Using a unique large panel of German firms, we examine whether participation in business groups (Konzerns) reduces the sensitivity of investment to cash flow. The main finding is that the investment sensitivity is significantly reduced for small firms. On the other hand, we do not find clear...

The paper investigates the motives of Private Equity (PE) investors to engage in European companies. Investment of a PE firm is not viewed unambiguously. First, it is claimed that PE investing is made for the sake of poor redistribution of wealth. Second, PE firm invests because of prior...

Start-ups often lack certain knowledge and skills and are in the need of external assistance. If this external help is combined with capital we can talk about relationship financing or smart capital. In a heterogeneous financial system such as the one in Germany, which type of financier supplies...

What kind of smart capital relational investors actually supply, especially in a bank-based financial system such as the German one, is still an open question. We divide smart capital into single components and conduct a survey with 85 German suppliers of start-up finance. The results show that...