Business angels are recognized as playing a key role in financing the start-up and early stages of new ventures. However, our knowledge of how business angels operate remains limited and highly fragmented. This Handbook provides a synthesis of research on business angels. It adopts an international perspective to reflect the spread of angel investing around the world. The increasing number of government initiatives to promote angel investing is also reflected in the book with an assessment of the most common support schemes.

Adopting an international focus, the expert group of contributors examine business angels themselves; the evolution of the market; the various stages of the investment process and the role of public policy in influencing angel investment. They each conclude their chapters with an agenda for future research on business angels.

Students and scholars of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial finance, and related subjects will find this book to be an invaluable resource to their work.In particular, they will benefit from the research agendas that that concludes each chapter This Handbook will also be of interest to policy-makers and other practitioners looking to enhance their understanding of the design and need for such interventions.

Contributors include: F.M. Amatucci, M. Atienza, S. Avdeitchikova, T. Botelho, C. Carpentier, V. Collewaert, L. Hornuf, H. Keinonen, T. Lahti, H. Landström, D. Lingelbach, M. Liu, C. Mason, A. Maxwell, D. Politis, G. Romani, W. Scheela, A. Schwienbacher, J.-M. Suret, R. Sørheim, Y. Tan, J. Wang