Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale

Crowdfunding

About the project

The research, , carried out by the EFI (Entrepreneurship, Finance and Innovation) research group, aims at investigating crowdfunding (CF), with special attention to the determinants of the success of CF campaigns and the links with other sources of entrepreneurial finance. The research takes advantage of comprehensive longitudinal campaign-level data infrastructure on reward-based and equity CF, and the use of advanced machine learning and semantic content analysis techniques for campaign classification. The results of this research has been published in top scientific journals, including Science, and has great impact on the international scientific community: the first published article of this research in Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice is one of the most cited paper in the CF literature. The practice-oriented research activity is based on the Observatory on Italian Crowdinvesting, which disseminates research results to a large community of practitioners and policy makers and has played a prominent role in influencing Italian regulation of CF. The research has been supported by several grants from the European Commission, including the H2020 Altfinator project on the dissemination of alternative finance practices in Europe.

Principal Investigators:  Vincenzo Butticè, Giancarlo Giudici

Researcher team: Massimo G. Colombo, Chiara Franzoni, Massimiliano Guerini, Carlotta Orsenigo, Evila Piva, Cristina Rossi Lamastra, Silvia Stroe, Francesca Tenca

Funders: European Commission (Horizon2020), several private firms

Duration: 2013 – on going

Partners: Multiple

KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS

CF has emerged as a viable funding source for entrepreneurs and it is going to play an increasingly important role in the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem in the future. This research, carried out by the EFI (Entrepreneurship, Finance and Innovation) research group, aims at understanding the dynamics underlying this phenomenon, the antecedents of the success of CF campaigns, with special regard to the social capital developed by project proponents through the CF platform, its outcomes and its linkages with other “traditional” sources of entrepreneurial finance.  With this project, the EFI research group has become an international reference point on CF in the academic community, has contributed to inform the policy debate on the topic, has become an important landmark for practitioners, and has influenced society at large. The EFI group has developed the Observatory on Italian Crowdinvesting . It also hosts one of the most comprehensive data infrastructure on CF, with fine grained information at campaign level for more than 300,000 CF campaigns, including all the campaigns launched in Kickstarter, Crowdcube, and all the campaigns launched in Italy. In addition, the data infrastructure contains a map of all CF platforms operating in Europe. Finally, with the participation to the European funded project Altfinator, the EFI group will contribute to increasing the awareness and the adoption of best practices in the overall alternative finance  landscape across Europe through various dissemination events and the  production of online video lectures (e.g., MOOCs).

  •  What are the antecedents of the success of CF campaigns? To what extent early achievements predict campaigns’ success? What is the role of the social capital developed by project proponents within a CF platform? Why and under which conditions are serial crowdfunders more successful than other project proponents?
  • What is the role of CF in the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem? What is the link of CF to other more traditional entrepreneurial finance channels, like venture capital and business angel financing?
  • What determines the performance of CF platforms? What is the link between CF platforms’ business model and their performance?

OUTPUTS & IMPACTS

  • Colombo, M. G., Franzoni, C., & Rossi‐Lamastra, C. (2015). Internal social capital and the attraction of early contributions in crowdfunding. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 39(1), 75-100.
  • Colombo, M. G., Franzoni, C., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2015). Cash from the crowd. Science, 348(6240), 1201-1202.
  • Dushnitsky, G., Guerini, M., Piva, E., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2016). Crowdfunding in Europe: determinants of platform creation across countries. California Management Review, 58(2), 44-71.
  • Butticè, V., Colombo, M. G., & Wright, M. (2017). Serial crowdfunding, social capital, and project success. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(2), 183-207.
  • Giudici, G., Guerini, M., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2018). Reward-based crowdfunding of entrepreneurial projects: the effect of local altruism and localized social capital on proponents’ success. Small Business Economics, 50(2), 307-324.
  • Piva, E., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2018). Human capital signals and entrepreneurs’ success in equity crowdfunding. Small Business Economics, 51(3), 667-686.
  • Butticè, V., Colombo, M. G., Fumagalli, E., & Orsenigo, C. (2019). Green oriented crowdfunding campaigns: Their characteristics and diffusion in different institutional settings. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 141, 85-97.
  • Defazio, D., Franzoni, C., & Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2020). How pro-social framing affects the success of crowdfunding projects: The role of emphasis and information crowdedness. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-22.
  • Dushnitsky, G., Piva, E., & Rossi‐Lamastra, C. (2020). Investigating the mix of strategic choices and performance of transaction platforms: Evidence from the crowdfunding setting. Strategic Management Journal,1-36.
  • Butticè V., Di Pietro F., Tenca F., The Role of Equity Crowdfunding in Influencing Entrepreneurs’ Ability to Attract Professional Investors: A deal structure perspective. Journal of Corporate Finance. 65 (December 2020).
  • Butticè V., Collewort V., Stroe S., Vanacker T., Vismara S., Walthoff-Borm X., Equity Crowdfunders’ Human Capital and Signal Set Formation: Evidence from Eye Tracking. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

PARTNERS

London Business School, Imperial College London, University of Manchester, Associazione Italiana Equity Crowdfunding (AIE), Associazione Italiana del Private Equity, Venture CapitaI e Private Debt (AIFI), Borsa Italiana, INNEXTA, Regione Lombardia, Accenture Strategy, Frigiolini and Partners Merchant, Walliace, 200 Crowds, Fundera, Trusters (Observatory CF). CIVITTA, CrowdfundingHub, Pedal, Zabala Innovation Consulting, Ernst & Young.