Financial bootstrapping and social capital: how technology-based start-ups fund innovation

Smith, D. ORCID: 0000-0001-7359-8451, 2009. Financial bootstrapping and social capital: how technology-based start-ups fund innovation. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 10 (2).

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Abstract

Innovation requires more than technological expertise. It is a time consuming activity requiring access to a range of resources including finance. Yet, innovators involved in start-ups rarely have direct access to significant financial resources. Instead, they turn to a variety of forms of financial bootstrapping. Defined as access to resources not owned or controlled by the individual innovator, bootstrapping involves imaginative and parsimonious strategies for marshalling and gaining control of resources. This paper reports on research into bootstrapping using case studies, drawn from biographies of well-known innovators. The study found that bootstrapping was widespread and innovators showed great ingenuity in obtaining finance without recourse to conventional financial institutions. Not only were ranges of bootstrapping techniques employed, the study also provided valuable insights into the importance of social capital, in the form of networks of friends, colleagues and other contacts, in providing innovators with access to bootstrapping finance.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
Creators:	Smith, D.
Publisher:	Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Place of Publication:	London
Date:	2009
Volume:	10
Number:	2
Rights:	Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 09:55
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4841

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