Hendrik Engelhardt

Dissertation Topic
Economic Implications of Financing Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Start Ups

Brief Description
The focus of this dissertation is on how to create an impulse for sustainable economic growth in Germany by facilitating innovative start ups. Classic financial instruments used by German SME are not suitable for financing innovative start ups due to their high risks of failure. This creates an excess demand for Venture Capital. The stock market crash in 2000, however, and institutional change in Germany raised doubt if profitability of financing German innovative start ups is sustainable in the long run. As a consequence, private and also public financial support for entrepreneurial activities has been significantly diminishing. In order to maintain German competitiveness in international business, the dissertation is looking for answers, how to efficiently structure public and private Venture Capital investments for securing a constant secondary growth of start ups.

Period of Dissertation
2006 - 2010