The advent of new stock markets (the German Neuer Markt, the French Nouveau March??, the Italian Nuovo Mercato and Nasdaq Europe) has been one of the most important reforms of stock exchanges in Continental Europe in the 1990s. These stock markets aimed at attracting early stage, innovative and high-growth firms that would not have been viable candidates for public equity financing on the main markets of European stock exchanges. Of these new markets, the Neuer Markt emerged as Europe's answer to NASDAQ. However, Europe's new stock markets met with only limited success. Stock prices plummeted after the ending of the stock market bubble and new markets suffered from poor liquidity, insider trading scandals and accounting frauds. This volume provides an overview of the rise and fall of Europe's new stock markets. It contains twelve papers which investigate the characteristics, the ownership structure and the market performance of companies in the short and long run, In addition this volume examines the role of venture capitalists. New stock markets offered venture capitalists an attractive exit for their investments and helped to create a more vibrant venture capital industry in Europe. The private equity market in Europe today is as large as it was just before the advent of new stock markets. As such, the need for stock markets that allow private equity investors to divest their equity stakes in growth companies continues to exist.

This book synthesises current knowledge on entrepreneurial finance. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the state-of-the-art in entrepreneurial finance, with a focus on its ecosystem and main players. It analyses different channels of funding for young and growing ventures, namely debt financing, venture capital, business angels, and new forms of alternative finance, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages from an entrepreneur's perspective. It further discusses the characteristics of financial markets in entrepreneurial finance, examining financial gaps and public policies.This book is ideal for students in entrepreneurship, innovation, finance and business at the graduate and post-graduate levels. Entrepreneurs and policymakers interested in financial issues related to start-ups and new ventures will also find this book interesting.

IPOs and Entrepreneurial Firms analyzes the most recent literature on IPOs of entrepreneurial firms - young firms based on intangible rather than physical assets where the founder of the firm often serves as the key inventor and the CEO. After a brief introduction, section 2 reviews the literature on the reasons why companies go public. A trade-off between direct and indirect costs and benefits is considered, as well as entrepreneurial strategic objectives, comprising engaging more easily in acquisitions, signaling the quality of the company, increasing its reputation. Section 3 deals with alternative methodologies to price IPO shares, including cash flow discounting and peer comparison. Section 4 describes the role of intermediaries in the placement of IPO shares. Section 5 focuses on the short-run (underpricing) and long-run performance of IPO companies. Section 6 discusses the cyclical dynamics of the IPO flow on the market. Finally, Section 7 identifies future research directions at the cross-road between finance and entrepreneurship and comparing IPOs with the new digital finance.