THE IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON ANGEL INVESTING NETWORKS: ENHANCING COREANGELS PERFORMANCE THROUGH BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION AND CUSTOMER SUCCESS

The constant evolution of the entrepreneurial world and the rise of Business Angels’ groups as pivotal players in such a market brought the need for these networks to improve their operations in order to remain competitive. To sustain their competitiveness, these networks are trying to enhance their operations, leveraging digitalization and business model innovation (BMI). However, the existing academic literature regarding this topic is notably sparse, leaving significant gaps for the researcher community. This study addresses this void by providing new insights on the impact of digitalization, Business Model Innovation (BMI), and Customer Success (CS) on the performance of angel investing networks and how important their correlation could be, using the case of COREangels, a global community of angel funds. This network has always pursued initiatives to refine and modernize its operations, therefore this project aims to assess the implications of these ongoing efforts on the experiences and success of the angel investors, ergo its clients. By exploring the perceptions of the employees of COREangels network and the angel investors who belong to it, the study aims to highlight the importance of digitalization on angel investing networks, examining the relationships between BMI, CS and firm performance, and how CS and Firm Performance can be further improved through BMI. To achieve its objectives, semi-structured interviews, along with a qualitative questionnaire and observations conducted in-situ, were executed with the employees and clients (i.e. the angel investors) of COREangels. The findings and main conclusions of this study provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of digitalization, BMI, and CS strategies for enlarging the performance of angel investing networks in terms of firm attractiveness, improved efficiency, and customer satisfaction, along with recommendations for future improvements. The results display some limitations regarding the measures of an angel investing network performance and customer success due to the gaps in the literature. Nevertheless, this project shows its main value in its recommendations for future strategies to further improve CS and performance through BMI and digitalization in angel networks.