INNOVATIVENESS AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES DIVERSITY OF SLOVENIAN EARLY-STAGE ENTREPRENEURS

Abstract

This paper focuses on the diversity of financial resources for Slovenian early-stage entrepreneurs. In the empirical study, we examined whether early-stage entrepreneurs with different characteristics regarding innovativeness also differ regarding the mode of obtaining financial resources, where the average number of used financial resource types and the average share of owned financial resources provided were analysed. Demographic characteristics (age and gender) of early-stage entrepreneurs were also taken into account. As results suggest, there are differences in the diversity of financial resources used between groups of early-stage entrepreneurs in relation to various aspects of their innovativeness. However, a statistically significant difference occurred only when analysing innovativeness in terms of technology. Results also indicate that there are statistically significant differences between groups of entrepreneurs according to their age, in both the number of financial resources used and the share of own financial resources provided. On the other hand, results don’t indicate any statistically significant gender differences, either in the number of financial resources used or in the share of own financial resources provided.

This paper is based on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data for Slovenia; the large number of countries participating in the world-wide GEM research enables the international comparability of the topic analysed. As such, this research provides important insights into early-stage entrepreneurs’ behaviour in a country context.