Why business angels reject investment opportunities: Is it personal?
研究商业天使拒绝投资机会的原因，发现主要与创业者/管理团队有关，但天使个人特征无法解释拒绝原因，可能与加入组织化团体后形成共享投资方法有关。
A major focus of research on business angels has examined their decision-making processes and investment criteria. As business angels reject most opportunities they receive, this article explores the reasons informing such decisions. In view of angel heterogeneity, investment opportunities might be expected to be rejected for differing reasons. Two sources of data are used to examine this issue. Face-to-face interviews with 30 business angels in Scotland and Northern Ireland provided information on typical ‘deal killers’. This was complemented by an Internet survey that attracted responses from 238 business angels from across the UK. The findings confirm that the main reason for rejection relates to the entrepreneur/management team. However, angel characteristics do not explain the number of reasons given for opportunity rejection nor do they predict the reasons for rejecting investment opportunities. This could be related to the increasing trend for business angels to join organised groups which, in turn, leads to the development of a shared repertoire of investment approaches. We therefore suggest the concept of ‘communities-of-practice’ as an explanation for this finding.