Regional access to entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial finance ecosystems

The disputation will be held digitally. Spectators may follow the disputation digitally – link is available below.

Tore Frimanslund of the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder has submitted his thesis entitled «Regional access to entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial finance ecosystems. Determinants of and barriers to ecosystem finance» and will defend the thesis for the PhD-degree Thursday 6 January 2022.

He has followed the PhD-programme at the School of Business and Law at the University of Agder.

The doctoral work is partially funded by Sparebankstiftinga Sogn og Fjordane.

Summary of the thesis by Tore Frimanslund:

Regional access to entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial finance ecosystems

In short, this thesis aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of finance in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

The concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has emerged as a new perspective to explain entrepreneurial activity as a result of its environments, and the interactions between a set of actors.

The thesis aims to provide novel insights into how entrepreneurs acquire finance, how finance is distributed in such ecosystems, and how it matters for rural and urban development.

Three research papers

The objective was pursued through three approaches in three research papers.

• Paper 1 examined the literature on finance in entrepreneurial ecosystems. It first finds that a growing body of literature has yet to address this topic fully. Second, the concept of ecosystems is widely defined, which offers implications then examining financial aspects. After highlighting this conceptual ambiguity, the literature review provides guidance for conducting research on finance in ecosystems.
• Justified by the gaps highlighted in the first paper, paper 2 applies a single-case study of the Norwegian rural and urban financial ecosystems to inquire about the main determinants of financial access for start-ups in a rural and urban Norwegian context. Further, the paper examined how finance is distributed in entrepreneurial ecosystems. The paper contributes to the conceptual refinements of 'recycling entrepreneurial finance' in ecosystems.
• Paper 3 operationalises a manageable set of theoretical inferences from paper 2 and tests them through survey data on start-ups associated with various business ecosystems in Norway. The paper finds that culture for sharing influence with investors early improves financial access. Further, the industrial homogeneity in rural regions does not provide a sufficiently broad spectrum of entrepreneurial resources for independent ventures.

Findings

One main general contribution of the thesis is that despite the complex nature of entrepreneurship, there are certain financial ecosystem mechanisms that promote entrepreneurial activity, which are determined and varied only by conditional and contextual factors.

An example of one such mechanism is that an ecosystem centred around a key entrepreneur may address information asymmetry at the high-risk early venture stage and provide critical financial access to newcomers in the ecosystem.

Disputation facts:

The trial lecture and the public defence will take place online, via the Zoom conferencing app - link below.

Dean Roger Normann, School of Business and Law at the University of Agder, will chair the disputation.

The trial lecture Thursday 06 January at 09:00 hours 

Public defence Thursday 06 January at 10:00 hours

 

Given topic for trial lecture: «Provide an overview of methodological challenges and potential solutions in studies of entrepreneurial finance ecosystems»

Thesis Title: «Regional access to entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial finance ecosystems. Determinants of and barriers to ecosystem finance»

Search for the thesis in AURA - Agder University Research Archive, a digital archive of scientific papers, theses and dissertations from the academic staff and students at the University of Agder.

The thesis is available here:

PhD Thesis Tore Frimanslund Full with ISBN

The Candidate: Tore Frimanslund (1983, Lærdal) Bachelor degree in Economics and Administration - Western Norway University of Applied Scieces (HVL) (2006). Masters degree in Economics and Administration – UiA (2009) masterthesis: «Managerial compensation, ownership structure and profitability in Norwegian hydroelectric energy companies». Present position: Assistant Professor at Western Norway University of Applied Scieces (HVL).

Opponents:

First opponent: Professor Einar Agur Rasmussen, Nord University, Norway

Second opponent: Professor Tatiana Iakovleva, University of Stavanger, Norway

Professor Trond Randøy, University of Agder, is appointed as the administrator for the assessment committee.

Supervisor in the doctoral work were Associate Professor Rotem Shneor, UiA

What to do as an audience member:

The disputation is open to the public, but to follow the trial lecture and the public defence, which is transmitted via the Zoom conferencing app, you have to register as an audience member.

We ask audience members to join the virtual trial lecture at 08:50 at the earliest and the public defense at 09:50 at the earliest. After these times, you can leave and rejoin the meeting at any time. Further, we ask audience members to turn off their microphone and camera and keep them turned off throughout the event. You do this at the bottom left of the image when in Zoom. We recommend you use ‘Speaker view’. You select that at the top right corner of the video window when in Zoom.

Opponent ex auditorio:

The chair invites members of the public to pose questions ex auditorio in the introduction to the public defense, with deadlines. It is a prerequisite that the opponent has read the thesis. Questions can be submitted to the chair Roger Normann on e-mail roger.h.normann@uia.no