Feminist theory, Gender and Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding promotes financial democracy through advancement in ICT for minorities in finance. While crowdfunding has reduced the underrepresentation of females in entrepreneurial finance, little attention has been paid to the influence of context on the discussion on gender in entrepreneurial finance. We examine this by applying feminist theory. By this, we argue that the gender effects of certain factors that have been generally associated with one gender may vary with place. From Finland, a gender equal context, we analyse survey data from 556 contributors of the largest reward crowdfunding platform. The findings show that certain factors that prior studies have shown to be associated with female contributors are more significantly associated with males in the study’s context. The findings support the argument that male contributors in an effort to change their ‘historical dominance’ to gain traction and legitimacy within an ‘equal society’ may have to be socially and morally sensitive

Gender and entrepreneurial intentions

The paper identifies commonalities and differences between women and men in terms of eleven key factors’ impact on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) among Norwegian students. The analysis is based on a sample of 1,782 Norwegian students from a variety of faculties and degree programs. A path analysis methodological approach is used, while being based on multiple regressions so as to gradually refine model complexities. Findings show that common to both sexes are the effects of entrepreneurial experience, social norms, self-efficacy, and age. The direct effects of role models and taking an economics major are only evident among males. The direct effect of entrepreneurship education and risk perceptions are only evident among females. Moreover, the study identifies the criticality of role models and an economics major in the overall network of effects in the case of male students, as well as the critical role of entrepreneurial education in the overall network of effects in the case of female students

A Trust-Based Crowdfunding Campaign Marketing Framework: Theoretical Underpinnings and Big-Data Analytics Practice

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Crowdfunding success : a systematic literature review 2010-2017

Author's accepted manuscript (postprint).acceptedVersio

Explaining Reward Crowdfunding Backers’ Intentions and Behavior

Earlier research seeking to understand crowdfunding adoption has drawn on social psychology, trust, signaling, and well-being theories. Despite its wide appeal and use, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has received little attention in explaining the adoption of crowdfunding platforms. Accordingly, in the current study we examine the applicability of two versions of this framework, including the original TAM1, and the extended TAM2 frameworks. Data was collected through a survey distributed to the users of Finland’s leading reward crowdfunding website – Mesenaatti. Analyses of 556 observations exhibit support for all hypotheses underlying both TAM frameworks, with two exceptions. Counter to expectations, voluntariness does not moderate the effect of subjective norms on contribution intentions, and the effect of perceived ease-of-use is primarily mediated by perceived usefulness, rather than directly affecting intentions

“In this together”: on the antecedents and implications of crowdfunding community identification and trust

Despite references to crowdfunding as a community-embedded phenomenon, few studies explore the antecedents and implications of crowdfunding communities. This study suggests community identification and trust as two core aspects of crowdfunding communities, while aiming to identify their antecedents and implications for crowdfunding campaign information-sharing intentions and behavior. Information-sharing is a necessary condition for successful entrepreneurial fundraising when using crowdfunding. For this purpose, we use survey data collected from users of Finland’s leading reward crowdfunding website, Mesenaatti.me, while analyzing it using structural equation modelling. Our findings show that community identification and trust are both positively associated with crowdfunding contribution attitudes and with information-sharing intentions. However, only community identification is associated with information-sharing behaviors. Enjoyment, homophily, and community outcome expectations are antecedents of both community identification and trust. Tie strength and normative pressures are antecedents of community identification. Finally, information-sharing intentions mediate the effect of community trust on information-sharing behavior. We discuss explanations for these findings and their implications for crowdfunding research and practice.publishedVersionPaid open acces

The reward crowdfunding campaign management process : an engagement perspective

PURPOSE : Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular channel for project fundraising for entrepreneurial ventures. Such efforts require fundraisers to develop and manage a crowdfunding campaign over a period of time and several stages. Thus, the authors aim to identify the stages fundraisers go through in their crowdfunding campaign process and how their engagement evolves throughout this process. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : Following a multiple case study research design analysing six successful campaigns, the current study suggests a taxonomy of stages the fundraisers go through in their crowdfunding campaign management process while identifying the types of engagement displayed and their relative intensity at each of these stages. FINDINGS : The study proposes a five-stage process framework (pre-launch, launch, mid-campaign, conclusion and post-campaign), accompanied by a series of propositions outlining the relative intensity of different types of engagement throughout this process. The authors show that engagement levels appear with high intensity at pre-launch, and to a lesser degree also at the post-launch stage while showing low intensity at the stages in between them. More specifically, cognitive and behavioural engagement are most prominent at the pre- and post-launch stages. Emotional engagement is highest during the launch, mid-launch and conclusion stages. And social engagement maintains moderate levels of intensity throughout the process. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : This study focuses on the campaign process using engagement theory, thus identifying the differing engagement patterns throughout the dynamic crowdfunding campaign management process, not just in one part.https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1355-2554hj2024Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)Non

The role of social trust in reward crowdfunding campaigns’ design and success

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On relationship types, their strength, and reward crowdfunding backer behavior

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European Crowdfunding Market Report 2023

The European crowdfunding market is dynamic and constantly evolving, while often representing balancing acts between harmonization trends, as driven by cross-border scaling opportunities, and fragmentation trends, as resulting from the local anchoring of activities (Wenzlaff et al., 2020). The current report is set to provide an up-to-date review of the European Crowdfunding industry covering facts and insights for the years 2021 and 2022. In its modern manifestation, crowdfunding is defined as a fundraising method involving the collection of relatively small amounts from a large pool of funding providers via the Internet and with no or little involvement of traditional financial intermediaries. Earlier reports presenting insights on the crowdfunding industry have often covered a wider scope of services under the broad term of “alternative finance” (e.g., Ziegler et al., 2018; Ziegler et al., 2019; Ziegler et al., 2021; Ziegler et al., 2020). However, the current report focuses only on crowdfunding services. This means the report only presents data collected from platforms which are open to crowd participation as both fundraisers (demand) and funding providers (supply). Accordingly, online platforms offering fundraising services outside the traditional financial systems (e.g., digital lenders, digital invoice traders, etc.), while relying solely on institutional or non-retail private funding (i.e., not open for funding by the crowd), were excluded. At the heart of the industry are the firms providing crowdfunding services, also commonly referred to as ‘crowdfunding platforms’ after the technology underlying their operations. The platforms they operate are Internet applications linking fundraisers and prospective fund providers while facilitating exchanges between them under pre-specified conditions (Shneor & Flåten, 2015). Accordingly, all data reported in the current report have been collected from crowdfunding platforms (hereafter ‘platforms’). Throughout the report, data is presented in a comparative manner either with respect to core underlying models (i.e., equity, lending, and non-investment models) or geographical location (i.e., platforms from Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Europe). Table 1 presents the detailed model clustering approach. Here, services offering investments in return-yielding assets are grouped under an equity cluster. Services offering investments in return-yielding credit are grouped under a lending cluster. And services offering transactions with no expectation of financial returns, such as purchases of products/services or donations, are grouped under a non-investment models’ cluster.publishedVersio