Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Crowdfunding'

Today it is extremely hard to get funding for different projects trough the ordinary channels such as banks, VC or Business angels etc. In recent years this has opened up for other alternatives, one of them is Crowdfunding. A few of the questions this paper attempt to answer is, which companies is Crowdfunding suited for? How do you succeed with your Crowdfunding campaign? What is the money used for? What’s the outlook on the future for Crowdfunding? The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of Crowdfunding and how it is used today, plus shine some light on how the future for Crowdfunding looks. Hopefully this will help the reader gain knowledge about why Crowdfunding is chosen as a mean to get investments. The purpose of the interviews is to get an inside look on Crowdfunding from those who work with it and those who have used it. What has the money been used for, what makes a successful campaign etc. The method that has been used to gather information is via internet and interviews, where the main content is rendered. The different kinds of Crowdfunding There are four types of Crowdfunding, Donation, Reward, Equity and Loan-based. Donation means that you give away your money and get nothing in return. In Reward based you get something (the product, a t-shirt etc…) in return for the investment. In Equity you get equity in the company. Loan gives you your money back with interest. Analysis and conclusion The main finding in the study is that most companies think that they will use Crowdfunding to gain capital to produce a product, which actually could be of less importance than the free marketing they get. Therefore the campaign, already from the start, should have the market in mind, together with the actual fund rising. Another conclusion is that Crowdfunding usually benefits the smaller companies, and the success of the campaign is strongly dependent on the many qualities of a skillfull entrepreneur.
Då det i dagens samhälle är mycket svårt att finna finansiering till olika projekt genom de klassiska investeringsalternativen, banker, affärsänglar m.fl. har detta gjort att det på senare tid kommit nya alternativa vägar att få finansiering, ett utav dessa alternativ är Crowdfunding. Några frågor som kommer att försöka besvaras i denna uppsats är: Vilka företag passar Crowdfunding för? Hur lyckas man med sin Crowdfunding kampanj? Vad använder företagen pengarna till? Hur ser framtiden ut? Syftet med denna studie är att öka kunskapen om Crowdfunding och hur det används idag samt hur framtiden för denna förhållandevis nya form av finansiering ser ut. Förhoppningsvis hjälper detta läsaren att skapa en förståelse varför Crowdfunding väljs före de klassiska alternativen. Syftet med intervjuer är att skaffa sig en inblick i Crowdfunding från insidan, dvs. hur har pengarna använts, finns det några gemensamma nämnare som gör att vissa kampanjer lyckas medan andra inte gör det. Metod som använts är informationssök via internet och intervjuer, intervjuerna bandades och transkriberades för att sedan kunna återge huvudinnehållet. De olika typerna av Crowdfunding Det finns fyra olika typer av Crowdfunding, dessa är Donation, Reward, Equity och Loan Based Crowdfunding. Donation innebära att ger en gåva och inte får något i utbyte. Reward funkar genom att man får en gåva eller något symboliskt för att man stöttat kampanjen. I Equity får man en andel i företagen och i Loan så lånar man ut pengar mot ränta. Analys och slutsats De flesta företag går in med inställningen att de ska samla in pengar för att kunna genomföra sitt projekt men det kan faktiskt vara mindre viktigt än den gratis marknadsföring de får. Därför bör kampanjen redan från början ha marknaden i åtanke tillsammans med insamlingen av kapital. En annan slutsats är att det är oftast mindre företag som gynnas av Crowdfunding och för att få en lyckad kampanj krävs många av de egenskaper som man letar efter hos en klassisk entreprenör.

Entrepreneurship is a key factor for economic growth and has been a famous and controversial subject for long. However, the creation of innovations for small and medium sized businesses is limited when there is a finance gap in the market, based on the difference between the observed and desired debt. In recent years, it has emerged an alternative financing; crowdfunding, which can help and reduce the problems of the current finance gap. This qualitative study aims to describe the term, crowdfunding, and explore opportunities for crowdfunding in the future development as an alternative financing. To fulfill the purpose of the study, 15 interviews were conducted. This has provided the study with the necessary depth of knowledge to answer the research questions; How can the future of crowdfunding become on the Swedish market? When can crowdfunding be preferable over other forms of financing? How can crowdfunding help to reduce the financing gap? The theoretical framework was created before the empirical data collection and became the basis for the study's development. The chapter includes a description of the crowdfunding other financing options, the financial gap and previous empirical studies. Further analyzed the empirical data collected by connecting to the theoretical framework, which led the researchers to the following conclusions; the future prospects of crowdfunding is good when the financing form provides benefits that can not be achieved at other financing options. The factor that should decide a company's choice of financing is not the specific options. The company should instead consider which stage they find themselves in and take decisions based on that. Crowdfunding contributes to an increased supply of financing, which reduces the financing gap. The study shows, however, that action similar to increasing public awareness of crowdfunding and tax benefits may increase the contribution further.
Entreprenörskap är en viktig faktor för den ekonomiska tillväxten och har länge varit ett känt och omdiskuterat ämne. Dock är små och medelstora företags skapande av innovationer begränsad då det råder ett finansieringsgap på marknaden, vilket grundar sig på skillnaden mellan observerad och önskad skuldsättning. Under de senaste åren har det dock växt fram en alternativ finansieringsform; crowdfunding, som kan bidra till att minska problematiken över det rådande finansieringsgapet. Den här kvalitativa studie syftar till att beskriva begreppet crowdfunding samt se till möjligheterna för crowdfundingens framtida utveckling som en alternativ finansieringsform. För att uppfylla studiens syfte genomfördes 15 intervjuer. Det här gav den kunskapsbredd som krävdes för att besvara de frågeställningar som låg till grund för studien; Hur kan framtiden för crowdfunding se ut på den svenska marknaden? När kan crowdfunding vara att föredra framför andra finansieringsformer? På vilket sätt kan crowdfunding bidra till att minska finansieringsgapet? Den teoretiska referensramen skapades inför den empiriska insamlingen av data och utgjorde därav grunden till studiens uppbyggnad. Kapitlet omfattar en beskrivning av crowdfunding, andra finansieringsalternativ, det finansiella gapet samt tidigare empiriska undersökningar. Vidare analyserades den empiriska data som samlats in genom att återkoppla till den teoretiska referensramen, vilket ledde författarna fram till följande slutsatser; framtidsutsikterna för crowdfunding är god då finansieringsformen innebär fördelar som inte kan uppnås vid andra finansieringsalternativ. Den faktor som skall styra ett företags val av finansieringsform är inte de specifika alternativen utan i vilket stadie företaget befinner sig i. Crowdfunding bidrar till ett ökat utbud av finansiering, vilket minskar finansieringsgapet. Studien visar dock på att åtgärder liknande allmän höjd medvetenhet gällande crowdfunding samt skattefördelar kan öka crowdfundingens bidrag ytterligare.

In crowdfunding, funders often have very little or no information about the social entrepreneur and the venture. This asymmetric information hinders funding in that potential funders only make a pledge if they can trust the entrepreneur and the seriousness of the project. Thus entrepreneurs have to signal information to potential funders. In the case of conventional ventures, this means showing that the company is committed to the financial returns or the quality of the product, for instance. However, in the case of social enterprises, entrepreneurs can signal their commitment to a social or an environmental challenge. The information that entrepreneurs want to convey to potential funders depends very much on the type of crowdfunding. The type of crowdfunding determines whether the entrepreneur is pitching to potential investors, lenders or potential consumers and general supporters of the project. While investors tend to be more concerned with the financial returns, the quality of the product or service tends to be the variable that matters most to the potential consumer. This thesis examines the crowdfunding campaigns of social ventures in order to understand how to crowdfund social enterprises. It identifies the signals with which, social entrepreneurs try to attract funding through different types of crowdfunding, mainly reward-based. It finds that reward-based crowdfunding offers a good basis for social entrepreneurs to attract funding by advertising and signaling their commitment to social or environmental issues. This is all the more true when the social enterprise seeking to be crowdfunded only aims to be financially autonomous and thus cannot offer attractive financial returns to potential investors.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether a specific method of financing, so called Crowd Funding, CF, can be applied on the Swedish housing market. Limitations are made to the housing market of Stockholm since it is different in many ways from the housing market in the rest of the country. Real estate is only mentioned as examples of items in different funding methods when the new solution is aimed primarily for the condominium market. Problems are identified and investigated through interviews with officials involved in funding. Preliminary there is a historical background to the proposal, various needs that have arisen and why. The background includes the concept of CF as a method, its application and what it is that makes it so successful. This is followed by an overview of the conventional lending market in Sweden and an overview of a range of alternative financing methods that could be applied to the condominium property today. A solution based on a combination of CF and conventional mortgages is presented. It also follows issues that must be investigated and resolved in connection with the use of CF in combination with conventional mortgages. The problems are discussed in interviews with relevant officials and presented under the heading Results of the investigations. A brief overview of client funds and client accounts is provided as background for the reader to follow the reasoning that follows. Finally, there is a draft legally tenable agreement that could be applied to the presented solution. The thesis discusses legal parties and concepts in situations that might arise. Under alternative financing methods situations are discussed between lenders and borrowers. Lenders are usually institutional lenders, but may include private lenders as well. Borrowers are generally individuals. The whole relationship is built up as a form of credit where the risk premium is paid in a form of an option. This means that the funding schemes are mixed in a new form of financing, why the parties' names also may be mixed.
Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om en specifik finansieringsmetod, så kallad Crowd Funding, CF, går att tillämpa på den svenska bostadsrättsmarknaden. Avgränsningar görs till Stockholms bostadsrättsmarknad då denna skiljer sig på många sätt från bostadsmarknaden i resten av landet. Fastigheter tas endast upp som exempel på objekt inom finansieringsmetoder då den nya lösningen i första hand riktar sig till bostadsrättsobjekt. Problem identifieras och utreds genom intervjuer med funktionärer som arbetar med finansiering. Inledande presenteras bakgrunden till förslaget, olika behov som har uppstått och varför. Bakgrunden innefattar begreppet CF som metod, hur den tillämpats och vad det är som gör den så framgångsrik. Därefter ges en översikt över den konventionella lånemarknaden i Sverige och en översikt över en rad alternativa finansieringar som skulle kunna tillämpas på bostadsrättsobjekt idag. . En potentiell lösning av finansieringsproblematiken presenteras i form av ett förslag som innebär en kombination av CF och konventionella lån. Vidare följer problem som måste undersökas och lösas i samband med användning av CF och konventionella lån. Problemen diskuteras i intervjuer med relevanta funktionärer och presenteras under rubriken "Resultat från undersökningar" En kort översikt om klientmedel och klientmedelskonton ges som bakgrund till läsaren för att kunna följa resonemanget som följer. Slutligen presenteras ett utkast till juridiskt hållbart avtal som skulle kunna tillämpas på CF. I uppsatsen diskuteras juridiska parter och begrepp i situation som kan tänkas uppstå. Under alternativa finansieringsmetoder diskuteras situationer mellan långivare och låntagare. Långivare är normalt institutionella kreditgivare men kan även innefatta mer privata kreditgivare. Låntagare är generellt endast privatpersoner. Under avsnittet där CF helt eller delvis tillämpas på bostäder, benämns kreditgivare som investerare eller finansiär beroende på finansieringsform. Låntagaren, köpare av bostaden, benämns kredittagaren. Hela förhållandet är uppbyggt som en form av kreditgivning där riskpremien betalas ut i en form av option. Detta innebär att finansieringsmetoderna blandas i en ny form av finansiering, varför parternas benämningar också kan komma att blandas.

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Este estudo busca investigar quais são as variáveis que conduzem ao sucesso de uma campanha crowdfunding no Brasil. Para atingir tal objetivo, obtemos uma amostra com 520 projetos do site Catarse, maior plataforma em atividade no país, e nela aplicamos o modelo de Cox e o método da regressão quantílica com dados censurado. Com base nos resultados auferidos, evidenciamos que variáveis relacionadas à qualidade de um projeto e a sua maior divulgação em redes sociais elevam sua probabilidade de atingir sua meta de arrecadação.
This study aims to investigate what are the variables that lead to successful crowdfunding campaign in Brazil. To achieve this goal we get a sample of 520 projects from Catarse site, larger platform active in the country, and in them we applied the Cox model and the method of quantile regression with censored data. Based on the results achieved we showed that variables related to the quality of a project and its dissemination in social networks increase their likelihood of achieving their fundraising goal.

This study was performed to examine the performance of an equity based crowdfunding campaign, as well as seeking to describe the risks, complications and the opportunities that this kind of funding brings. The study was conducted by an empirical case study of a company that was about to initiate an equity based crowdfunding campaign. The conclusion is that the planning of an equity based crowdfunding campaign is time consuming and requires knowledge in many different areas. Therefore it is important to identify in which areas skills and resources already are available within the company, and where it must be obtained through a learning process. The report also highlights that equity based crowdfunding, because of legal restrictions surrounding the issue of unlisted shares, can not be marketed as other types of crowdfunding. This leads to the conclusion that those who invest in equity based crowdfunding do not necessarily belong to the crowd that crowdfunding is generally associated with. Arguments can be made that this crowdfunding model rather resemble traditional angel networks. A technical study was also made about the company's products. The result of the technical study can be used by customers to get a clearer understanding of the company's products, but also by the company itself as a good insight into how their products work in practice and to develop the existing products.

This study was performed to examine the performance of an equity based crowdfunding campaign, as well as seeking to describe the risks, complications and the opportunities that this kind of funding brings. The study was conducted by an empirical case study of a company that was about to initiate an equity based crowdfunding campaign. The conclusion is that the planning of an equity based crowdfunding campaign is time consuming and requires knowledge in many different areas. Therefore it is important to identify in which areas skills and resources already are available within the company, and where it must be obtained through a learning process. The report also highlights that equity based crowdfunding, because of legal restrictions surrounding the issue of unlisted shares, can not be marketed as other types of crowdfunding. This leads to the conclusion that those who invest in equity based crowdfunding do not necessarily belong to the crowd that crowdfunding is generally associated with. Arguments can be made that this crowdfunding model rather resemble traditional angel networks. A technical study was also made about the company's products. The result of the technical study can be used by customers to get a clearer understanding of the company's products, but also by the company itself as a good insight into how their products work in practice and to develop the existing products.

Equity crowdfunding är ett relativt outforskat fenomen, men trots detta finns det viss forskning på ämnet. Den forskning som tidigare har gjorts är utifrån ett traditionellt synsätt på organisationer. Vi ville med hjälp av en kvalitativ studie undersöka och skapa förståelse för vilka andra värden och betydelser än ekonomiskt kapital som aktörer förknippar med equity crowdfunding. Vi hade en viss förförståelse och ville med hjälp av denna skapa en djupare förståelse. Därför valde vi att intervjua fem aktörer som alla har en koppling till bolag som genomfört en equity crowdfunding-kampanj. Med hjälp av ostrukturerade intervjuer lät vi respondenterna tala fritt om sina erfarenheter och utifrån detta kunde vi sedan bilda vår teoretiska referensram. De teman som vi funnit utifrån vår empiri är symboler, identitet, gränser, makt, socialt kapital samt humankapital.

La tesis doctoral ‘Crowdfunding and Blockchain Economics’, contiene tres artículos teóricos escritos por Michele Fabi, dos de los cuales (el segundo y tercer capítulo) han sido escritos en coautoría con Matthew Ellman. En términos generales, esta disertación investiga los fenómenos económicos resultantes de la digitalización de la economía, en particular los que se refieren al ‘crowdfunding’ y a los mercados de criptomonedas manejados a través de la tecnología ‘blockchain’. La metodología de investigación es teórica, pero tiene claras implicaciones prácticas, ya que proporciona respuestas preliminares a cuestiones vitales sobre la sostenibilidad, planeación y regulación de dichas tecnologías, así como sobre sus impactos en el bienestar de la economía. El primer capítulo, ‘The Cryptocurrency Mining Dilemma,’ proporciona un modelo que evalúa la eficacia de como el diseño de una criptomoneda descentralizada paga a sus ‘mineros’ (cryptocurrency miners). Ellos son los que mantienen el sistema monetario, actualizando las transacciones de criptomonedas en su ‘blockchain.’ Específicamente, este capítulo examina si es mejor que reciban una compensación a través del señoraje de la inflación de la criptomoneda, o si es mejor que reciban tal compensación de las tarifas aplicadas a vendedores y compradores de bienes de consumo que usan la criptomoneda como herramienta de pago. El capítulo ofrece un marco teórico que, por un lado, modela las ganancias del comercio como motivo para mantener una criptomoneda descentralizada y, por otro, modela los incentivos de los individuos para volverse mineros, y así competir para actuar como validadores y comunicadores de todas las transacciones de una dada criptomoneda. El análisis demuestra que una criptomoneda que paga a sus mineros solo con el señoraje de la inflación no es óptima (ni viable), porque no les brinda incentivos para actualizar el ‘blockchain’, causando así una ineficiencia. El segundo capítulo, ‘A Theory of Crowdfunding Dynamics,’ proporciona un análisis formal y riguroso de la dinámica de las pujas en el ‘crowdfunding All-or-Nothing’ (AON). Este capítulo brinda un análisis general de los impulsores de la dinámica de pujas, explicando así los patrones de pujas en forma de U (‘U-shape’) que emergen de la observación de los datos. El modelo muestra que un amplio espectro de las posibles dinámicas. Éstas se explican por medio de la variación temporal en la importancia estratégica de los postores (‘pivotality’), y su reacción de promedio a las noticias que se les revelan con el tiempo (el capítulo se refiere a este efecto como el ‘Jensen effect’ ya que su signo está determinado por la desigualdad de Jensen). Basándose sobre el análisis de estos efectos, el capítulo proporciona una racionalización de la forma de U y una mayor variedad de otras dinámicas. El tercer capítulo, ‘Crowdfunding with Endogenously Timed Moves,’ amplía el modelo presentado en el capítulo dos, donde cada postor descubre las campañas de crowdfunding de manera casual y exógena y actúa una sola vez en ese momento. En cambio, el modelo presentado en este capítulo permite que los postores puedan pedir a la plataforma de crowdfunding que les recuerde de volver a visitar la campaña más tarde, así dándoles la oportunidad de posponer su decisión de informarse y contribuir al crowdfunding. De esta manera, el momento exacto de las pujas se vuelve endógeno. Esta extensión se justifica por la característica común de las ‘Remind-me options’ que suelen ofrecer las plataformas de crowdfunding. El capítulo analiza plenamente las campañas con una meta de dos pujas.
The doctoral dissertation, entitled ‘Crowdfunding and Blockchain Economics’ contains three theoretical papers by Michele Fabi, among which two (chapters two and three) are written in co-authorship with his academic advisor Matthew Ellman. In general, the dissertation investigates economic phenomena related to the digitalization of the modern economy; in particular, crowdfunding and cryptocurrency markets managed by blockchain. These are practical technologies that are increasingly used and have entered the public debate because of new regulatory questions. The thesis is purely theoretical but already provides preliminary answers to vital questions about sustainability and welfare. So, it has a clear practical importance. The first chapter, ‘The Cryptocurrency Mining Dilemma,’ assesses the central question for the design of a decentralized cryptocurrency of how to reward its ‘miners’. That is, those who upkeep the currency system by record-keeping its transactions on a blockchain. Concretely, the fundamental question that the chapter addresses is whether they are best compensated via seigniorage from currency inflation, or fees from buyers and sellers that trade using the cryptocurrency, or a mix of the two. The chapter provides a framework that, on one hand, models gains from trade as the motive for holding cryptocurrency and, on the other hand, models individuals’ incentives to become miners and compete to act as validators and communicators of all transactions in the currency. The analysis proves that inflation-only is not optimal (and not even feasible) because it does cryptocurrency miners the incentives to update the record of transactions on the blockchain, causing an inefficiency. The second chapter, ‘A Theory of Crowdfunding Dynamics,’ provides a rigorous, formal analysis of bid dynamics in All-or-Nothing (AON) crowdfunding to explain the U-shape contribution patterns that crowdfunding data exhibit. The model developed in this chapter can predict possible dynamics based on the temporal variation in bidders pivotality, or strategic importance, and their average reaction to news that are revealed over time (their effect is called the Jensen effect since its sign is determined by Jensen’s inequality). The combination of these effects provides a rationale for the U-shape together with a wide spectrum of other possible dynamics. The third chapter, ‘Crowdfunding with Endogenously Timed Moves,’ extends the dynamic crowdfunding benchmark of chapter two in which bidders join the crowdfunding campaign at exogenous, random times and act only upon arrival. On the contrary, the model developed in this chapter allows arriving bidders to revisit the campaign later. This extension is justified by the common feature of ‘Remind me’ options that crowdfunding platforms usually provide. The chapter fully analyzes crowdfunding campaign with a funding threshold satisfied by two bids.

Con lo sviluppo e la diffusione sempre più capillare di internet, si è assistito anche allo sviluppo di modelli di business e forme di finanziamento innovative che appena pochi anni prima non avrebbero potuto veder luce, anche solo per limiti tecnologici. Il Crowdfunding ne è un esempio lampante. Col termine Crowdfunding ci si riferisce ad un metodo di finanziamento collettivo, tipicamente basato su piattaforme online, nato dalla fusione di due modelli di business antecedenti: il Crowdsourcing e il Microcredito. L’elaborato descrive le origini, i modelli, le piattaforme e gli sviluppi del fenomeno e, in particolare, approfondisce l’applicazione del Crowdfunding nell’ambito musicale. Perché la produzione musicale ha subito mostrato uno speciale interesse per questa forma di finanziamento? Cosa lo rende particolarmente adatto a questo tipo di applicazione e perché i progetti nell’ambito musicale sono quelli che, tra tutti, ottengono un maggiore successo sulle piattaforme di crowdfunding? Partendo da queste domande ci si propone di indagare il fenomeno e metterne in risalto le specificità, analizzando anche dati quantitativi ed esperienze dirette.

Research question: How can Crowdfunding be used as a marketing tool?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the anomalies and trends in crowdfunding in order to explain how crowdfunding can be used as a marketing tool.Method: This research is exploratory with an inductive research approach. Primary data was collected with qualitative techniques. Semi-structured interviews was used when interviewing the participants in order to withdraw data.Findings: The empirical data showed that crowdfunding can be used for marketing and creating a buzz or awareness. These findings lead us to create a proposed model for how crowdfunding most effectively can be used as marketing.

Small businesses account for most of all Swedish companies on the market. Difficulties for small businesses to seek capital come from the financial crisis 2008. The global crisis resulted in banks not granting loans to small business as often as before, mainly due to the banks asserting small business as high risks. Small businesses sought therefore alternative financing. The purpose of this study is to obtain a deeper understanding of what the opportunities and limitations that the small companies experience with the usage of crowdfunding as a form of financing and why they choose it over traditional financing options such as bank loans. A case study has been implemented in this paper to study small businesses seeking crowdfunding on the Swedish platform Fundedbyme. The research questions have been studied through a qualitative research with semi-structured interviews. Essential theories that were chosen to analyze this subject was information asymmetry, signaling theory, pecking order theory and previous research. In conclusion the study shows that bank loan was considered as an attractive financing alternative for small businesses because they could get larger sums of capital. Further conclusions were that small businesses chose crowdfunding because they received capital and representatives. However, crowdfunding was regarded as restrictive with unclear legislations and regulations in the crowdfunding market. A combination of crowdfunding and traditional financing form was preferred by most of the companies that was interviewed.
Småföretagen står för majoriteten av alla svenska bolag som finns på marknaden. En förändring på småföretagens finansieringsalternativ har framkommit efter finanskrisen 2008. Den globala krisen gjorde så att banker inte var lika villiga att låna ut till småföretag eftersom de ansågs vara en hög risk. Detta resulterade till att småföretag sökte kapital genom andra finansieringsalternativ som crowdfunding. Syftet med studien är att erhålla en djupgående uppfattning kring möjligheter och begränsningar som småföretagen upplever i samband med crowdfunding som finansieringsform samt vilka skillnader som upplevs av småföretagen mellan crowdfunding respektive banklån som finansieringsalternativ. En fallstudie har framförts i denna uppsats där skribenterna har valt att studera småföretag som söker crowdfunding på den svenska plattformen Fundedbyme. Forskningsfrågorna har besvarats med hjälp av en kvalitativ forskningsansats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien valde väsentliga teorier för att analysera ämnet. Teorier som valdes var Informationsasymmetri, Signaleringsteori, Pecking order teorin samt tidigare forskning inom ämnet crowdfunding. Studiens slutsatser påvisade att småföretagen ansåg att banklån var ett attraktivt finansieringsalternativ eftersom företagen kunde få in större kapital. Ytterligare slutsatser tyder på att crowdfunding blev vald som finansieringsalternativ för att småföretagen fick både kapital och representanter i företaget. Småföretagen ansåg dock att crowdfunding besitter oklara lagstiftningar och regleringar. Majoritet av småföretagen föredrar en kombination av både crowdfunding och traditionella finansieringsformer.

Vi avser att utreda skatteverkets ställningstagande i fråga om moms vid belöningsbaserad crowdfunding. Syftet är att diskutera om , och i vilka fall, moms i samband med belöningsbaserad crowdfunding ska erläggas.

Crowdfunding challenges century long boundaries between the public, the industry andinnovation. In that respect the phenomenon holds the potential to decentralize and democratizethe way ventures are financed and realized. Crowdfunding has seen a lot of exitingdevelopments during the last few years, partly because of new crowdfunding platformsemerging on the internet, and partly because of new ground-breaking technology being used forfunding purposes. Meanwhile research has not quite catched up with the recent developments ofdifferent models for crowdfunding. This study’s aim is therefor to give an comprehensiveoverview of the different models of crowdfunding that are being utilized by crowdfundingplatforms on the internet today. A deductive content analysis has been made of 67 currentcrowdfunding platforms. The platforms have been analysed in order to determine what model ofcrowdfunding they utilize. The result has, apart from partly confirming prior studies, alsoproduced new exiting findings on what mechanisms constitute some of the crowdfundingmodels we see today. A new taxonomy of crowdfunding models is discussed and proposed. Theconclusion is that the need for a updated taxonomy, like the one this study provides, was wellneeded in order to understand the field. One important finding is that blockchain technology hasproduced a new form of crowdfunding through cryptocurrency: Initial coin offering. Thatparticular area will likely develop and continue to decentralize and democratise the economicalhuman interaction when it comes to financing.

Crowdfunding as an alternative method for financing activities by raising money from the community traces way back to the 19th century but in recent years has regained popularity as the result of two important socio-cultural and economic events: the rise of the Web 2.0 Era and the financial crisis of the year 2008. A final taxonomy of the various business models adopted by crowdfunding portals was made only in 2012. The crowdfunding market is growing fast and big year-by-year nevertheless, for purposes of this thesis, it has been explored in detail the crowdfunding activity in the Italian and Chinese market and tried to underline the differences and common features in terms of its birth and its scope within these two markets. According to predictions, the Asian crowdfunding market, especially the Chinese market, will be the real global driver in the next five/ten years with over 50% of the global market share thus, the overcoming of the legislative gaps and a simplification of the bureaucratic framework on an international scale may foster a more efficient circulation of money and investments throughout the countries.

Raising funds through crowdfunding has experienced an accelerated growth for start-up companies. Moreover, recent literature suggests that crowdfunding has developed from being just a fundraising tool to a versatile marketing tool (Brown et al., 2016). Even though the marketing aspect of crowdfunding has been researched, there are no clear distinctions of explicitly what marketing values a crowdfunding campaign may entail. This study investigates the two dominating crowdfunding approaches for commercialized ventures, namely, reward- and equity-based crowdfunding. A gap in literature has been identified regarding differentiating reward- and equity-based crowdfunding, in terms of what marketing values they encompass from an entrepreneur’s point of view. The authors’ theoretical position comprehends a connection between crowdfunding and marketing values, which the authors aim to investigate through an exploratory approach. The empirical findings are based upon eleven face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs who has launched a successful crowdfunding campaign and can thereby be considered experts in the field. Through the empirical findings, the authors were able to identify how each approach creates value for the company. The empirical findings suggest that there are convergences and divergences, differentiating reward- from equity-based crowdfunding. This study aims to support and guide entrepreneurs who want to start a crowdfunding campaign by giving the entrepreneurs directions depending on what marketing values they may seek.

During recent years, many researchist have tried to analyze the financing gap that arises in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to the difficult situation of financing its operations for start-ups, new market solutions have developed, including the idea of collecting capital through crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a financing method that involves financing a project using small contributions from a large group of individuals / investors. Instead of the traditional way of raising capital from a smaller group of sophisticated investors, the focus would instead be on a large "audience", where each individual contributed to a smaller amount. Crowdfunding is still a new phenomenon, which means that not as much research has been done in comparison with the more established funding alternatives. The problem for this form of funding mostly occurs in the information gap that exists between the potential investors and entrepreneurs. By discovering which factors that contribute to a successful campaign, investors and crowdfunding platforms can gain more knowledge that increases their chances of successfully closing a campaign.
Under det senaste åren har många forskare försökt analysera finansieringsgapet som uppstår i små och medelstora företag (SME). På grund av den försvårade situationen med finansiering av sin verksamhet för start-ups har nya marknadslösningar uppkommit, bland annat idén om insamling av kapital via crowdfunding. Crowdfunding är en finansieringsmetod som innebär finansiering av ett projekt med hjälp av små bidrag från en stor grupp individer/investerare. Istället för att höja kapital från en mindre grupp sofistikerade investerare som det vanligtvis görs, skulle fokus istället ligga på en stor “publik”, där varje individ bidrog till en mindre summa. Crowdfunding är fortfarande väldigt nytt, vilket gör att det inte bedrivits lika mycket forskning i jämförelse med de mer etablerade finansieringsmodellerna. Problemet för denna finansieringsform ligger mestadels i informationsklyftan som råder mellan de potentiella investerare och entreprenörer. Genom att analysera vilka faktorer som bidrar till en framgångsrik kampanj, kan investerare och crowdfunding plattformar få mer kunskap som ökar deras chanser att stänga en kampanj framgångsrikt.

Denna kvalitativa studie behandlar ämnet Internetbaserad crowdfunding, enfinansieringsmetod där ett stort antal människor ger en liten summa pengar vardera till ettprojekt via en crowdfundingplattform på Internet. Studiens fokus är engagemang: vad somskapar engagemang för crowdfunding och vad som kan stärka engagemanget. Studienundersöker också om enbart kommunikation via Internet är tillräckligt för att skapa stortengagemang för crowdfunding. Syftet med studien är att bidra till kunskapsutvecklingen inomforskningsområdet crowdfunding så att skapare av crowdfundingkampanjer, i utvecklandet avsina kampanjer, kan öka engagemanget hos de personer som stöttar eller funderar på att stöttaen crowdfundingkampanj. De problemformuleringar som ska bidra till att nå upp till syftet ärföljande: varför engagerar sig människor i crowdfunding? Hur kan interaktionen mellanstöttare och kampanjskapare förbättras? Hur kan ansikte-mot-ansikte-kommunikation, genomevent, öka engagemanget för crowdfundingkampanjer? För att besvara studiensproblemformuleringar och därmed nå upp till syftet genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuermed sju personer som stöttat crowdfundingkampanjer. Resultatet av undersökningen visar attdet finns flera motiv till varför människor engagerar sig i crowdfundingkampanjer. De motivsom representerades av flest respondenter var att hjälpa en vän och viljan att ett projekt skafinnas. Andra motiv som delades av flera respondenter var att stötta kampanjer där förtroendeoch tillit finns till kampanjskaparna, för att få belöningar för sitt engagemang, för att bli en delav gemenskapen och för att idén med crowdfunding gillas. Undersökningens resultat visaräven tre förbättringsmöjligheter i interaktionen mellan kampanjskapare och stöttare: 1) mervarierande statusuppdateringar på kampanjsidan på crowdfundingplattformen med fokus påannat än enbart det finansiella, 2) mer uppdateringar även efter kampanjens slut och 3) attkampanjskapare bör visa upp sina projekt i en livestream. Studiens resultat visar också attansikte-mot-ansikte-kommunikation, genom event, kan öka engagemanget förcrowdfundingkampanjer. Detta då stöttare får möta personerna bakomcrowdfundingkampanjen samt får se resultatet av kampanjen de stöttat på riktigt, inte enbartvia Internet. I studiens anges hur skapare av crowdfundingkampanjer praktiskt kan tillämpadenna studies resultat för att öka engagemanget hos stöttare samt potentiella stöttare.
This qualitative study addresses Internet-based crowdfunding, which is a financing methodwhere a large number of people give small amounts of money to a project via a crowdfundingplatform on the Internet. The focus of the study is engagement: what creates engagement incrowdfunding and what can increase the engagement. The study also examines ifcommunication only via the Internet is enough to create great engagement. The purpose of thestudy is to contribute to the knowledge development in the research area of crowdfunding. Bydoing that, it will also increase the knowledge among creators of crowdfunding campaignsand enable them to increase the engagement among backers and potential backers in thedevelopment of their campaigns. The research questions that will help achieve the purpose ofthe study are: why do people engage in crowdfunding? How can the interaction betweenbacker and creator of campaigns improve? How can face-to-face communication, throughevents, increase engagement in crowdfunding campaigns? To address these questions andachieve the purpose seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who hadbacked crowdfunding campaigns. The result of the study shows that there are differentmotives to why people engage in crowdfunding campaigns. The motives that was mostrepresented by the respondents was in order to help a friend and wanting to realize a certainproject. Other motives that were represented by several respondents were to back campaignsbecause they had confidence and trust in the creators of the campaigns, to receive rewards fortheir engagement, be a part of the community and to back a campaign because they like theidea of crowdfunding. The result of the study also shows three improvement possibilities inthe interaction between creator of the campaigns and the backers: 1) more dynamic updates onthe crowdfunding platform with focus on other than the financial aspect, 2) more updates afterthe end of the campaign and 3) that creators of the campaigns could show their projects in alivestream. The result of the study also shows that face-to-face communication, throughevents, can increase the engagement in crowdfunding campaigns. This is because backers canmeet the persons behind the crowdfunding campaign and see the result of the campaign in reallife and not just via Internet. How creators of crowdfunding campaigns can use the result ofthis study is indicated in the study. The language of the study is Swedish.

Crowdfunding är ett fenomen som de senaste åren har blivit ett allt större finansieringsalternativ för entreprenörer. I och med detta kommer denna uppsats med hjälp av intervjuer med anställda på två av de största crowdfundingplattformarna i Sverige samt enkäter med entreprenörer som använt sig av detta fenomen att analysera förtroendebyggandet mellan plattformen och entreprenörer. Uppsatsen ämnar även undersöka om tillvägagångssättet skiljer sig mellan de två största crowdfundingmodellerna i Sverige, aktie- och belöningsbaserad crowdfunding. Med hjälp av etablerade teorier inom förtroendeforskning har uppsatsskribenterna sammanfattat detta i en egen konstruerad modell som tar upp de faktorer som påverkar förtroende. Resultatet visar att förtroendebyggande sker mellan parterna samt att de faktorer som är av störst vikt är, kommunikationskanaler samt institutionellt förtroende. De största skillnaderna mellan aktie- och belöningsbaserade är mängden kommunikation och strukturell försäkran som krävs. Olika kombinationer av faktorer kan användas för att bygga förtroende beroende på plattformens inriktning och de entreprenörer som man riktar sig mot.

Online crowdfunding, an emerging business model, has been thriving for the last decade. It enables small firms and individuals to conduct financial transactions that would previously been impossible. Along with unprecedented opportunities, two fundamental issues still hinder crowdfunding ability to fulfill its potentials: the information asymmetry and the understanding of the impact of crowdfunding. Both are actually exacerbated by the "virtual" nature of these marketplaces. The success of this new market therefore critically depends on both improving existing mechanisms or designing new ones to mitigate the issue of unobservable fundraiser quality, which can lead to adverse selection and market collapse; and better understanding the impact of crowdfunding, and particularly its offline impact, which will allow the effective allocation of scarce resources. My dissertation includes three essays around these topics, using data from debt-, reward- and donation-based crowdfunding contexts, respectively. My first two essays focus on two popular but understudied components in crowdfunding campaigns, texts and videos, and aim at predicting fundraiser quality by quantifying texts and videos. In particular, the first essay focuses on developing scalable approaches to extracting linguistic features from texts provided by borrowers when they request funds; and on using those features to explain and predict the repayment probability of the problematic loans. The second essay focuses on videos in reward crowdfunding, and preliminary results show excellent predictive performance and strong associations between multi-dimensional video information and crowdfunding campaign success and quality. The last essay investigates the impact of educational crowdfunding on school performance, using data from a crowdfunding platform for educational purposes. The results show that educational crowdfunding plays a role far beyond simply a financial source. Overall, my dissertation identifies the non-financial impact of crowdfunding as well as potential opportunities for efficiency improvement in the crowdfunding market, which have thus far not been documented in the literature.

Crowdfunding innebär att företag söker kapital från allmänheten via internet. Det finns olika typer av crowdfunding och i den här studien har vi analyserat equity crowdfunding, vilket innebär att investerare får en ägarandel av företaget i utbyte mot att de investerar i det. Vi har följt upp 24 svenska företag efter att de har samlat in kapital genom equity crowdfunding via plattformen FundedByMe. Resultaten av studien visar att 19 av företagen överlevde. Dessa 19 företag har legat till grund för studiens observationer. Genom att pröva två hypoteser där olika faktorer som rör kapitalanskaffningen har satts i relation till företagens finansiella utveckling, visar det sig att företagens finansiella utveckling ej har något samband med varken hur många som investerar i företaget, eller hur stor andel av företagets aktier som emitteras till externa intressenter. Dessa resultat säger emot tidigare studier på området som har visat att dessa samband existerar. Det här kan möjligtvis vara en konsekvens av studiens begränsade urvalsram, vilket kan vara en anledning till att hypotesprövningen i de flesta fall ej har varit statistiskt signifikant. Företagen i studien har haft mellan 19 och 398 investerare. Då tidigare studier har visat att högt antal investerare har ett positivt samband med omsättningstillväxt är det ett rimligt antagande att tendenser till detta samband bör gå att finna i den här studien, men här tycks omsättningstillväxtens utveckling snarare vara slumpmässig och fluktuerande. Även vinsttillväxten tenderar att utvecklas slumpmässigt, förutom två år efter att företagen har sökt kapital genom equity crowdfunding, då ett positivt samband mellan vinsttillväxt och andel av företagets aktier som emitteras till externa intressenter, med statistisk signifikans, visas. Resultaten analyseras med utgångspunkt i behavioral finance och flockbeteende.
Crowdfunding refers to the endeavors of companies raising capital from the public via the internet. There are different types of crowdfundig, and this study focuses on equity crowdfunding, which means that investors receive equity in the form of company shares in exchange for investing in the company. We have analyzed 24 companies post funding through equity crowdfunding via the crowdfunding platform FundedByMe. The results of the study show that 19 of the companies survived. These 19 companies make up all of the study's observations. Through the testing of two hypotheses where different factors concerning the raising of capital are put in relation to the financial growth of the companies, results show that no relationship between number of investors and sales growth exist, nor does any relationship between profit growth and portion of company stock issued to external stakeholders through the equity crowdfunding campaign exist. These results are conflicting with previous studies that have shown that such relationships exist. This could possibly be due to the study's limited sampling size, which could be an explanation as to why no statistical significance for the testing of the hypotheses was found in most cases. The number of investors for each company in this study ranged between 19 and 398. Due to the fact that previous research has shown a positive relationship between number of investors and sales growth, it is a reasonable assumption that tendencies towards this relationship are to be found in this study as well. Instead, the development of sales growth tends to be rather random and fluctuating. This is also true for profit growth, except for two years after the raising of capital, where a positive and statistically significant relationship between profit growth and portion of company stock issued to external stakeholders can be found.The results are analyzed based on the theory of behavioral finance and herding.

Si le succès d'une campagne de crowdfunding dépend du projet qui est financé, il est aussi fortement lié aux choix stratégiques faits par l'entrepreneur et par le design de la campagne de financement en elle-même. Cette thèse étudie trois composants principaux du design d'une campagne de crowdfunding en se basant sur une base de données unique de plus de 22 000 projets présentés sur la plateforme Indiegogo. Premièrement, en choisissant entre les modèles de financement "keep-it-all" et "all-or-nothing", l'entrepreneur a la possibilité de transférer lerisque entre lui-même et la foule. Cela aura un impact sur la quantité d'informations qu'il divulguera et sur le comportement des participants. Deuxièmement, la personnalité de l'entrepreneur, et plus particulièrement son niveau de narcissisme, affecte également la manière dont la campagne est mise en place (taille, informations,...) et du soutien qu'il/elle obtient de la foule. Enfin, étant donné que nous savons que les entrepreneurs en série bénéficient habituellement de leur expérience via leur réseau et leur réputation, nous analysons sa capacité à recommencer une seconde campagne, la manière dont l'entrepreneur la conçoit et sa capacité à gagner, ou pas, le soutien du public après un premier succès ou un premier échec
If the crowdfunding campaign success depends on the project that is financed, it is also closely linked to the strategic choices of the entrepreneur and by the design of the financing campaign in itself. This thesis investigates three main components of the campaign design by using a unique database of more than 22,000 crowdfunding projects presented on the Indiegogo platform. First, by choosing between the keep-it-all and the all-or-nothing funding model, the entrepreneur is able to shift the risk between himself and the crowd. This will impact thecampaign disclosures and the behavior of the participants. Second, the personality of the entrepreneur and more precisely his level of narcissism also affects the way that the campaign is set up (size, soft information,...) and the support he/she receives from the crowd. Finally, since we know that serial entrepreneurs usually benefit from experience through network and reputation, we analyze his/her ability to restart a second campaign, the way that entrepreneurs design it and his/her capacity to gain, or not, support from the crowd after a first success or after a first failure

Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 84-86).
As FinTech and online alternative finance has become a disrupter for the world, one of their subcategories, crowdfunding has a considerable potential to change the real estate industry. The study was to examine the real estate crowdfunding (short for RECF) in China and understand the present status of the industry, challenges, opportunities, and trends. The data mainly came from the Chinese crowdfunding websites, industry reports, and the RECF platforms; the methodology included fundamental data analysis, case study and comparison with the RECF in other regions such as US, UK, and Europe. The study started with an introduction of real estate FinTech, crowdfunding, and theoretical framework about RECF as well as the global RECF market to get a better understanding of the RECF in China.
Then the research examined the history, and current status about the platform models, players, and characteristics of the RECF in China; the two representative cases (Duocaitou and Kaishiba) were are analyzed in detail to interpret the drivers under their successes and problems in general. The study found out the possible challenges for the RECF industry in China, including the blurred regulatory environment, low diversification in types and locations of properties and immature platforms as well as low desire to expand globally. Finally, the research attempted to seek for potentials and recommendations that will ultimately lead to the successful future development of this industry. The study was subject to the limitations on accessibility to the database and timeliness of data in such a changing industry.
However, its findings and suggestions can be useful to players who are supposed to engage in the RECF ecosystem and intend to involve in the RECF in China such as regulators, real estate developers, institutional or retail investors, and RECF startups. Future researches are necessary to understand the effectiveness of risk management systems on the RECF platforms, the ways that the institutional players can involve in the industry, the globalization of the Chinese RECF, and mechanism of RECF ecosystem.
by Renjie Tang.
S.M. in Real Estate Development
S.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate

Au cours de ces vingt dernières années le secteur de la microfinance au niveau global a crû de manière exponentielle. Il a permis à des millions de personnes à faibles revenus et exclues du secteur de la finance traditionnelle, de mieux lisser leur consommation et d'investir pour améliorer leur bien-être. Cependant au cours de cette même période, le secteur de la microfinance a aussi été frappé par des crises de repaiement et un certain nombre d'institutions de microfinance (IMFs) ont vu leur taux de défaut augmenter de manière alarmante. Il est ainsi crucial d'avoir une connaissance approfondie des determinants du risque au niveau macro et micro. Cette thèse, apporte une contribution dans ce sens en étudiant les risques de crédit au niveau du secteur et au niveau des empreunteurs en microfinance. Dans le premier chapitre, nous suggérons une nouvelle mesure de risque systémique pour le marché du microcrédit. Nous explorons ensuite les déterminants de ce risque pour 37 pays de 2000 à 2014. Pour ce faire, nous modélisons, la distribution jointe de la qualité du portefeuille de toutes les IMFs dans un pays donné en utilisant une copule équidépendante semi-paramétrique. Notre mesure est basée sur l'idée qu'une plus forte dépendance de la qualité du portefeuille dans un pays est un indicateur de fagilité dans le secteur. Nous montrons qu'après avoir controlé pour les effets pays, la concurrence, le niveau de pénétration du marché, la commercialisation, la croissance excessive du secteur ainsi qu'un fort taux d'intérêt augmente la fragilité du secteur. Dans le second chapitre, nous utilisons des données de la plateforme de microfinance Kiva.org pour évaluer le taux de défaut des prêts que les IMFs postent sur la platforme. Nous identifions, d'abord que les prêts de plus longue durée ont un taux de défaut plus élevés, deuxièmement, que le taux de défaut baisse avec l'âge de l'emprunteur et finalement que les délais de grâce augmentent le taux de défaut pour les prêts de groupe avec une fréquence de remboursement mensuelle.L'évaluation des politiques publiques est particulière difficile notamment lorsque celles-ci affectent un grand nombre de personnes et ont des effets non-marginaux. Le troisième chapitre de cette thèse apporte une contribution à cette littérature en estimant l'effet d'une politique éducative visant à donner plus de choix d'écoles aux ménages sur le prix de la qualité des lycées en Corée du Sud. Plus précisément, nous utilisons une approche hédonique pour estimer l'effet de la politique éducative sur le prix d'équilibre de la qualité des lycée à Séoul. Notre stratégie d'identification repose sur des effets spatiaux précis comme des gratte-ciel d'appartements à Séoul. C'est effets nous permettent d'estimer le prix d'équilibre de la qualité des lycées avant et après la politique sans avoir à se reposer sur la politique elle-même comme stratégie d'identification. Ainsi, nous mitigeons le biais dû au fait que les ménages se répartissent en fonction de leur préférence pour les biens localement distribués. Nous estimons que cette politique de choix d'école diminue le prix d'équilibre de la qualité des lycées de USD 26 871 en moyenne
The last 20 years have witnessed an exponential growth of the microfinance sector at the global level. In so doing, it has provided millions of poor people previously excluded from the traditional financial sector a better way to smooth their consumption and to invest to improve their livelihood.However, over the same period, the microfinance sector has also been hit by a series of repayment crises, and many microfinance institutions have seen an increase in their default rates at the microlevel. It is therefore important to have a better understanding of the determinants of risk in the microfinance sector. In this thesis, we address this issue by exploring the determinant of risk at the macro and microlevel. In the first chapter we introduce a new copula-based measure of systemic credit risk in microcredit markets and explore its determinants for 37 countries from 2000 to 2014. We model the joint distribution of portfolio quality of all microfinance institutions (MFIs) in a givencountry using an equidependent copula and an empirical density for the marginal. Our methodology is based on the idea that a higher level of dependence among MFIs in a given country is an indicator of potential fragility of the sector.We show that, after controlling for country effects, measures of competition, market penetration, commercialization and excessive growth of the sector, as well as the level of interest rates charged by MFIs in a country all increase the fragility of the microfinance sector, while lending to more women tends to reduce systemic risk. With this measure of systemic risk, we further compute the probability that a proportion of at least 20% of MFIs in a country are in serious financial distress and our simulations capture a progressive increase in risk in many countries that experienced a repayment crisis. In the second chapter, we use data from the microfinance crowdfunding platform Kiva to analyze the determinants of microfinance borrower defaults in a broad range of microfinance institutions in different countries. We use loan and borrower characteristics, downloaded from Kiva.org, to evaluate the repayment rates of the loans, that MFIs post on the platform. We identify, firstly that loans with longer durations have higher default, secondly that default rates decrease with the age of the borrower. Finally we find that grace periods increase default rates for group loans with monthly repayment frequency while the effect goes the other way with a weekly repayment frequency.The evaluation of public policies is challenging, particularly when these policies are meant to have wide scale and non-marginal effects. The third chapter of this thesis contribute to this literature by estimating the effect of the implementation of an open school choice program in South Korea. To be more specific we use a hedonic approach to estimate the effect of a high school choice program on the equilibrium price of high school quality in Seoul. Our identification strategy makes use of fine scale spatial effects such as clusters of skyscrapers apartment buildings and allows us to estimate the equilibrium price of high school quality before and after the school choice program without relying on the policy itself as an instrument.By allowing the spatial effects to differ before and after the policy, this strategy also mitigates the bias due to the sorting behavior of households that is likely to happen in the case of policies of such scales. We find that the policy decreases the equilibrium price of high school quality by USD 26,871 on average

Studien syftar till att analysera equity- och debt baserad crowdfunding i förhållande till studiens primära teori om elaboration likelihood model (ELM) och hur dess variabler påverkar potentiella investerares investeringsbedömningar. Informationsasymmetri och behavioral finance har inkluderats i studien som två kompletterande delteorier. För att undersöka detta har studien avgränsats till potentiella investerare som geografiskt är bosatta i Stockholms län. Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer där totalt elva potentiella investerare har intervjuats. Respondenterna har baserats på ett snöbollsurval. Intervjuerna har skett genom att respondenterna tagit del av fyra scenarion som innehåller variabler kopplade till teorin om ELM. Studiens resultat påvisar att potentiella investerare bedömer samt väljer investeringsprojekt utifrån den centrala vägen i ELM teorin, som karaktäriseras av projektets kvalitet vilken är motsatsen till den perifera vägen som istället belyser elektronisk word of mouth (WoM).
The study aims to investigate how equity- and debt based crowdfunding in relation to the study’s primary theory of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and its variables effect on potential investors’ investment decision. Information asymmetry and behavioral finance has also been included in the study as two complementary theories. To investigate this, the study has been delimited to potential investors who are geographically resident in Stockholm County. The survey has been conducted using semi-structured interviews, where a total of eleven potential investors have been interviewed based on a chain sampling. The potential investors have been presented four scenarios that contain variables linked to the theory of ELM. The study's findings show that potential investors assess and choose investment projects based on the central path of ELM theory, characterized by the quality of the project and opposite to the peripheral road that instead illuminates the electronic word of mouth (WoM).

Crowdfunding is a way of financing a project when money is raised from a large number of small contributors. The main objective of this thesis is to identify key contributing factors of success of a crowdfunding campaign based on statistical analysis of projects on HitHit.cz. As a further contribution, this thesis aims to provide recommendations on how to create a successful crowdfunding campaign, as well as to review characteristics associated with the biggest crowdfunding portals in the USA and Czech Republic.

La tesi tratta dell'equity-based crowdfunding e del ruolo che le previsioni economico-finanziarie svolgono all'interno delle campagne. Ci si chiede se anche per questo modello di crowdfunding, per cui investire implica sottoscrivere al capitale di rischio dell'impresa, gli aspetti economico-finanziari possano passare in secondo piano. Lo studio è stato condotto su un unico campione di 114 progetti (già finanziati) estratto da una delle principali piattaforme di equity crowdfunding: Crowdcube.

En aquesta dissertació, ens acostem a tres línies úniques de la literatura de crowdfunding. En el primer capítol, desenvolupem un model teòric que avalua el finançament òptim de l'emprenedor i l'elecció de llançament a l'triar entre crowdfunding basat en recompenses i finançament de deute. Contràriament a la literatura anterior, vam mostrar que quan s'utilitza el crowdfunding basat en recompenses, l'estratègia òptima de fixació de preus de l'empresari implica comprometre amb el preu minorista futur durant la campanya de crowdfunding i que aquesta estratègia òptima única implica recompensar els patrocinadors amb un descompte en relació amb els futurs clients minoristes. A l'triar entre finançament de deute i crowdfunding basat en recompenses, vam mostrar que no hi ha una estratègia òptima única. L'estratègia òptima dependria dels requisits de capital de el projecte i la taxa d'interès vigent. Vam descobrir que els projectes amb requisits de capital més baixos preferiran llançar-mitjançant crowdfunding, ja que no necessiten apartar-se dels preus òptims de crowdfunding. Mentre que per requisits de capital més alts, l'estratègia òptima depèn dels nivells de taxa d'interès. En el segon capítol, ens vam separar de l'anàlisi clàssica dels motius no financers en el crowdfunding basat en recompenses i investiguem com els empresaris poden incentivar financerament als patrocinadors per millorar el rendiment de la campanya. Mostrem específicament com es pot utilitzar l'estratègia de fixació de preus de l'emprenedor per indicar la qualitat de el projecte i la recompensa financera que reben els patrocinadors en relació amb els clients minoristes. El nostre estudi implica l'anàlisi de dos senyals costoses, compromís de preu i descompte, i un senyal sense cost, el nombre de classes de recompensa. Els nostres resultats mostren que l'ús de l'compromís de preus i el descompte per part de l'emprenedor està positivament associat amb l'exercici de la campanya. El nombre de classes de recompensa exhibeix una relació similar amb el rendiment de l'crowdfunding. No obstant això, destaquem que els senyals no funcionen de manera aïllada i que, en presència dels senyals costoses, l'efecte del senyal sense cost es debilita. Això proporciona suport addicional per l'argument que quan els senyals costoses i sense cost interactuen, els patrocinadors donen prioritat a les primeres. El tercer capítol d'aquesta tesi amplia la literatura incipient sobre el crowdfunding en sèrie a l'tenir en compte la dimensió contextual de les campanyes a la plataforma, prèviament descurada. Investiguem els efectes dels contextos canviants (indústria i / o ubicació geogràfica) en el rendiment de la campanya. Presumim de canviar el context afectarà negativament el resultat de la campanya, ja que parteix de el coneixement adquirit de campanyes anteriors és específic de l'context. A més, postulem que els emprenedors amb un major nivell d'experiència en crowdfunding estan en millors condicions per fer generalitzacions a partir de l'experiència prèvia i aplicar-les a diferents contextos, de manera que pateixen menys els canvis en els contextos. Una anàlisi empírica de l'univers de crowdfunders en sèrie en Kickstarter recolza les nostres hipòtesis. A més, vam mostrar que canviar el context després de l'fracàs afegeix una capa de complexitat que intensifica la relació negativa entre canviar el context i el resultat de la campanya.
En esta disertación, nos acercamos a tres líneas únicas de la literatura de crowdfunding. En el primer capítulo, desarrollamos un modelo teórico que evalúa el financiamiento óptimo del emprendedor y la elección de lanzamiento al elegir entre crowdfunding basado en recompensas y financiamiento de deuda. Contrariamente a la literatura anterior, mostramos que cuando se utiliza el crowdfunding basado en recompensas, la estrategia óptima de fijación de precios del empresario implica comprometerse con el precio minorista futuro durante la campaña de crowdfunding y que esta estrategia óptima única implica recompensar a los patrocinadores con un descuento en relación con los futuros clientes minoristas. Al elegir entre financiamiento de deuda y crowdfunding basado en recompensas, mostramos que no existe una estrategia óptima única. La estrategia óptima dependería de los requisitos de capital del proyecto y la tasa de interés vigente. Descubrimos que los proyectos con requisitos de capital más bajos preferirán lanzarse mediante crowdfunding, ya que no necesitan apartarse de los precios óptimos de crowdfunding. Mientras que para requisitos de capital más altos, la estrategia óptima depende de los niveles de tasa de interés. En el segundo capítulo, nos separamos del análisis clásico de los motivos no financieros en el crowdfunding basado en recompensas e investigamos cómo los empresarios pueden incentivar financieramente a los patrocinadores para mejorar el rendimiento de la campaña. Mostramos específicamente cómo se puede utilizar la estrategia de fijación de precios del emprendedor para indicar la calidad del proyecto y la recompensa financiera que reciben los patrocinadores en relación con los clientes minoristas. Nuestro estudio implica el análisis de dos señales costosas, compromiso de precio y descuento, y una señal sin costo, el número de clases de recompensa. Nuestros resultados muestran que el uso del compromiso de precios y el descuento por parte del emprendedor está positivamente asociado con el desempeño de la campaña. El número de clases de recompensa exhibe una relación similar con el rendimiento del crowdfunding. Sin embargo, destacamos que las señales no funcionan de forma aislada y que, en presencia de las señales costosas, el efecto de la señal sin costo se debilita. Esto proporciona soporte adicional para el argumento de que cuando las señales costosas y sin costo interactúan, los patrocinadores dan prioridad a las primeras. El tercer capítulo de esta tesis amplía la literatura incipiente sobre el crowdfunding en serie al tener en cuenta la dimensión contextual de las campañas en la plataforma, previamente descuidada. Investigamos los efectos de los contextos cambiantes (industria y / o ubicación geográfica) en el rendimiento de la campaña. Presumimos que cambiar el contexto afectará negativamente el resultado de la campaña, ya que parte del conocimiento adquirido de campañas anteriores es específico del contexto. Además, postulamos que los emprendedores con un mayor nivel de experiencia en crowdfunding están en mejores condiciones para hacer generalizaciones a partir de la experiencia previa y aplicarlas a diferentes contextos, de modo que sufren menos los cambios en los contextos. Un análisis empírico del universo de crowdfunders en serie en Kickstarter respalda nuestras hipótesis. Además, mostramos que cambiar el contexto después del fracaso agrega una capa de complejidad que intensifica la relación negativa entre cambiar el contexto y el resultado de la campaña.
In this dissertation, we approach three unique strands of the crowdfunding literature. In the first chapter, we develop a theoretical model evaluating the entrepreneur’s optimal financing and launching choice when choosing between reward-based crowdfunding and debt financing. Contrary to previous literature, we show that when using reward-based crowdfunding, the entrepreneur’s optimal pricing strategy involves committing to the future retail price during the crowdfunding campaign and that this unique optimal strategy involves rewarding backers with a discount relative to future retail customers. When choosing between debt financing and reward-based crowdfunding, we show that there is no unique optimal strategy. The optimal strategy would depend on the project capital requirements and the prevailing interest rate. We find that projects with lower capital requirement will prefer to launch via crowdfunding since they do not need to diverge away from the optimal crowdfunding prices. Whereas for higher capital requirements, the optimal strategy depends on the interest rate levels. In the second chapter, we diverge from the classical analysis of non-financial motives in reward-based crowdfunding and investigate how entrepreneurs can financially incentivize backers in order to improve campaign performance. We specifically show how the entrepreneur’s pricing strategy can be used to signal the project’s quality and the financial reward that backers receive relative to retail customers. Our study involves the analysis of two costly signals, price commitment and discount, and a costless signal, the number of reward classes. Our results show that the use of price commitment and discount by the entrepreneur is positively associated with the campaign performance. The number of reward classes exhibits a similar relationship with crowdfunding performance. However, we highlight that signals do not work in isolation and that in the presence of the costly signals, the effect of the costless signal is weakened. This provides additional support for the argument that when costly and costless signals interact, backers prioritize the former. The third chapter of this thesis extends the nascent literature on serial crowdfunding by accounting for the previously neglected contextual dimension of campaigns on the platform. We investigate the effects of changing contexts (industry and/or geographic location) on the campaign performance. We hypothesize that changing context will adversely affect the campaign outcome as some of the acquired knowledge from previous campaigns is context-specific. Moreover, we posit that entrepreneurs with higher level of crowdfunding experience are better able to make generalizations from previous experience and apply them to different contexts such that they suffer less from changing contexts. An empirical analysis of the universe of serial crowdfunders on Kickstarter provides support for our hypotheses. We additionally show that changing context following failure adds a layer of complexity which intensifies the negative relationship between changing context and campaign outcome.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish people’s level of knowledge about crowdfunding and their incentives and deterrents to crowdfunding investments. Early on crowdfunding was divided into two objectives: reward based and equity based crowdfunding. The division of objectives is logical due to the differencing conditions of the motivation for investors to invest. Supported by theories in crowdfunding incentives, commitment-trust, the prospect theory, and the diffusion of innovations, we aim to establish a comprehensive line of reasoning to support our model of motivation in the conclusive chapter. The results of this essay were achieved by a combined method. A quantitative survey tended to give us a sense of how well known the crowdfunding phenomenon is amongst the Swedish people. It was followed by a qualitative study consisting of interviews with crowdfunding investors with aim to understand their incentives and deterrents. The interviews served as the basis for our analysis. Our analysis reveals that the incentives to invest differ between equity based and reward based crowdfunding. The major common incitement was trusting the entrepreneur behind the project, rather than a neat investment prospectus. The seminal crowdfunding deterrent is ignorance. Today, the Swedish people are unknowing of the phenomenon and its significance.

Denna studie är av kvalitativ art och syftar till att undersöka huruvida crowdfunding kan överbrygga ett eventuellt finansiellt gap för svenska företag och entreprenörer. Undersökningen fokuserar på tre typer av respondenter, vilka är representerade av företag som brukar crowdfunding som finansieringsform, bolag som fungerar likt ombud för att förmedla kapital med hjälp av finansieringsformen samt respondenter vilka opererar likt investerare i projekten. Studien teoretiska referensram är uppdelad i två sektioner, varav den första avser att beskriva crowdfunding utifrån generiska teorier, vilka utgörs av the Pecking Order Theory samt the Agency Principal Theory. Den andra sektionen ämnar mer specifikt beskriva crowdfunding samt belysa dess revenyer och brister och utgörs av tidigare forskning inom området. Studien mynnar ut i en slutsats att crowdfunding, genom dess tre former, kan utgöra en lösning i form av att metoden kan fungera likt ett komplement för att åter balansera det finansiella vakuum nyföretagare upplever i samband med erhållande av kapital.
This is a qualitative study which aims to investigate whether crowdfunding can fill up a financial gap for Swedish companies. The survey focuses on three types of respondents, which are represented by companies who uses crowdfunding as financing, companies that acts like an agent for providing capital through crowdfunding and respondents which operates as investors in crowdfunding projects. The study’s theoretical framework is divided into two sections, the first of which relates to describe crowdfunding based on generic theories, which consists of the Pecking Order Theory and the Agency Principal Theory. The second section intends to, more specifically, describe crowdfunding and highlight its shortcomings as well as its advantages and consists of previous research within the field. The study culminates in a conclusion that crowdfunding, through its three forms, can be a solution in sense that the method can be used as a complement to rebalance the financial vacuum new enterprises experience in relation to obtaining capital.

The current thesis explores a relatively new academic topic – equity-based crowdfunding. The purpose is to examine which quality signals, used by the entrepreneurs in their fundraising process, tend to increase the probability of closing an equity-based crowdfunding campaign successfully. The findings in this thesis serve as an additional contribution to a relatively unexplored topic of signaling in equity crowdfunding. Besides a theoretical contribution, it provides practical insights that may help entrepreneurs and crowdfunding platforms to increase the probability of successful campaign closure. The data for this study was collected from an international crowdfunding platform Fundedbyme.com. The explanatory variables, both continuous and binary, were divided into several thematic groups, while the dependent variable was defined by either successful or unsuccessful outcome of the campaign. The effect of the explanatory variables on the outcome of the campaign was tested with the help of the logistic regression (logit) model. The results showed that crowd investors in the network of Fundedbyme.com use particular quality signals to distinguish between the projects, in fact, both financial signals and more qualitative signals. Increases in the financial signals such as funding goal and price per share affect the probability of success negatively, while the presence of the qualitative signals (received awards and the indication of the non-executive board) contribute to a higher probability of success. Secondly, the results imply some similarities between the selecting mechanism in traditional funding, reward-based and the equity-based crowdfunding. As a third point, this research shows that the presence of a specific selecting mechanism in crowdfunding helps to some extent decrease the information asymmetry and adverse selection in the market of crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is heralded as ‘the next big thing’ in venture capital, advocating the democratisation of capital access for entrepreneurs through online mechanisms. However, current research indicates that entrepreneurs experience high failure rates in crowdfunding, similar to ‘traditional’ venture capital approaches. This stresses the need for investigations that unveil why some crowdfunding campaigns succeed and others fail. This thesis examines entrepreneurial activities associated with capital assembly through crowdfunding and comprises a portfolio of three empirical studies. These may be read independently or conjointly, the latter of which allows for a more nuanced understanding of entrepreneurial crowdfunding. The first study adopts an explorative quantitative research approach, utilising records of 421 crowdfunding campaigns published on Kickstarter, a leading reward-based online crowdfunding platform. Various crowdfunding campaign characteristics are investigated to analyse how these features drive fundraising performance and outcomes. Findings reveal that entrepreneurs can exploit particular online pitch elements to create a project narrative, which enables them to establish project legitimacy within the context of crowdfunding platform communities. The second study utilises a dataset of 81,829 crowdfunding campaigns and multivariate and probit analysis methods to examine the role of the entrepreneurs’ network size and the quality of the network relationship for capital assembly and fundraising outcome in crowdfunding. The analysis demonstrates that the quality of the network relationship, in addition to the size of the network, contributes to crowdfunding performance and outcomes. Results show that the relationship between the quality of the network relationship, the size of the network and capital assembly in crowdfunding are positive. Further, the results highlight that the addition of network relationship quality specifications improve the explanation of variation in capital assembly. This suggests that estimations that do not include network relationship variables are ineffective in explaining how entrepreneurs can facilitate capital assembly and achieve success in crowdfunding. Accordingly, the study emphasises the role and importance of network relationship quality activities as additional determinants of crowdfunding outcomes. This study enunciates the importance for entrepreneurs to form ‘project-syndicates’, a project-related community that co-creates the project narrative and legitimacy, leading to better fundraising performance and outcomes. The third study complements the two previously discussed quantitative studies by comprising qualitative data that elicits interpretations over a twenty-four month period in a longitudinal single case study. This study investigates the role, behaviour and experience of entrepreneurs during the crowdfunding process and relates entrepreneurial activities to fundraising performance. This study reveals three identity strategies, demonstrating how the entrepreneur can leapfrog from one side of the bimodal funding distribution in crowdfunding to the other extreme following an identity transition. This study sheds light on the entrepreneurial micro-foundations of crowdfunding by focusing on the entrepreneur’s processes pre-, during and post-crowdfunding. As such, this research provides valuable insights into entrepreneurial crowdfunding. This thesis, taken as a whole, contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurial capital assembly through crowdfunding, and develops new theory that advances the current knowledge of crowdfunding performance and outcomes. As such, this thesis contributes to entrepreneurship theory by investigating crowdfunding from three different perspectives, utilising theories related to entrepreneurial narratives and legitimacy, networking and role identity to study the unique context of crowdfunding, where much remains to be explored.

Crowdfunding is a relatively new addition to the entrepreneurial range of funding options. It has been considered a “game changer’ and an “equalizer” for entrepreneurs seeking to finance new ventures. However, it shares several attributes with traditional funding methods as well as many of the same investor concerns. Since research is still scant on both crowdfunding as whole and on its fast-developing sub-categories this study endeavored to analyze two related topics in this area. Understanding how close this new paradigm is to the old is a focus of new research. In the case of this study perceived self-confidence of the crowdfunding project founder to the successful outcomes is examined. Additionally, to see if gender bias plays a part in this new era it is included as a control to determine if women need to project greater confidence than men to overcome these and achieve the same goals. Kickstarter.com is one of the oldest and most successful rewards based crowdfunding sites in the world. A sample of 9050 completed campaigns from here were used for this analysis. In the methodology qualitative coding was used to identify the linguistic symbols of confidence. To empirically investigate the research questions statistical analysis was carried out to seek the relationships between confidence signaling and successful crowdfunding performance as well as if gender bias has a moderating effect. The two hypotheses were not supported by the results of this study. Self-confidence was not a predictor of crowdfunding success and gender did not have a significant influence on the outcomes.

För att bilda en djupare förståelse kring hur kommunikationen mellan skapare och intressenter ser ut och hur relationen påverkar resultatet av en slutprodukt har denna uppsats undersökt skillnader och likheter i framställning av spel utifrån val av finansiering (förläggare eller Kickstarter), interaktionen mellan skapare och intressenter analyserades för att se hur det påverkar spelets slutprodukt. Genom intervjuer, enkätundersökningar och intressentanalyser framställdes empirin där slutsatserna blev att relationen mellan skapare och intressent skiljer sig beroende på hur stor roll förläggarna vill ha inom projektet. Den andra skillnaden, utifrån val av finansiering, mellan studios med förläggare och Kickstarterprojekt, är att det är vanligt inom Kickstarterprojekt att man blir intvingad till att vara öppna om projektet inför sitt community, medan självständiga studios eller studios med förläggare har möjligheten att välja hur öppna de vill vara.
How crowdfunding effects relationships in game development.To achieve a better understanding of the communication between creators and stakeholders, and how the relationship between these two can affect the end result of a product, this essay has investigated the differences and similarities in the production of games, resulting from the choice of financing (publishers or Kickstarter). This topic has been examined through interviews, surveys and stakeholder analysis, and the end empiricism was that the relationship between creators and stakeholders differed depending on the level of involvement on the part of the publishers. The second difference from studios with publishers and Kickstarter project, apart from the choice of financing, was that Kickstarter projects often got forced to have an open dialogue with the community about the project, while independent studios or studios with publishers could choose freely how open they want to be.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, and contribute towards increasing the effectiveness of such campaigns, as most campaigns are unsuccessful. The theoretical part will focus on defining crowdfunding as the new phenomena of capital distribution and compared with other forms of financing new ideas. The empirical part focuses on a paired comparison analysis of campaigns from two various locations and three industries in total. Factores affecting the successfulness are analyzed and a pattern which would help towards solving the initial problem is looked for. The aim of the thesis was fulfilled by giving recommendations which have an impact on the success rate.

This dissertation thesis deals with crowdfunding campaigns in terms of their structure and important elements of successful crowdfunding projects. The main aim of this thesis is to create a set of recommendations for the creation of successful crowdfunding projects. In order to achieve this task, the statistical method of binary logistic regression analysis is used to determine the effect of the utilization of the introductory video, the number of updates during the duration of the project, the number of imagines, the number of words in the project description, the duration of the project and the project category on the probability of success of the project. The first part of this thesis is composed of the description of different concepts of crowdfunding including their historical context, the crowdfunding business models and the project typology, chosen platforms and the principals of their operation, chosen successful campaigns and their structure. In the analytical part I deal with the impact of the above mentioned variables on the probability of success.

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Crowdfunding is a recent and emerging method of raising capital for the development of projects (both profit and non-profit oriented) without traditional intermediation of financial institutions, freeing entrepreneurs from the costs, regulation and paperwork associated with it. Besides, it is also a method of pre-testing new products to a selected and enthusiastic audience. The objective of this dissertation is to understand what factors are influencing the consumer decision to fund projects. The literature review contributes with: (1) intrinsic factors, like desire for patronage; (2) extrinsic factors, like presentation of the project; and (3) social pressure. There are also factors associated with current level of funding and number of funders, as well as type of project involved, being it charity or not. Moreover, attitudes also play a role into affecting the decision to fund. To answer the research question, a two phase methodology was used: a qualitative survey that captured intention to fund and motivations from different interviewees, in order to build up a decision process that encompassed all possibilities described by the literature. After the qualitative survey, a quantitative research was employed to validate the insights generated by the qualitative phase and collect further data in order to generate the association between intention to fund and behaviors. Among the insights generated by the qualitative phase were the fact that most funders had the primary motivation to buy the product being offered as if they were pre-ordering. However, this was not the main reason for the charity funder. Additionally, the respondents that pre-ordered products did so for the single reason that these products sufficed needs that they had. These needs greatly varied, from missing traditional old games to solving a wallet organization problem. Another characteristic of the pre-orders is that they would not give small pledges, for the sole reason that they would not receive the product in exchange. Rewards played a big role into luring the respondents in funding more than they previously considered. This was also true for the charity donor respondent, who also donated more. The quantitative phase confirmed the insights above and generated extra information on association and categories. Charity and Art projects concentrated the majority of respondents saying that the reason to invest was basically helping to develop the project without demanding material reward in exchange. However, other projects such as Music also presented high numbers of donation-like behavior, possible given the emotional involvement between funder and artist. Other categories presented a mix of reasons to fund or skewed towards buying the product only, which can be explained by rewards effects and the fact that the categories involved are basically selling products. The quantitative survey also confirmed the main sources used to get to know the projects: recommendation and forums and blogs were also in this survey the main sources used. Another outcome of this phase was the development of factors through attitudinal statements that could explain the intention to fund. Six factors were created, namely Enthusiasm (for crowdfunding), Exclusivity (buying rewards), Charitable (small pledges to help funding), Caution (similar to the diffusion of responsibility, that is, waiting for more funders to give the first step), Intimacy (project was recommended or emotional attachment to the creator) and Sharing (actively sharing in order to also help bring more funders to finish the project). Categories that have high emotional involvement presented association also with intimacy, like music, film and technology. Given the fact that the sample did not have many enthusiastic for crowdfunding, this factor did not show any association with any categories. Categories that do not provide products in return, such as food and photography, presented high levels of association with the charitable factor. Sharing is highly associated with technology, given the fact that this category concentrates respondents that are more innovation-driven and enthusiastic about the product, so they need to share and generate word of mouth in order to help reach the funding goal.
Crowdfunding é um método recente e emergente de captar dinheiro para desenvolvimento de projetos (tanto orientados a lucro ou não) sem a intermediação tradicional de instituições financeiras, liberando empreendedores de custos, regulações e burocracia associada a essa prática. Além disso, também é um método de pré-testar novos produtos com um público selecionado e entusiasmado. O objetivo dessa dissertação é entender que fatores estão influenciando a decisão do consumidor de investir em projetos. A literatura contribui com: (1) fatores intrínsecos, como desejo de patronagem; (2) fatores extrínsecos, como a apresentação do projeto; e (3) pressão social. Há ainda fatores associados com o nível atual de captação e número de investidores, assim como tipo de projeto envolvido, sendo ele de caridade ou não. Além disso, atitudes também possuem um papel em afetar a decisão de compra. Para responder a pergunta de pesquisa, uma metodologia de duas fases foi usada: uma entrevista de profundidade para capturar intenção de investir e motivação, de forma a construir um processo de decisão que englobasse todas as possibilidades descritas pela literatura. Após essa pesquisa qualitativa, uma pesquisa quantitativa foi feita para validar as informações coletadas pela fase anterior e coletar dados adicionais para gerar uma associação entre intenção de investir e comportamento. Dentre as informações geradas pela fase qualitativa, temos o fato que a maioria dos investidores tiveram como principal motivação a compra do produto sendo oferecido como se eles estivessem participando de uma pré-venda. Entretanto, essa não foi a principal razão para o investidor de caridade. Além disso, os respondentes que pré-compraram os produtos o fizeram para única razão que esses produtos satisfizeram desejos que tinham. Esses desejos variavam, sendo desde saudade de jogos antigos como resolver um problema de organização da carteira. Outra característica da pré-compra foi que eles não investiam valores simbólicos, pela razão que se o fizessem não receberiam o produto em troca. Recompensas tiveram um grande papel em atrair os respondentes para investimento em valores maiores que consideravam anteriormente. Também é verdade para o investidor em caridade, que também doou mais. A fase quantitativa confirmou as informações acima e gerou informação extra sobre as categorias de produto. Projetos de caridade e arte concentraram a maioria dos respondentes que disseram que a principal razão para investir foi basicamente ajudar a desenvolver o projeto sem demandar um produto em retorno. Entretanto, outros projetos como Música também apresentaram altos números de comportamento caridoso, possivelmente por causa do envolvimento emocional com o artista. Outras categorias apresentaram um mix de razões para investir ou enviesado a comprar o produto apenas, o que pode ser explicado pelo efeito de recompensas e pelo fato que essas categorias estão simplesmente pré-vendendo produtos. Essa pesquisa também confirmou as principais fontes usadas para conhecer mais sobre os projetos: recomendação pessoal e blogs e fóruns. Outro resultado dessa fase foi o desenvolvimento de fatores a partir de frases atitudinais que puderam explicar intenção de investir. Seis fatores foram criados: Entusiasmo (por crowdfunding), Exclusividade (compra de recompensas), Caridade (doações pequenas para ajudar o desenvolvimento do projeto), Cautela (similar à difusão de responsabilidade, isto é, espera por mais investidores para dar o primeiro passo), Intimidade (projeto foi recomendado ou há ligação emocional com o criador) e Compartilhamento (compartilhar para ajudar a trazer mais investidores para o projeto). Categorias com alto envolvimento emocional apresentaram associação com Intimidade, como música, filme e tecnologia. Dado o fato que a amostra não continha muitos entusiastas por crowdfunding, esse fator não apresentou qualquer associação com as categorias. Categorias que não entregam produtos em troca, como comida e fotografia, apresentaram altos níveis de associação com o fator caridade. Compartilhamento é altamente associado com tecnologia, dado o fato que essa categoria concentra os respondentes que são mais orientados à inovação e entusiastas sobre o produto, então precisam compartilhar e gerar boca-a-boca para ajudar a atingir a meta de investimento.

TESIS PARA OPTAR AL GRADO DE MAGÍSTER EN ADMINISTRACIÓN
Sernuda A., Dante, [Parte I], Ovalle, Luis Felipe, [Parte II]
El mercado inmobiliario históricamente ha sido una alternativa de inversión rentable y segura para inversionistas con un capital que pueden costear el pie de uno o varios departamentos, así como también para empresas que por medio de la conformación de sociedades, participan del desarrollo de los proyectos inmobiliarios junto a un gestor que conoce del negocio. Esta industria ha tendido a dejar fuera de la posibilidad de participar en ella a una gran cantidad de gente que no capital suficiente como para pagar el pie de un departamento o participar del desarrollo de un proyecto inmobiliario. Hoy en día existen en el mercado, actores que ofrecen productos de inversión inmobiliaria apuntando a diferentes tipos de segmentos. En el desarrollo de nuestro plan de negocios, hemos detectado que existe un segmento que no está siendo capturado por la industria. Este segmento joven, entre 30 y 40 años tiene recursos para ahorrar o invertir pero aun sus ahorros están por debajo del ticket promedio exigido por la industria de inversión inmobiliaria. Por otro lado, los esfuerzos de los actores que participan en el mercado han ido apuntando a un público de un rango etario mayor y con mayor poder adquisitivo que en general utilizan canales de comunicación tradicionales, como teléfono, reuniones presenciales, cheese and wine y otros. Con estos antecedentes, nuestra propuesta parte por ser una alternativa de ahorro o inversión para un cliente ABC1-C2 que tiene una necesidad de participar del mercado y que actualmente no se está capturando, esperamos llegar a ese segmento a través una plataforma 100% online y optimizada para Smartphone. Hemos enfocado nuestra propuesta en el segmento etario de clientes de entre 30 y 40 años quienes, según nuestro estudio de mercado, tiene una capacidad de ahorro de un 12% anual lo que significan 4.26 millones de pesos anuales. Según los datos extraídos del INE, ese segmento para el año 2018 lo componen 1.67 Millones de personas que crecerán a una tasa de 3,5% en 5 años y en 8,03% en 10 años. Según un estudio de la COOPEUCH, alrededor del 45% de la clase media chilena está ahorrando, si extrapolamos ese dato al segmento objetivo y multiplicamos por el ahorro anual estimado obtenemos un mercado potencial de 2.183.816 MM pesos.

The diploma thesis focuses on the evaluation of adopted specific regulatory measures for crowdfunding in individual countries. The first part explains the term of crowdfunding, according history and reason of being created. There are various models for spreading and there are identified various risks associated with crowdfunding. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the regulation of crowdfunding itself. Focusing on regulation in the United States of America and in the European Union. Describe the regulatory regimes in each country and the implications of the measures taken to develop crowdfunding in the country.

The present dissertation focuses on the analysis of the advantages that loan-based crowdfunding provides to investors and entrepreneurs who need a loan. We aim to identify the circumstances where’s more favourable to investors and entrepreneurs to invest and finance through loan-based crowdfunding. To accomplish this task, we will study the concept of crowdfunding and its ways, specially the elements of loan-based crowdfunding and its portuguese legal framework. We will also try to figure out how to implement a crowdfunding campaign and which is the role of the managing body of the platform. To conclude, in order to answer the main question, we will analyse some of the traditional options of investment and external financing and compare its results with the conditions given by loan-based crowdfunding platforms.
A presente dissertação centra-se na análise das vantagens que o financiamento colaborativo por empréstimo oferece a investidores e entidades à procura de financiamento. Pretende-se identificar as situações em que se mostra mais vantajoso para investidores e empreendedores recorrerem a este financiamento. Para tal estudaremos o conceito de financiamento colaborativo, bem como as várias modalidades em que se apresenta, focando-nos essencialmente nos elementos do financiamento colaborativo por empréstimo. Estudaremos o regime jurídico que lhe subjaz em Portugal, o papel das entidades gestoras das plataformas e o modo como são implementadas as campanhas de financiamento no nosso país. A final, por forma a dar resposta à questão colocada nesta dissertação, analisaremos algumas opções de financiamento e de investimento tradicionais e compará-las-emos com as condições oferecidas pelo financiamento colaborativo por empréstimo.

碩士
中華大學
國際經營管理碩士學位學程
102
The increased use of technology and communications, and new services for online payments recently created a new financial method that has its origins in funding arts but is now strongly expanding into any other field. The purpose of this master thesis is exploring crowdfunding in technology. More specifically: how this new way to obtain funding can help business creation; how interacts with other processes in business management (like new product introduction or development, or market research); and what can we learn about consumer behavior. At the end, there will be an attempt to quantify a sample of more than 1,500 projects from two major crowdfunding websites (Kickstarter and Indiegogo) to be able to compare the information provided by the crowdfunding sites itself, some hypothesis that arise while preparing this study, and information found in academic research.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Nos países em desenvolvimento, as tecnologias móveis têm-se tornado num factor importante para o crescimento a nível económico, de saúde, de educação e de desenvolvimento tecnológico.Embora os chamados "smartphones" ainda estejam em minoria no mercado prevê-se que nos próximos anos o panorama se altere e que os smartphones dominem o mercado mobile nesses países. Existe ainda pouca infraestrutura de pagamento através de cartões bancários neste países, tornando os sistemas de Mobile Money o mecanismo de pagamento mais utilizado no dia-a-dia.Um dos serviços de mobile money mais utilizadas nesses países é o M-Pesa e a WIT software desenvolveu a aplicação do M-Pesa para smartphones. Com o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação surge a oportunidade de desenvolver serviços que tirem partido do sistema de mobile money já desenvolvido e que possam ter um impacto positivo tanto a nível económico como social nas comunidades de países em desenvolvimento. Neste relatório, é proposto o protótipo de um sistema que dará aos utilizadores da aplicação M-Pesa android acesso a um serviço de crowdfunding dentro da aplicação em si. Este serviço permitirá aos utilizadores angariar fundos monetários para causas pessoais através da criação e gestão de campanhas personalizadas. O protótipo incluirá também a possibilidade de utilizadores pesquisarem campanhas por categorias e por palavras-chave. Para o mecanismo de doações, o serviço será integrado de maneira a utilizar o sistema de pagamento já existente na aplicação M-Pesa.
In developing countries, mobile technologies have become an important factor for economic growth, health, education and technological development. Although the so-called "smartphones" are still in a minority, the outlook is expected to change in the upcoming years and smartphones will start dominating the mobile market in these countries. The banking card payment infrastructure is still quite limited in these countries, making mobile money the most widely used payment mechanism in daily life.One of the most used mobile money services in these countries is M-Pesa and WIT software developed the M-Pesa application for smartphones. With the development of an application comes the opportunity to develop services that take advantage of the mobile money system already developed which can have a positive impact both economically and social in the communities of developing countries. In this report, the prototype of a system is proposed that will give users of the M-Pesa android application access to a crowdfunding service within the application itself. This service will allow users to raise money for personal causes by creating and managing personalized campaigns. The prototype will also include the possibility for users to search campaigns by categories and keywords. For the donation mechanism, the service will be integrated in the M-Pesa application in order to use the payment system that already exists.

Crowdfunding is a new way of funding projects, which has developed the past few years. The rapid growth has resulted in an unregulated industry due to a lagging legal framework. As a result, some European countries have implemented a national crowdfunding regulation. This study tries to examine the effect crowdfunding regulation has had on the development of new crowdfunding platforms by assessing the differences in growth rates before and after the regulation. Examining seven out of 11 countries in Europe who has enforced crowdfunding regulation, only two countries experienced a constant or an increase after the crowdfunding regulation. However, by including the perception the crowdfunding industry had on the regulation, no pattern seems to be conducted between the perception of the regulation and the actual growth of new platforms.