To name your venture after Oxbridge or not, that is the question!
Abstract
Abstract This paper examines the significance of including a company's location of origin in its name, a practice known as using an eponymous location name. Our theory demonstrates that signalling an origin from a prestigious location is an appealing strategy for relatively weaker companies, whereas stronger companies tend to avoid it. We empirically test this theory on a sample of UK university spin‐outs from 2010 to 2021. Eponymous location names are particularly prevalent among spin‐outs from Oxbridge (i.e., Oxford and Cambridge). As predicted by our theory, eponymous location names are negatively related to measures of fundraising success after controlling for spin‐out origin.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Private Equity and Venture Capital
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d économique
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 510–537
- Publication date
- 1 May 2026
- Language
- EN