Business Angels' practices in the screening stage: A study of knowledge transfer to the entrepreneur

Are Business Angels likely to influence the entrepreneur before any investment decisions have been taken? If such is the case, what are the reasons for doing so and in what way do they influence the entrepreneur? In this article we examine knowledge transfer from angel to entrepreneur at the pre-investment phase which is seldom treated in depth in literature. Through the use of an original theoretical framework (the activity system model), we describe the activities which are at the heart of the interactions between Business Angels and entrepreneurs. Our methodology is therefore qualitative and founded on an inductive reasoning. The analysis and comparison of four French cases show that, in spite of the absence of a relationship bound by contracts, business angels can modify a venture's content and the entrepreneur can accept these changes due to the former's expertise in terms of explicit and tacit knowledge