Hans Landström

Professor emeritus

The role of business angels in the new financial landscape

Author

Sofia Avdeitchikova
Hans Landström

Editor

David Lingelbach

Summary, in English

Both access to and use of external sources of finance by entrepreneurial ventures have transformed significantly over the past 10-15 years, which may have induced an important shift in the role of business angels (BAs). In this chapter we elaborate on this changing role of BAs, and in particular on the value creation provided by BAs in the new financial landscape. We propose to reframe the discussion on the value creation of BAs to better capture their current and potential contribution to the economy and society, and distinguish between three aspects of value creation of BAs - business, that is their financial and non-financial contribution to the firms that they invest in; situational, that is, their role at critical points of economic and societal development, and system, that is, their role in strengthening regional entrepreneurial ecosystems. Further, we suggest a number of areas that we believe to be particularly fruitful over the coming years for deepening our knowledge about the role of BAs in the new financial landscape.

Department/s