Reaping value-added benefits from crowdfunders : what can we learn from relationship marketing?

Fund-seeking entrepreneurs can benefit from crowdfunders, if these add value through involvement, the provision of contacts, and the facilitation of further finance beyond their initial financial pledge. Entrepreneurs can actively influence crowdfunders’ willingness to provide such benefits by engaging them in long-term, cooperative relationships, which are maintained through continued trust. Relationship marketing theories and techniques provide useful insights into and recommendations for researchers and crowdfund-seeking businesses

Inexpert business angels : how even investors with ‘nothing to add’ can add value

During involvement activities, business angels contribute their own experiences, knowledge, and contacts to their investee businesses ‘Soft’ involvement activities are people-centered, whereas ‘hard’ activities are task-centered. Investees value soft activities even if the business angel possesses no relevant capital. Soft-hard categorization of involvement activities may be more valuable than active-passive categorization of investors

The role of investee company managers in business angels' involvement : empirical insights from dyadic data

This article explores the roles that the managing directors (MDs) of investee companies play in influencing the post-investment involvement of their business angels (BAs). Primary data were collected from four matched BA–MD dyads,which were purposefully selected according to the BAs’ level of post-investment involvement. The dyadic parties were interviewed independently from one another on four occasions over the period of one year. Interview questions were loosely structured around involvement and interaction. Coding and extensive iterative cross-case comparisons resulted in the emergence of four key themes relating to MDs’ roles in involvement: MDs’ responsiveness to involvement; MDs’ communication of/feedback on their responses to involvement; MDs’ reactions to queries from their BAs; and MDs’ roles in initiating involvement activities. The article explores each of these roles by providing insights into the qualitative data in comparison with extant literature surrounding those themes.The article concludes with a number of propositions which suggest that (i) MDs play a ‘gatekeeper’ role which requires them to be responsive if the involvement of the investor in the business is to occur, and for the investor to add value; (ii) BA–MD interactions are affected by the quality of MDs’ feedback in case of nonresponsiveness, the way in which MDs react to queries from their investors and the MDs’ attitudes towards learning from BAs; (iii) BAs expect their involvement to be acknowledged and (iv) MDs can initiate involvement themselves. The study further shows that involvement is not a purely investor-centred concept, which is an insight that needs to be investigated further, on a larger scale and with the help of a conceptual framework

Putting “entrepreneurial finance education” on the map

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bring attention to “entrepreneurial finance education”, an aspect of entrepreneurship education that is widely taught but neglected by the educational literature. It does so by exploring how social capital, a key resource for entrepreneurs, can be incorporated into entrepreneurial finance education. Design/methodology/approach – By drawing upon social capital literature in the context of funding sources for entrepreneurs, the paper highlights the significance of bonding and bridging social capital for entrepreneurial finance. Findings – The review of relevant literature confirms the importance of social capital for entrepreneurial finance. The existence of bonding social capital, which refers to a trusting relationship between entrepreneurs and financiers, allows entrepreneurs to access their financiers’ resources (e.g. contacts, knowledge, reputation, further funds) through bridging social capital. Practical implications – Students of entrepreneurial finance need to understand the role that both facets of social capital play in the context of fundraising. This paper proposes ways of incorporating social capital into various approaches to entrepreneurial finance education. This allows educators to include relevant topics and research into their syllabi, while enabling students to study a crucial, yet under-represented, topic in entrepreneurial finance education. Originality/value – Given that entrepreneurial finance education has to date been neglected in the educational literature, this paper begins to address a huge void. It clarifies potential contents of entrepreneurial finance education, demonstrates the importance of including social capital in the education of entrepreneurial finance students and suggests practical ways of achieving this

The benefits of online crowdfunding for fund-seeking business ventures

Crowdfunding through Internet platforms is a new phenomenon allowing small business ventures to raise capital from a large number of private individuals, the so-called ‘crowdfunders.’ Crowdfunding can offer a variety of financial and non-financial benefits to fund-seeking business ventures. Financially, it helps small companies to overcome funding difficulties and it facilitates access to further financiers while allowing businesses to raise capital with limited or no loss of ownership and control. In terms of non-financial benefits, crowdfunders can provide value-added involvement and feedback creating, at the same time, publicity and public awareness of the business, and new potentially useful contacts to the business

Best practices in knowledge management: A review of contemporary approaches in a globalised world

The term ‘best practice’ is used widely in nearly every field of academic study, and purported best practices exist for every type of organisation, including public organisations, private organisations, not-for-profit companies, manufacturing firms, service-based firms, multinational corporations and small to medium-sized enterprises. The origin of the concept is not easy to establish, although the work of Schonberger (1986), which focused on developing world-class manufacturing techniques, is often cited as a fundamental basis for what came to be known as best practice. However, despite the omnipresence of the term over the past 30 years, there is surprisingly little agreement around what actually constitutes a best practice, and there is even less consensus around how beneficial it is for firms to implement changes to their organisational policies to better reflect the best practices of their industry (Castro and Frazzon 2017; Darbyshire et al. 1999; Peters and Heron 1993). However, this lack of consensus in definition and application have not resulted in a shortfall of research articles, handbooks, textbooks, industry reports and other forms of information that purport to outline the definitive set of best practices for any given field—knowledge management (KM) being no exception (Armstrong and Taylor 2014; Holsapple 2013; McIver et al. 2013; Oliva 2014). The sheer volume of material available creates a situation where best practices in KM appear to be everywhere, but are simultaneously very difficult to actually find. Managers are faced with a task somewhat akin to finding objects in a picture that is out of focus: you can see that they are there, but identifying them clearly is a significant challenge. This chapter attempts to bring that picture into sharper focus by delving into the ample information available on best practices in KM, and by examining some of the tools and initiatives used by organisations around the world. By providing this perspective, the chapter aims to establish what the currently held beliefs are regarding best practice in KM in the contemporary business world. To begin, the chapter considers two key perspectives on KM itself

“Authentic alignment”: a new framework of entrepreneurship education

Purpose – This paper seeks to address an underdeveloped aspect of entrepreneurship education (EE), which is still criticised for not explicitly linking educational practice with established educational theory. As such, the purpose of this paper is to propose a novel educational framework – Authentic Alignment - that the authors evolved based on their own EE practice, as well as two major educational theories. Design/methodology/approach – A review of a range of conceptual educational frameworks in EE revealed a gap in the current literature, referring to the fact that practice is not sufficiently linked to sound educational theory. The paper combines a range of educational theories – predominantly Constructive Alignment (CA) and Authenticity – to develop a novel conceptual framework, termed "Authentic Alignment". The discussion of Authentic Alignment draws upon EE literature, as well as student feedback and the reflections and experiences of the practitioners and academics involved in delivering a higher education unit underpinned by Authentic Alignment. Findings – It is argued that Authentic Alignment coherently and explicitly links educational practice to major established educational theories and as such presents a valuable approach to education through entrepreneurship as it aligns authentic approaches to instruction, learning and assessment that strike a balance between resembling and being relevant for real entrepreneurial activity. Practical implications – The paper invites educators to draw upon Authentic Alignment for their own entrepreneurship units/programmes by customising the specific approaches to their own requirements, while retaining the underlying principle of constructively aligned authentic education. Originality/value – By explicitly linking EE to CA and Authenticity, this paper introduces a novel educational framework that provides a valuable structure for education through entrepreneurship. The customisability of Authentic Alignment, however, suggests a wider applicability and is thus valuable also for education about and for entrepreneurship

Managing (out) corruption in NGOs: A case study from the Bangladesh delta

Corruption is one of the most destructive and pervasive wicked problems, present in commercial enterprises, governmental agencies and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs). The reduction of corruption is prominent amongst the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals, but research on corruption in the context of NGOs in developing countries is scarce, particularly relating to the identification and management of corruption in this context. This paper adds new insights to this under-researched field by providing a rich description of a single, longitudinal ethnographic case study of one NGO in Bangladesh, which has successfully identified and managed (out) complex, entrenched corruption through a simple sustainable intervention: expanding and improving information channels for stakeholders

Getting more than money through online crowdfunding

Purpose: Many businesses invest significant resources to develop human, social and psychological capital, yet Crowdfunding (CF) activities have the potential to build all of these non-financial forms of capital at the same time as raising finance. The purpose of this paper is to explore the non-financial forms of capital that entrepreneurs and businesses using online CF activities can gain from their backers without having to ask for it. Design/methodology/approach: The study used thematic, qualitative analysis to explore the comments and queries that crowdfunders posted on the publicly visible message board of individual CF projects on Kickstarter, one of the world’s leading crowdfunding platforms (CFPs). Findings: Fund-seekers can gain more than money from crowdfunders: they can enhance their own human capital (e.g. knowledge of the viability of the project), social capital (e.g. the development of a bonding relationship) and psychological capital (e.g. self-efficacy and resilience) by effectively interpreting unsolicited comments and questions. Research limitations/implications: This study is based on typed comments on CFP message boards, which limits insights into underlying reasons and motivations. However, the qualitative analysis of message board comments demonstrates how this type of data can be utilised to explore crucial aspects of CF that have to date been neglected. Practical implications: Comments from many crowdfunders can provide useful information to fund-seeking entrepreneurs and businesses, although some of it may require interpretation. Originality/value: The opportunity for fund-seekers to gain non-financial capital from crowdfunders, without having to ask for it, has not previously been explicitly considered in the field. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Academic research on crowdfunders : what's been done and what's to come?

The majority of published work refers to the pre-investment phase of the crowdfunding process, with only very little academic knowledge currently relating to the post-investment phase