Elisa Ughetto

Polytechnic University of Turin | polito · DIGEP - Department of Management and Production Engineering

This study aims to understand how business angels (BAs) who intentionally prioritize investments in start‐ups with a significant social impact (i.e. social impact business angels, SBAs) differ in their characteristics from non‐social BAs. We also examine which features of the investment process of SBAs differ from those of non‐social BAs, and wheth...

The importance of Entrepreneurial Support Organizations in promoting the development of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems is well recognized in the literature. Surprisingly, no research has addressed how governments can promote the emergence of Private Entrepreneurial Support Organizations in parallel with Public ones. Using the European FinTech Entrepren...

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have significantly attracted the attention of institutional investors over the last decade. However, previous literature has not deeply explored the characteristics of venture capital (VC) investments in AI ventures. In this study, we explore whether and to what extent investments in AI ventures differ from...

This study investigates the relationship between the entry of universities into a new technology field and the innovative activities of firms located in the same geographical area. We aim to assess the presence of a significant correlation between academic research and technological specialization. The empirical setting is based on a dataset of 846...

Innovators are creative people who can conjure the groundbreaking ideas that represent the main engine of innovative organizations. Past research has extensively investigated who innovators are and how they behave in work-related activities. In this paper, we suggest that it is necessary to analyze how innovators behave in other contexts, such as i...

Despite their importance, previous literature on university-industry technology transfer has overlooked identifying the factors and the mechanisms inhibiting the successful commercialization of research-based inventions (RBIs). In this article, we adopt an inductive approach to explore the factors inhibiting the transfer of RBIs developed within un...

Innovators are creative people who can conjure the ground-breaking ideas that represent the main engine of innovative organizations. Past research has extensively investigated who innovators are and how they behave in work-related activities. In this paper, we suggest that it is necessary to analyze how innovators behave in other contexts, such as...

In this study, we examine business angels (BAs)’ appetite for investing abroad and the role played by investment and entrepreneurial experience. To investigate BAs’ propensity to internationalize their investments, we study cross-border deals and culturally distant investments. Using an international sample of US and European BA deals, we find that...

Plain English Summary Using the Semantic Brand Score and other innovative methods and tools of text mining and social network analysis, we analyzed the website communication of 195 social impact venture capitalists (SIVCs). We investigate what language reveals about their identity by introducing two dimensions that measure the strength of their soc...

Building upon the gender role congruity theory, in this paper, we propose that the association between gender diversity and venture performance changes when roles played by individuals are not coherent with the gender-derived expectations of their ascribed social group. We test our theory in the context of early stage financing, investigating how g...

This paper provides novel evidence on co-evolution patterns of the technological specialization of innovation activities of firms and academic institutions located in the same European region during the years from 2003 to 2014. We exploit a novel and unique dataset merging data on EU-funded R&D projects, universities, patents, and economic region-l...

Although the literature has explored the direct effect of Proof-of-Concept programs (PoCs) on favoring the commercialization of Research Based Inventions (RBIs), as well as the institutional determinants which can shape the success of these programs, the role played by the “internal” mechanisms in determining the effectiveness of PoCs has been over...

In this paper, we use a Delphi approach to investigate whether, and to what extent, blockchain-based applications might affect firms’ organizations, innovations, and strategies by 2030, and, consequently, which societal areas may be mainly affected. We provide a deep understanding of how the adoption of this technology could lead to changes in Euro...

In this paper, we look at venture capital funds that invest in enterprises striving to achieve a positive societal impact (SIVCs). We observe that SIVCs are likely to pursue two different investment strategies. On the one hand, they select companies with negative profitability results but interesting growth patterns. On the other hand, they do not...

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to entrepreneurship education, only a few studies have analysed the impact of extra-curricular entrepreneurial activities on students’ entrepreneurial intention. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the role played by Student-Led Entrepreneurial Organizations (SLEOs) in shaping the...

In order to overcome the factors that limit the commercialization of embryonic research-based inventions (RBIs), a growing number of universities are resorting to Proof of Concept programs (PoCs). Although previous literature underlined the effectiveness of these programs in favouring the commercialization of RBIs, it is not yet clear what the mech...

This study analyzes the two corporate governance mechanisms that affect the debt maturity structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM): Big 4 auditors and the firms’ ownership structure. Analyzing 227 listed SMEs (1998–2016) and applying both cross-sectional and panel data estimations, we...

Investors within a Business Angel (BA) group are embedded in a cohesive network of relationships that arises from past joint investments. In this paper, we have studied how the network position of a BA within this network affects the likelihood that a company will receive investments from the BA group. We have hypothesized a curvilinear, inverse U-...

In the first ten years of research on crowdfunding (CF), the growing interest in this topic among scholars has led to a rapid evolution of the scientific literature. Despite this interesting trend, no attempt has yet been made to provide a bibliographic analysis about how the subject has evolved over time and how the community working on this topic...

This study investigates whether the individual attributes and investment approaches of business angels (BAs) affect the growth of funded companies by distinguishing between two firm types: gazelles and ponies. We draw upon an original dataset comprising 265 small Italian firms (49 that received BA financing and 216 in the propensity score matched c...

The rapid emergence of the COVID-19 crisis has challenged both private and public firms, requiring them to reshape their internal processes and external linkages in the fight against the virus, but also to survive the disrupting economic impact of the pandemic on their activities. Academic spinoffs have not been exempted from these dynamics. In thi...

The literature on female entrepreneurship is blooming and largely points to the challenges that women face in establishing and running a business, with a particular focus on access to information, finance and networks. Surprisingly, little is known on the role played by digital technologies in driving changes in female entrepreneurship. While acade...

In this paper, we investigate the attitudes to entrepreneurship of Italian households, focusing on the importance of financial literacy and digital skills as potentially relevant factors shaping entrepreneurship. We put the gender focus to our analysis to detect whether, and to what extent, women and men differ in their propensity to run a business...

Our study analyzes the patent transactions of the top 58 US universities in the yeas from 2002 to 2010. We find that 37.0% of the patents granted at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have been involved in a form of monetization. Among them, 29.7% have been licensed out, 5.9% have been reassigned to other universities, National L...

Access to inexpensive short-term credit from banks is vital for many small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which face liquidity problems because of an imbalance between cash outflows and receipt of outstanding payments. This article investigates the key determinants of short-term credit access and pricing for UK SMEs, disentangling between regional...

In this paper, we investigate the phenomenon of patent collateralization by empirically focusing on the factors that affect the outcome of the collateralization process. In particular, we want to examine to what extent patent quality, lenders’ characteristics, as well as lenders’ selection capabilities (i.e. in identifying high-quality patents) aff...

In this paper we use a large UK survey of business angels (BAs) investing in two different publicly supported schemes to directly question the role that investment motivations play in shaping investors’ appetite for risk. We dive deeper into the relationship between investment reasons and risk taking, by exploring the potential for a moderating eff...

In this paper, we study the switching dynamics between independent VCs (IVCs) and governmental VCs (GVCs) by means of a theoretical model and an empirical analysis. By assuming that (i) VCs of higher reputation are more selective in terms of venture quality and (ii) IVCs are mainly motivated by the desire to maximize the economic return of a ventur...

We examine how the perceived quality of a venture and the reputation of the incumbent Venture Capitalist (VC) are affecting the propensity to switch from an independent VC (IVC) to another IVC, to a governmental (GVC), a bank-affiliated (BVC) and a corporate (CVC). We find that high perceived quality ventures are more likely to switch from a IVC to...

This editorial introduces the papers addressing regional and spatial aspects relating to the demand for, and the supply of, finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. Reflecting the breadth of financial instruments that are potentially available to SMEs and new ventures (e.g., business angel, bank credit and credit card fi...

Business angels (BAs) are high wealthy individuals, usually former entrepreneurs or professionals, who invest their own money in promising startups in which they have no direct connection, in exchange for ownership equity, acting alone or through semiformal networks. BAs' research lies at the intersection of economics, finance and business manageme...

In this paper, we explore the way the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems is shaped by different governance designs. We propose a theoretical framework in which we discuss what type of governance design would best fit the needs of an entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout its evolution. We also provide argumentations concerning the mechanisms tha...

In this paper, we provide an extensive bibliometric review of the literature dealing with the impact of AM on industry, business and society, by mapping prior research in the field, across a wide spectrum of journals. The analysis illustrates the evolution of AM research over the last few decades, the main outlets for publication, the level of conc...

Since the seminal works of Wetzel, research on business angels (BAs) has emerged as a new and promising research field. This review analyses the current knowledge on BAs, identifying the main contents and outcomes. We also provide a bibliometric analysis to illustrate the evolution of the research field, the level of dispersion of the scientific co...

In this paper, the practice of using patents as collateral for debt has been studied. To this aim, the USPTO Patent Assignment database has been used and all the patents that reported the "security interest agreement" type of conveyance, registered in the 2007-2010 years, have been extracted. The final dataset is made up of a total of 8,818 securit...

The paper analyses the recent evolution of international markets for technology by examining changes in ownership of US granted patents. We study the effects of the geographical origin of patents, proxied by their first priority country, on the probability of patents being traded, on the timing of the transaction and on the probability of observing...

In this paper, we study the determinants of the spread charged by banks under a UK policy intervention scheme, aimed at supporting access to the credit market for small firms through guarantee backed loans. We exploit a unique dataset containing data on 29,266 guarantee backed loans under the UK SFLG scheme over the period 2000 to 2005. Results sug...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine, for a sample of ten corporations in three industries (i.e. automotive suppliers, semiconductors, and computer networks), the different strategies that firms undertake when acquiring patent-protected technologies. In particular, the authors analyze and compare two alternative channels for patent acqui...

High-technology firms per se are perceived to be more risky than other, more conventional, firms. It follows that financial institutions will take this into account when designing loan contracts, and that this will manifest itself in more costly debt. In this paper we empirically test whether the provision of a government loan guarantee fundamental...

A medical malpractice occurs when a physician or healthcare personnel, because of lack of skill or negligence, causes injury to a patient, who can decide to claim for the damages suffered by suing the facility and/or healthcare personnel. In this paper we analyze the frequency of medical malpractice insurance claims in an Italian region, in order t...

In this article, we study the decision-making criteria that business angels (BAs) adopt when screening business opportunities in the different assessment phases (pre-screening, screening and due diligence). We exploit an original dataset of 1942 ventures that sought angel investment from 2008 to 2014 from the members of Italian Angels for Growth (I...

In this paper we conduct an exploratory study on the activity of NPEs as buyers of patents in the auction marketplace. The analyses are based on a comprehensive dataset covering all patent auctions held by Ocean Tomo until the end of 2008, matched with information drawn from patent databases and the USPTO reassignment register. The results indicate...

This paper investigates VC investment stage drifts as explained by the outcomes of managerial incentive schemes under different financial market conditions and past return performances. We exploit a unique dataset containing data for all of the venture capital funds in Europe that received financial support from the European Investment Fund (EIF) d...

This paper examines to what extent the human capital of entrepreneurs and the receipt of venture capital (VC) financing affect the growth of born globals (BGs). The study analyzes a sample of 242 BGs resulting from a survey on high-tech start-ups operating in the ICT and electronics sectors, located in different countries throughout the world. A mu...

Purpose – The paper aims to examine the locational determinants of the internationalization flows of high-tech start-ups. It also provides a picture of the current patterns of internationalization of high-tech start-ups, through a map of the most attractive countries in terms of inbound and outbound internationalization flows. Design/methodology/a...

In this paper, we investigate what drives the performance of high-tech start-ups receiving angel financing, while taking a closer look at the capabilities (i.e., experience) and investment behavior of business angels (BAs). We exploit a new data set (extracted from Crunchbase), which consists of 1,933 high-tech start-ups that received at least one...

We analyze a sample of European hightech entrepreneurial firms that received bank venture capital (BVC) financing between 1994 and 2004. We employ a ‘‘two-step’’ matching procedure in order to build a control group composed of (1) comparable firms that received venture capital financing from independent investors (IVCs) and (2) comparable noninvest...

The paper examines the relationship between investments and cash flows for a panel of 206 low- and medium technology firms located in the UK, France, Italy and Spain, 108 of which underwent a buyout between 1997 and 2004. The results highlight that the sensitivity of investments to cash flows is increased when a buyout occurs, while investment leve...

This paper analyzes the impact of patent bibliographic indicators and patent characteristics on the economic value of patents put on sale in an auction, considering different typologies of sellers and buyers. A unique dataset covering all patent auctions held until the end of 2008 by Ocean Tomo is used. We employ two measures of patent value drawn...

The paper empirically investigates which are the drivers that affect the decision of high-tech start-ups to internationalize from their outset and their degree of born-globalness. We propose and test a theoretical framework for the determinants of early internationalization in a cross-country context. The empirical data are drawn from a survey of g...

This study investigates the effects of buyout deals on the ex-post performance of target companies. The analysis is based on a sample of 241 private-to-private buyouts involving European companies between 1997 and 2004 and a control sample of non-buyouts selected through a propensity score matching methodology. The paper explores three different di...

The impact of the geographical origin of patents on the probability of an opposition being filed and a patent being revoked has been examined in this paper, after accounting for patent value indicators and industry specificities. The study is based on a dataset of approximately 450,000 EPO granted patents and 24,000 patent opposition cases in the y...

In recent years, the proactive management of patents and their exploitation through licensing out and sales transactions have been enhanced by the development of intermediaries and trading platforms. This paper first investigates the main drivers of companies’ decisions to engage in patent licensing and sales; then, it examines how improvements in...

The paper examines the locational determinants of the internationalization flows of high-tech start-ups. It also provides a picture of the current patterns of internationalization of high-tech start-ups, through a map of the most attractive countries in terms of inbound and outbound internationalization flows. The empirical data have been obtained...

This paper investigates the effects of public ownership on the investment strategy of hybrid VC funds. We exploit a unique dataset containing data for all of the venture capital funds in Europe that received financial support from the European Investment Fund (EIF) during the years 1998–2007. The dataset includes 179 VC funds that invested in 2482...

Regional Studies. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the attractiveness and efficiency of the public financing programme DOCUP 2000-2006 (Documento Unico di Programmazione) in the Piedmont region of Italy. The dataset consists of 1235 firms that applied for public funding to Finpiemonte S.p.A. First, the determinants that lead firms to apply for...

This article studies a sample of 265 buyouts that were conducted from 1997 until 2004. These buyouts involved companies in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. It explores the extent to which buyouts affect the performance of target companies for a three-year period around the deal date. It then assesses...

The paper examines the relationship between investments and cash flows for a panel of 204 low- and medium-technology firms located in the UK, France, Italy and Spain, 108 of which underwent a buyout between 1997 and 2004. The control sample of non-buyouts is selected through a propensity score matching methodology. I investigate whether, after firm...

It is widely acknowledged that firms performing R&D investments are very likely to undergo financial constraints due to their specific characteristics, which make external debt an imperfect substitute for internal finance, especially for small sized enterprises (Carpenter and Petersen, 2002; Hall, 2002). This situation calls into question the role...

This paper analyzes the extent to which the characteristics of patents and patent holders themselves influence the financial value of patents that are put on sale in an auction and/or add to the probability of a successful sale. We employ a unique and comprehensive dataset covering all patent auctions held until the end of 2008 by Ocean Tomo. Paten...

Recently, there has been growing interest in new financial tools that leverage on intellectual property assets, such as patent-backed securitizations (PBSs). In this paper we study the potential determinants leading to the success or failure of securitization deals having patents as underlying assets. We develop a conceptual framework that we test...

This study is dedicated to a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the patent system in Europe. An effective system for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights represents an essential element for the growth of economies, which are based on the generation and exploitation of new scientific and technological knowledge. The...

The aim of the article is to evaluate the attractiveness and efficiency of the DOCUP 2000-2006 public financing program in Piedmont. The dataset consists of 1,235 firms that applied for public funding to Finpiemonte S.p.A. We first examined what determinants lead firms to apply for public funding based on a control sample of 1,235 firms who chose n...

The paper provides an empirical analysis of the patenting activity of a sample of Western European manufacturing firms undergoing a buyout between 1998 and 2004. A panel data design is used to test whether the characteristics of the deal and of private equity (PE) firms can affect acquired companies’ subsequent innovation effort as measured by the...

In this article, we investigate the issue of the financing of R & D investments in SMEs in Italy with respect to the changes in the banking system, which are driven by the adoption of the new version of the Basel Capital Accord. Results from an instrumental variable (IV) probit model show a significant and large marginal effect of both indicators o...

Patent backed securitizations are customized financial solutions characterized by a high level of complexity. Their evaluation involves the analysis of a variety of factors concerning the characteristics of the asset, the architecture and economics of the transaction, the stakeholders involved. In this paper we study the potential determinants lead...

Informational frictions between borrowers and lenders are particularly acute for innovative firms undertaking high‐risk projects. As a consequence, banks may end up denying credit to them. However, the literature on relationship finance predicts that a closer relationship between credit suppliers and obligors is deemed to alleviate information asym...

In this chapter, we investigate the issue of the financing of R&D investments in SMEs in Italy with respect to the future changes in the banking system, which will be driven by the adoption of the new version of the Basel Capital Accord scheduled to be implemented after 2006. The study is based on firm-level data from the Mediocredito survey (2004)...

This paper investigates the relationship between finance and capital investment for a panel of more than 1.000 Italian manufacturing firms. We estimate the sensitivity of capital investment to cash flow, testing for the presence (absence) of informational frictions in the credit market for companies located in industrial districts. The underlying h...

This paper investigates the relationship between finance and R&D for a panel of more than 1000 Italian manufacturing firms. While Italian firms obtain a significant share of their financing from debt, the results from a unique survey show that firms use virtually no debt to finance R&D. Because Italian firms typically do not receive external equity...

It is a widely held view that firms characterized by high levels of research and development (R&D) spending are very likely to undergo financial constraints. This line of reasoning was originally addressed by two influential papers by Nelson (1959) and Arrow (1962), which pointed to the incomplete appropriability of the returns to R&D as the potent...

Purpose – This paper attempts to interpret Foresight in the light of the Triple Helix concept. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores, in the light of the Triple Helix framework, the architecture of a Technology Foresight project which was carried out in Piemonte (Italy) in 2006, where government, firms, universities, research organizati...

In this paper, we investigate the issue of financial constraints to innovation in SMEs in Italy with respect to the future changes in the banking system, which will be driven by the adoption of the new version of the Basel Capital Accord, scheduled to be implemented after 2006. The study is based on firm-level data from the Mediocredito survey (200...

Informational frictions between borrowers and lenders are particularly acute for innovative firms undertaking high-risk projects. As a consequence, banks may end up denying credit to them. However, the literature on relationship finance predicts that a closer relationship between credit suppliers and obligors is deemed to alleviate information asym...