Drawing inspiration from micro-finance and crowdsourcing, equity crowdfunding has become a valuable source of fundraising for entrepreneurs and small and medium size firms (SMEs). Crowdfunding facilitates access to finance for those companies that would otherwise have great difficulty in accessing it and is viewed as a potentially revolutionary application of social networking with direct consequences for supporting sustainability and innovation. During recent years the number of equity crowdfunding platforms has been on the increase and policymakers and regulators have been fuelling greater attention to this theme. Our aim is twofold: a) to explore the characteristics of equity crowdfunding campaigns launched by different European platforms; and b) to analyze the relationship between social capital created online and the number of investors sustaining the campaign. Given the web context in which it develops, the role of online social capital in the project’s success should be considered from a broad perspective that involves both the founder’s and the project’s social networks. These two levels of analysis represent different networks that mobilize different resources and frame different types of crowd. Results are relevant for the field of equity crowdfunding research, as they shed light on a flourishing tool for bridging the equity gap of startups and innovative SMEs and propose a new perspective on the online social capital framework.

Balboni, B., Gualandri, E., Kocollari, U., Pedrazzoli, A., Venturelli, V. (2018). A Multidimensional Approach to Equity Crowdfunding: Bridging the Equity Gap and Boosting Social Capital. In Contemporary Issues in Banking. Regulation, Governance and Performance (pp.389-407). Cham : Palgrave Macmillan [10.1007/978-3-319-90294-4_17].

A Multidimensional Approach to Equity Crowdfunding: Bridging the Equity Gap and Boosting Social Capital

Ulpiana Kocollari;Alessia Pedrazzoli
;
2018

Abstract

Drawing inspiration from micro-finance and crowdsourcing, equity crowdfunding has become a valuable source of fundraising for entrepreneurs and small and medium size firms (SMEs). Crowdfunding facilitates access to finance for those companies that would otherwise have great difficulty in accessing it and is viewed as a potentially revolutionary application of social networking with direct consequences for supporting sustainability and innovation. During recent years the number of equity crowdfunding platforms has been on the increase and policymakers and regulators have been fuelling greater attention to this theme. Our aim is twofold: a) to explore the characteristics of equity crowdfunding campaigns launched by different European platforms; and b) to analyze the relationship between social capital created online and the number of investors sustaining the campaign. Given the web context in which it develops, the role of online social capital in the project’s success should be considered from a broad perspective that involves both the founder’s and the project’s social networks. These two levels of analysis represent different networks that mobilize different resources and frame different types of crowd. Results are relevant for the field of equity crowdfunding research, as they shed light on a flourishing tool for bridging the equity gap of startups and innovative SMEs and propose a new perspective on the online social capital framework.
paper
equity crowdfunding; online social capital; social network sites; equity gap; startups; SMEs; entrepreneurial finance
English
Wolpertinger Conference of the European-Association-of-University-Teachers-of-Banking-and-Finance
2017
García-Olalla, M; Clifton, J
Contemporary Issues in Banking. Regulation, Governance and Performance
9783319902937
2018
389
407
reserved
Balboni, B., Gualandri, E., Kocollari, U., Pedrazzoli, A., Venturelli, V. (2018). A Multidimensional Approach to Equity Crowdfunding: Bridging the Equity Gap and Boosting Social Capital. In Contemporary Issues in Banking. Regulation, Governance and Performance (pp.389-407). Cham : Palgrave Macmillan [10.1007/978-3-319-90294-4_17].
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
ISBNA_multidimensional_approach_to_equity_crowdfunding.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Tipologia di allegato: Publisher’s Version (Version of Record, VoR)
Dimensione 363.17 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
363.17 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/386234
Citazioni
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 1
Social impact