49%
Minority(<25%)

41

42

8
22
16
12

16
17
ll

l3

Figure6
Debit to Equity Ratio of
The Venture, Initially and Currently
Debit to Equity Ratio

OJ'o of Respondents
Initially
Currently

38
7
12
15
23
5

10% Debt to 90% Equity


25% Debt to 75% Equity
50% Debt to 50% Equity
75% Debt to 25% Equity
90% Debt to 10% Equity
No Response

46

l3
18
16

5
2

Figure7
Capitalization of Ventures,
Initially and Currently
Capitalization

OJo of Respondents
Initially
Currently

Less Than $500,000


$500,000 to $1,000,000
$1 Million to $5 Million
More Than $5 Million
No Response

85
10
2
2

53
12
24
7

FigureS
Sales in First Year
and Current Sales
Sales Level

Less Than $500,000


$500,000 to $1,000,000
$1 Million to $5 Million
More Than $5 Million
No Response

OJo of Respondents
Initially
Currently

32
ll
28
27

64
12
16

25

N
0\

17/13
9/6
10/6
12/14
4/4
514
0/1
3/1
111
112
Ill

111
112
010
0/1

51150
64/42
66/79
58/58
83/84
89/88
94/91
93/92
94/94
91/91
94/93
96/94
96/93
98/96
98/93

14/15
15/16
16/9

13/14

12/13

11/11

2/3
3/2
415
514
. 616
7/8
8/7
9/10
10/12

19/16

16/36

111

Personal Savings
of Founder
Supplier/Trade Credit
Cash From Earnings
Family/Friends
Bank Loans
Individual Investors
Customer Advances
American Sources
Private Placement
F.B.D.B. Loan
Other (Notes,
Corporations)
Federal Government
Program
Venture Capital
Provincial Government
Program
Investment Group
Public Issue

1/C
1/C

l.g~

N!;!!!'

Rank
1/C

Source

Figure9
Sources of Funding Used
Initially (I) and Currently (C)
(OJo Responding)

2/1
0/1
110

110
0/3

Ill

2/2

010
110
111

0/0

0/0
111
3/3
111

111
4/4
110
3/4
111
0/0
2/3
0/1
111
110

19/8

eau

1/C

5/3
8/19
6/3
3/0
5/1
111
212
112
110
0/2

22/16

1/C

M!2~t

26/26
15/20
15/10
23/22
5/8
514
212
3/2
3/2
4/3

24/22

1/c

Amount Used
Soms:

Downloaded by [New York University] at 07:03 08 January 2015

Anda mungkin juga menyukai