Advances in Crowdfunding

This open access book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date collection of knowledge on the state of crowdfunding research and practice. It considers crowdfunding models and their different manifestations across a variety of geographies and sectors, and explores the perspectives of fundraisers, backers, platforms, and regulators. Gathering insights from a wide range of influential researchers in the field, the book balances concepts, theory, and case studies. Going beyond previous research on crowdfunding, the contributors also investigate issues of community, sustainability, education, and ethics. A vital resource for anyone researching crowdfunding, this book offers readers a deep understanding of the characteristics, business models, user-relations, and behavioural patterns of crowdfunding

Understanding UK Rewards-based Crowdfunding as an Alternative Source of Entrepreneurial Finance

Entrepreneurial financing plays a vital role in the survival and viability of businesses (Crosetto & Regner, 2018; Mason & Harrison, 1991; Signori & Vismara, 2017; Zhao et al., 2019). Research studies and financial commentators have suggested that reward-based crowdfunding (RBC) plays an increasingly important role in the process of business start-ups (Baeck et al., 2014; Bilau & Pires, 2018; Lelo de Larrea et al., 2019; Mollick, 2014). However, a review of literature indicates that little is known about the field of RBC from a theoretical perspective. Therefore, the main aim of the thesis is to address the knowledge gap by developing a conceptual framework to advance understanding of the RBC funding process through using a signalling theory lens. The author adopted a pragmatist epistemological stance. This study collected publicly available data of 636 UK start-up projects on a RBC platform, Kickstarter, from September to December in 2017 and repeated this for the same period in 2018. It was found that signal observability (the size and quality of the fundraiser’s network) play a significant role in crowdfunding success across all projects. Whereas, prosocial intention (charitable purpose) plays a stronger role in predicting the likelihood of the success of projects with a medium goal. This study identifies and evaluates how the key factors (project quality, project intention and signal observability) impact on crowdfunding’s success, as well as investigates the interplay between different actors (signallers, receivers and signals) in the RBC market. A further important contribution of this work arises from the use of rich qualitative data in addition to the quantitative research approaches previously utilised by others (Bi, Liu and Usman, 2017; Kunz et al., 2017). The thesis makes contributions to both theory and practice. The findings have major implications for different parties including: policy makers, practitioners, researchers and educators. It provides an insight for practitioners considering the adoption of a crowdfunding approach and the knowledge and recommendations in running a successful RBC campaign. It also helps nascent entrepreneurs to reconstruct their financing strategy through the better understanding of the position of RBC in entrepreneurial financing. An important implication is that this study can help policy makers to better understand the RBC industry, which is essential in developing relevant policies in this under-governed area. Finally, this research contributes to growing knowledge and interest in entrepreneurial finance, especially in the online alternative finance market, which is beneficial for both researchers and educators

Knowledge Solutions: Tools, Methods, and Approaches to Drive Development Forward and Enhance Its Effects

[Excerpt] Today, sustainable competitive advantage derives from strenuous efforts to identify, cultivate, and exploit an organization’s core competencies. This calls for relentless design of strategic architecture, deployment of competence carriers, and commitment to collaborate across silos. Put simply, core competencies are the product of collective learning: their tangible fruits are composite packages of products and services that anticipate and meet demand. Knowledge is what you learn from experience before, during, and after the event. Since it is both a thing and a flow, the best way to manage knowledge is to cater at all times to the environment in which it can be identified, created, stored, shared, and used. Tools, methods, and approaches are needed to enable that. And so, to drive development forward and enhance its effects, the Asian Development Bank has, since 2008, published the Knowledge Solutions series, available at www.adb.org/knowledgesolutions. It aims to build competencies in the areas of strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge sharing and learning, and knowledge capture and storage—all of which are essential to high-performance organizations

A study on the potential of reward-based crowdfunding in supporting sustainable entrepreneurship

The dissertation sets out to explore the often ignored role of the consumer (end-user) within sustainable innovation by examining the potential of reward-based crowdfunding in enabling sustainable entrepreneurship. It explores under which conditions and to what extent rewardbased crowdfunding could benefit entrepreneurs with social and/or environmentally-oriented products. The dissertation employs four articles in order to explore this. The first sets the stage by systematically reviewing the various roles that end-users can adopt within sustainable innovation process. The second serves to present a conceptual understanding of how the process of crowdfunding is organized. Finally papers three and four respectively present the dissertation’s empirical evidence. Paper three focuses on uncovering the distributive qualities of reward-based crowdfunding in terms of its ability to increase innovation finance access, while paper four introduces the experimental evidence on the role of individual and product details in shaping pledging behavior as it relates to a diversity of (un)sustainable campaigns

Tematski zbornik radova međunarodnog značaja. Tom 3 / Međunarodni naučni skup “Dani Arčibalda Rajsa”, Beograd, 3-4. mart 2015.

In front of you is the Thematic Collection of Papers presented at the International Scientific Confer-ence “Archibald Reiss Days”, which was organized by the Academy of Criminalistic and Police Studies in Belgrade, in co-operation with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Education, Science and Techno-logical Development of the Republic of Serbia, National Police University of China, Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Volgograd Academy of the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry, Faculty of Security in Skopje, Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security in Ljubljana, Police Academy “Alexandru Ioan Cuza“ in Bucharest, Academy of Police Force in Bratislava and Police College in Banjaluka, and held at the Academy of Crimi-nalistic and Police Studies, on 3 and 4 March 2015.International Scientific Conference “Archibald Reiss Days” is organized for the fifth time in a row, in memory of the founder and director of the first modern higher police school in Serbia, Rodolphe Archibald Reiss, PhD, after whom the Conference was named.The Thematic Collection of Papers contains 168 papers written by eminent scholars in the field of law, security, criminalistics, police studies, forensics, informatics, as well as members of national security system participating in education of the police, army and other security services from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Bela-rus, China, Poland, Armenia, Portugal, Turkey, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Srpska and Serbia. Each paper has been reviewed by two reviewers, international experts competent for the field to which the paper is related, and the Thematic Conference Proceedings in whole has been reviewed by five competent international reviewers.The papers published in the Thematic Collection of Papers contain the overview of contemporary trends in the development of police education system, development of the police and contemporary secu-rity, criminalistic and forensic concepts. Furthermore, they provide us with the analysis of the rule of law activities in crime suppression, situation and trends in the above-mentioned fields, as well as suggestions on how to systematically deal with these issues. The Collection of Papers represents a significant contribution to the existing fund of scientific and expert knowledge in the field of criminalistic, security, penal and legal theory and practice. Publication of this Collection contributes to improving of mutual cooperation between educational, scientific and expert institutions at national, regional and international level

Pandemics: Insurance and Social Protection

This open access book collects expert contributions on actuarial modelling and related topics, from machine learning to legal aspects, and reflects on possible insurance designs during an epidemic/pandemic. Starting by considering the impulse given by COVID-19 to the insurance industry and to actuarial research, the text covers compartment models, mortality changes during a pandemic, risk-sharing in the presence of low probability events, group testing, compositional data analysis for detecting data inconsistencies, behaviouristic aspects in fighting a pandemic, and insurers’ legal problems, amongst others. Concluding with an essay by a practicing actuary on the applicability of the methods proposed, this interdisciplinary book is aimed at actuaries as well as readers with a background in mathematics, economics, statistics, finance, epidemiology, or sociology