Personal Equity Investment and Small Business Financial Difficulties
理论认为企业家通过个人股权投资比例传递企业成功概率的私人信息。本文用首年财务困境的发生和严重程度作为企业成功概率的代理变量，发现首年财务困境与企业家个人资金占启动资金比例显著负相关，支持了该理论。
Theory suggests that entrepreneurs’ private information about the likelihood of the success of their enterprise is revealed by their personal equity investment in the firm. This paper tests this argument using the occurrence and severity of the first year's financial difficulties as an indication of the entrepreneur's assessment of the likelihood of the firm's success. We find support for the theory through the identification of a significant negative relation between first year financial difficulties and the percent of start-up capital represented by the entrepreneur's personal funds.