Does conference participation matter for fundraising? The evidence from small- and medium size companies in electronics industry

Abstract

The goal of this research is to answer the question: How does conference participation influence fundraising for SMEs? In order to answer this question we investigated the literature, formulated the hypotheses and collected the data (final sample included 2184 observations of 104 firms) within 20 years period (from 1992 till 2012). Panel data has been analysed and the hypotheses were tested using negative binominal regression and linear regression with fixed effects. The results have shown that the amount of attended conferences is not significant for fundraising. Nevertheless, the diversity of attended conferences (geographical and knowledge) does have significant positive relationship with fundraising.