Managing organizations to address the finance gap

Reviews and analyses the long standing concern over the availability of finance for young and potentially growing business. The perception of a “finance gap” has led to the creation of financial institutions to address it, few of which now survive. Examines the management practices of some in the UK and the USA, which have not only survived, but also appear to be both filling “the gap” and investing successfully. Identifies a number of resources other than finance which these organizations have found it necessary to supply in order to generate success among their investee businesses, and a number of common investment management practices. Finds the issue of the finance gap to be inseparable from issues of other resource deficiencies within young firms. Suggests that policy makers might valuably heed the experience of organizations which have learned, often painfully, how the finance gap might, and might not, be filled.