Jonathan M. Scott, Javed G. Hussean, Spinder Dhaliwal, Graham Leask and David Irwin 2025. Start-up financing and owner-manager characteristics: an explanatory study of lender/investor decisions and contextual reflections. in: Paul Laselle and Sakura Yamamura (ed.) Research Handbook on Entrepreneurship and Diversity Edward Elgar. pp. 277-297
| Chapter title | Start-up financing and owner-manager characteristics: an explanatory study of lender/investor decisions and contextual reflections |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan M. Scott, Javed G. Hussean, Spinder Dhaliwal, Graham Leask and David Irwin |
| Editors | Paul Laselle and Sakura Yamamura |
| Abstract | Building on discourses on diversity and minority entrepreneurship research, this chapter analyses the effect of owner-managers’ ethnic, gender and educational characteristics upon decisions made by lenders/investors in terms of start-up finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. Historical survey data of 400 SMEs were subjected to two-stage cluster analysis using the natural structure of the data. The results indicated that those owner-managers (who were largely white and male) that had not experienced constraints in accessing external finance had clustered into different groups from those who had reported such financial constraints. The analysis clearly differentiates SMEs, the characteristics of their owner-managers, and supply side decisions on entrepreneurial finance for start-up. As such, the chapter addresses the theme and objectives of this handbook by highlighting how contextualized owner-manager characteristics explain their access to external finance in light of debates on superdiversity, specifically in unveiling how minority entrepreneurs’ strategies are formulated and implemented. Whilst the chapter uses historical data from before the credit crunch and pandemic, it nonetheless enables the authors to speculate how these more diverse entrepreneurs’ access to finance has changed since then. |
| Keywords | Start up financing; lender/investor decisions; gender; ethnicity; education |
| Book title | Research Handbook on Entrepreneurship and Diversity |
| Page range | 277-297 |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publisher | Edward Elgar |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 01 Dec 2025 |
| ISBN | 9781803924144 |
| 9781803924151 |