Contenu du sommaire : Crowdfunding

In the aftermath of the funding problems that swept the world after the 2006-2008 financial crises, people took the initiative to find alternative sources of funding by bypassing the conventional financial institutions. Alternative finance links individuals who have extra funds with those who need them. While different types of alternative finance seem to address similar issues, as a function of solidarity and cooperation in a demanding market, they have not experienced the same performance. Why? This paper aims to provide insights to answer this question. Three types of alternative finance are considered: microcredit (microfinance), P2P online lending (crowdfunding), and slow money.JEL Codes: G20

Crowdfunding facilitates resource provision for a project from a large audience where individuals contribute in small amounts. Based on the premises of value co-creation and information asymmetry in reward-based and all-or-nothing crowdfunding models we hypothesize that if a project is successful it creates a value proposition and signals it efficiently. Drawing on a sample of 354 projects hosted by three platforms which operate on reward-based model in Turkey, this paper offers an explanation about what contributes to the success or failure of a project. It suggests that platform reputation, project quality and entrepreneurial capacity of the project owners are associated with the success of a project.JEL Codes: M130, M310, L15, L21, L26

Financing for innovative, young ventures has seen major developments in recent years. The slowdown of the venture capital industry has been accompanied by rapidly-growing crowdinvesting platforms, which bring together startup creators and private, often unsophisticated, investors. While these new forms of financial intermediation facilitate, and can even democratize, startup financing, they raise important questions about value assessment and the decision to invest. Through two case studies of crowdinvesting platforms in Switzerland, this paper investigates evaluation strategies which take advantage of sociotechnical devices implemented on these platforms. The findings suggest that the evaluation process of investment proposals is highly dependent on ‘social proof' dynamics that operate within the platform's community and the startup ecosystem. The ‘calculative space' reflects an interplay between substantive (owned) and significant (shared) knowledge, based on both established rules and mechanisms that are driven by the opinion, status or reputation of startup creators and community investors.JEL Codes: G11, G2, G32, L26, L86, Z13

This paper examines the implications of the theories and practice of crowdfunding. An in-depth literature review discusses relevant work on crowdfunding, its business models, and the type of actors. Next, a qualitative study focuses on an online campaign that assembled actors from the tourism, charity and banking worlds in Austria in 2015. Through this review and case study, the article analyzes the parameters linking actors, projects, and online crowdfunding operations. This analysis indicates that the practice of crowdfunding exists inside the increasingly blurred lines between e-commerce and financing, outside of the need for funds and the communication parameters that are conventionally viewed in the academic literature as an additional advantage to the use of crowdfunding. The case project exemplifies an instrumental version of crowdfunding centered on communication rather than on financing. These results provided further insights on the extant literature in the field of crowdfunding business models.JEL Codes: G32, M37, G21, L83, L31

This research paper undertakes a critical comparative analysis of the emerging regulatory framework relating to Crowdfunding and P2P Lending in India with the corresponding rules and regulations prevailing in the USA and UK in order to ascertain whether the draft regulatory framework in India is capable of extracting experiences and lessons from already enacted and mature regulations. We find that in framing the draft legislation in India, the regulators have obtained valuable guidance from a number of evolved legislations inter alia including USA, UK, France, Canada and Japan. The draft legislation proposed in India is innovative in many ways as the securities and banking regulators have attempted to adapt the various rules and regulations to the existing institutional infrastructure in India. However, in doing so, at times, the legislator forgets that at the early stages of an industry, regulation should be enabling and not limiting.JEL Codes: K22, D14, G2, L86, M38, O16

This paper analyses the degree of relevance of certain factors in the intention of adopting technological innovation that equity crowdfunding involves. We propose a holistic and integrated model, which incorporates different theoretical frameworks consistent with the object of study. An online survey was conducted among contributors to campaigns on the largest reward crowdfunding platform in Spain. The empirical framework of analysis is based on structural equation modelling, as most of the relationships proposed in the hypothesis involve latent variables or constructs. The results emphasize the relevance of the perceived ease of use (above utility) in the intention to participate in equity crowdfunding. This factor mediates the role of perceived utility in the adoption of this innovation, compared to the Technology Acceptance Model (in its different versions). Likewise, the confidence of the potential adopter, based on different elements, does not directly determine participation in equity crowdfunding, unlike what happens with other online investment scenarios.JEL Codes: O33, G11

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the extant literature concerning the operational problems of crowdfunding projects by exploring how project creators are able to manage the challenges that occur during the fulfilment phase. Thus, the research question of the study is the following: “Why do project creators disrespect their reward promises in crowdfunding?”. The study adopted a case study approach of a crowdfunding project that contains rewards to deliver to backers after the fundraising period. A project titled “Coolest Cooler” was promoted on the Kickstarter platform during 2014. The results outline the primary operational problems (e.g., manufacturing, planning and budgeting and shipping) that are due to the incompetence and inexperience of the project creator. These problems demonstrate the importance of operations strategy during the fulfilment phase after a successful campaign. The authors suggest possible operations strategies in order to answer the research question.JEL Codes: M11, M13, O33

The transition from a fossil energy–dependent economy toward a renewable energy-based economy is not possible unless significant investments are made in the renewable energy sector. The enormous challenge ahead demands innovative ways to increase funding of the green economy and green growth. Keeping this in mind, in this paper we investigate which crowdfunding model best supports the financing of renewable energy projects. We empirically investigate the leading 30 crowdfunding platforms specific to renewable energy from seven countries: the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Portugal. We find that renewable energy crowdfunding platforms have raised a combined total of almost €305 million, of which the lending-based model has contributed the most. We also discuss some innovative case studies and innovative models used in this process. The data suggests that crowdfunding has the potential to fulfil financing needs in the renewable energy domain.JEL Codes: O31, O35, O44, P18, G31