The Learning Journey of an Angel Investor / Luis Miguel Spencer Maia Barros.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Barros, Luis Miguel Spencer Maia, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Chief Learning Officer, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adult education.

Social sciences education.

Social studies education.

Chief Learning Officer--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Chief Learning Officer.

Local Subjects:

Adult education.

Social sciences education.

Social studies education.

Chief Learning Officer--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--Chief Learning Officer.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (186 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 85-02A.

Place of Publication:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2022.

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2023

Language Note:

English

Summary:

My dissertation asks: "What does an Angel Investor learn about the venture capital investment process and how do they learn it?" This is important, because Angels finance the earlier stages of venture investing (referred to as Seed or Series A) and play an instrumental role in the formation, financing, and success of today's leading entities. The conceptual framework of Situated Learning (SL) within a Communities of Practice (CoP), have studied how persons learn mental concepts in other fields, but not in investing. To conduct the study, I approached the firm, person, and context as one composite unit of analysis. The firm was a 65-member Angel investment group based on the East Coast (henceforth referred to as "Earth Angel" [EA]). The person, was a situated individual, who went about their day-to-day activities within the social construct and realities of a CoP and Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP). Using qualitative ethnographic methods of interviews and participant observations, I studied Angels in different phases of their career: "novice," "intermediate," and "experienced," which allowed me to document the person's complete transformation process. Using a combination of inductive and deductive theory principles to analyze the data, three findings resulted from this study: 1) The Angel adopts a "Wisdom of Crowds" and "Portfolio Theory" approach to investing as a result of group of peer-to-peer dynamics; 2) the Angel readily learns to see the value of and adopts the membership group structure; and 3) the Angel relies on learning from peers, their membership group, and the industry at large to come up to par on industry standards, such as developing technology-stack competency. By studying Angels through the lens of SL and LPP in a CoP, I provide insights into an Angel investor's learning journey and their full developmental arc, contributing to understanding how various factors play a material role in shaping the expertise that an Angel acquires, develops, and practices. Contribution is also made to literature on human development and organizational socialization, each of which have disparately studied how persons learn mental concepts, but have not yet approached or integrated the person, context, and firm.

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-02, Section: A.

Advisors: Baker, Ryan; Committee members: McKee, Annie; Carl, Nicole Mittenfelner.

Department: Chief Learning Officer.

Ed.D. University of Pennsylvania 2023.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798380111638

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.

This item is not available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.