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Many charitable projects have started using online crowdfunding platforms to raise donations. The rise of these platforms as fundraising vehicles has been partially driven by easy access to a large pool of potential donors without the significant marketing costs that commonly accompany traditional fundraising. However, such a low cost of entry also results in a significant "crowding" of projects, making it difficult for donors to decide which projects to donate to. Thus, a charitable project encounters a fundamental marketing challenge of standing out from other projects when conventional techniques like advertising and promotion are limited. In this article, the authors posit that a project can credibly signal its quality via a strategy of "self-donation," whereby the project steward donates to their own project. The empirical setting is an online education crowdfunding platform. By examining millions of donations, the authors find that self-donations improve the donation pace, contributed amount, and funding success. The findings show that the self-donation strategy works only when a self-donation is visible to potential donors and is especially effective at the early stage of the funding cycle or when project stewards are inexperienced, where the projects face significant uncertainty. The authors find evidence for self-donation as a quality signal through various observable proxies like impact letters to donors and corporate matching. Overall, the findings are consistent with a signaling mechanism that allows the separation of high-quality projects from lower-quality ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding platforms are believed to create a more equal-opportunity environment for fundraising by removing entrance barriers found in traditional entrepreneurial markets. Our work investigates whether in creating more equal opportunities for entrepreneurs to enter the market, crowdfunding platforms also create a more equal distribution of funds across ventures. To this end, we utilized a natural experiment in the form of a policy change on Kickstarter.com that resulted in opening the market to more players. Using platform-level analysis, we show that opening the platform shifted demand toward the head of the distribution: More funds and backers became concentrated in a smaller number of head-offers (the superstar effect). Using individual backer-level analysis, we show that these changes in demand distribution are likely to have resulted from changes in investors' investment behavior, beyond changes in the composition of the demand side (that is, changes in the types of investors entering the market). Together, our results suggest that efforts to level the playing field in crowdfunding platforms can ultimately result in a less equitable distribution of funds across market participants, and drive investors to focus their investments on a smaller set of campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding to support personal and medical needs has risen in popularity in recent years. Many sociologists are critical of needy individuals’ turn to online fundraising, seeing it as a response to deficits in health care and social protection, and arguing that it may widen social inequalities. Most of these studies have taken place in the United States, China, and Great Britain. This paper explores crowdfunding in sub-Saharan Africa, offering us an opportunity to rethink the context and value of crowdfunding and its relationship to family and friend networks, philanthropy, and charity. It also examines how online crowdfunding relates to cultural ideas about dependency and care. Based on my ethnographic fieldwork at the Nairobi crowdfunding platform M-Changa conducted from 2016 to 2021, I describe how social entrepreneurs, women, and NGO representatives raise money for philanthropic initiatives, medical and education costs, family rituals, and COVID-19 relief. The paper reveals the diverse financial relationships, identities and goals emerging on the platform. Reflecting on this diversity of caring finance, this paper then explores the ambiguous commercial, social, and political potentials of crowdfunding as peer-based digital finance in the Global South.

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This research uses a crowdfunding context to examine when and why a simple difference in frame—using "want" versus "need" in the request—affects funders' compliance with an appeal for contributions. Building on the semantic framing and psycholinguistics literature, we propose that using "want" (vs. "need") signals that the fundraiser is a relatively less (vs. more) dependent person. This perception difference then exerts opposing effects on the two major forms of crowdfunding appeals. For reward-based appeals, in which fundraisers promise a return on contribution, funders have a for-profit (i.e. incentive-seeking) goal and are more willing to contribute to a less dependent fundraiser. In contrast, for donation-based appeals, in which no incentives are promised by the fundraisers, funders are primarily motivated by a nonprofit (i.e. helping) goal and are more willing to contribute to a fundraiser who is seen as more dependent on help. Therefore, we predict that a "want" (vs. "need") frame is more effective in reward-based (vs. donation-based) crowdfunding. Results from two large-scale observational studies and four experiments support our predictions and also illuminate the underlying mechanisms. Collectively, the findings contribute to the literature on semantic framing and crowdfunding and also offer practical implications for fundraisers, marketers, and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On crowdfunding platforms, the success of campaigns relies on the ability of projects to attract backers. While backers' motivations have been examined, the dynamics existing among the distinct profiles of backers remain underexplored. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this research offers a typology of backers' profiles and shows how these profiles contribute to the success of a crowdfunding campaign. Informed by the sociological theory of cooperation, these results explain how backers with different profiles influence each other's decisions to support crowdfunding campaigns. We provide guidelines to project leaders and platforms to attract backers with the best profiles at the best moment to optimise the campaign's success strategy. We also help crowdfunding platform managers build their crowd of backers and optimise their number of funded projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the moderation role of product types (i.e. hedonic vs. utilitarian products) in the effect of emotional vs. informational appeals on decisions to support crowdfunding campaigns. Using an online survey of 1,892 participants who crowdsourced the evaluation of 249 Kickstarter crowdfunding messages, the study revealed messages perceived as more informational (vs. emotional) led to a more positive attitude toward a crowdfunding product, greater intentions to share a crowdfunding campaign with others, and greater funding intentions. Moreover, when a product was perceived as containing higher (vs. lower) utilitarian values, messages perceived to be more informational (vs. emotional) predicted more positive campaign outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this study, the authors sought to investigate how the implicit social ties of both project owners and potential backers are associated with crowdfunding project success. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on social ties theory and factors that affect crowdfunding success, in this research, the authors developed a model to study how project owners' and potential backers' implicit social ties are associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The proposed model was empirically tested with crowdfunding data collected from Kickstarter and social media data collected from Twitter. The authors performed the test using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with fixed effects. Findings: The authors found that project owners' implicit social ties (specifically, their social media activities, degree centrality and betweenness centrality) are significantly and positively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. Meanwhile, potential project backers' implicit social ties (their social media activities and degree centrality) are negatively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The authors also found that project size moderates the effects of project owners' social media activities on projects' degrees of success. Originality/value: This work contributes to the literature on crowdfunding by investigating how the implicit social ties of both potential backers and project owners on social media are associated with crowdfunding project success. This study extends the previous research on social ties' roles in explaining crowdfunding project success by including implicit social ties, while the literature explored only explicit social ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technology sector is one of the most popular sectors for entrepreneurship. This paper investigates the success factors of fundraising in the technology sector. We argue that text elements of the project's description have a significant effect of the project success. We used text mining to extract and analyze 17,733 crowdfunding projects over an 11‐year period between 2009 and 2019 from the Kickstarter platform. We identified 28 textual elements and examined whether they affect project success as measured by three different operationalizations. Most of the textual elements were found to have a significant effect on the project's success. The findings provide valuable insights and highlight substantial opportunities for crowdfunding in the context of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The overarching goal of the study was to formulate an integrated research model to empirically demonstrate the complex interplay between heuristics, project characteristics, information system usage quality, empathy, and mindfulness in predicting users'/donors' donation behaviour and well-being in the context of donation-based crowdfunding (DBC) mobile apps. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 786 respondents and analysed using the multi-stage SEM-ANN-NCA (Structural equation modelling-artificial neural network-necessary condition analysis) method. Findings: Increased perceived aesthetics, narrative structure, self-referencing, project popularity, project content quality, and initiator reputation would foster empathy. Empathy and mindfulness lead to donation behaviour, and, ultimately emotional well-being. Originality/value: This study offers a clear framework by ranking the key contextual predictors and assessing the model's necessity logic to facilitate crowdfunders' donation behaviour and well-being on DBC platforms. This research provides practical insights for bank marketers and further aids financial service providers in formulating an optimal DBC mobile app strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment-based crowdfunding platforms (IBCP) have revolutionized the financial landscape by providing viable investment opportunities for non-institutional investors. Nonetheless, only a limited amount of attention has been focused on the factors that shape investors' adoption of these platforms. Therefore, we primarily explore investors' adoption of IBCP by employing an integrated model combining the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) and the Task-technology Fit model (TTF) while incorporating network externalities and trust. Drawing on a sample of current IBCP investors (n = 303), we found that investors' behavioural intentions and use behaviour can be explained by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, habit, network externalities, trust and the TTF. The integrated model explained a higher variance in the endogenous variables than the two baseline models. We contribute to the emerging literature by delivering a new integrated model and provide platform operators with valuable insights into encouraging investors' adoption behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rapid spread of equity crowdfunding, the role and actions played by entrepreneurial teams in this context have been neglected; the few studies in this field adopted a static view and focused primarily on their signaling role in equity crowdfunding campaigns, compared to solo founders. This study adopts a dynamic view and extends current literature by exploring the underlying dynamics and the role of entrepreneurial teams in the entire equity crowdfunding journey. Our findings reveal that entrepreneurial teams play a crucial role in three phases of equity crowdfunding, namely, the pre-campaign, during the campaign, and post-campaign phases. In the first phase, entrepreneurial teams are crucial in enhancing entrepreneurial alertness, social media use, social capital, entrepreneurial openness, and reducing the perceived uncertainty. The analysis shows that entrepreneurial teams are determinant for the success of the equity crowdfunding campaigns for human capital signals, certifications, social media use, and increased social capital and communication activities. Finally, the results highlight that entrepreneurial teams have valuable importance in the post-campaign phases in terms of crowd involvement/management, social capital and knowledge/network exploitation, improved resource mobilization, and resilience/robustness. Notably, social capital has a dynamic effect on equity crowdfunding activities over time. The results of this research have several implications for theory and for practice. We also discuss the implications of our findings for adopting a team approach, for small businesses undertaking the equity crowdfunding journey, and for other actors including platform managers and prospective investors. Plain English Summary: The decision to found a new venture in a team has lasting effects for the entire life of the venture and implications for its survival, development, growth, and funding strategies. We examined entrepreneurial teams in the context of equity crowdfunding, a popular alternative market for young/small businesses that has recently grown exponentially. Prior research has taken a static view of the role of entrepreneurial teams in single phases of the equity crowdfunding journey and largely focused on their effects (on funding success) during the campaign. We conducted a qualitative research to explore in-depth the role and actions of the entrepreneurial team in the entire equity crowdfunding journey. Our research took into consideration the dynamic impact of entrepreneurial teams and highlighted their importance over time. Specifically, our findings provide novel insights on their involvement, contribution, and activities in each of the three phases, namely, pre-campaign, during the campaign, and post-campaign phases. The study highlights that entrepreneurial teams are crucial to increase venture openness and resource/opportunity recognition (pre-campaign phase), the probability of having successful equity crowdfunding campaigns, and better managing the post-campaign phase (including crowd engagement and knowledge/network exploitation). We find interesting implications for entrepreneurs who may consider a team approach to their ventures being a potential significant opportunity to increase the future benefits and cope with uncertain market scenarios, thus reducing possible negative impacts. Platform managers, investors, governments/regulators, and incubators/accelerators could take specific actions and programs considering the importance of entrepreneurial teams (e.g., promoting teams' entrepreneurial decision-making, campaigns' communication, and direct engagements). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether open-source software (OSS) provides unique advantages in the entrepreneurial crowdfunding context. The economic model for new ventures with business plans centered on OSS is often counterintuitive to early-stage investors. On the one hand, the non-restrictive OSS approach reduces the barriers to widespread product adoption and collaboration; on the other, OSS is essentially a public good, creating a scenario where anyone can appropriate value from the product without compensating its creators. As such, an OSS approach can dissuade investors primarily concerned with appropriating value for themselves, making it difficult for early-stage OSS ventures to attract investors. However, the rapid rise of crowdfunding has created a communally minded investor base that might instead find OSS projects enticing. We theorize that the attributes of OSS projects align with the communal expectations of crowdfunding investors and thus create supportive environments for OSS-based ventures. We illustrate this alignment through the community-based resource mobilization framework and suggest that the OSS approach yields greater investor trust, leading to superior financing outcomes. Our mixed methods approach blends archival analyses of Kickstarter data with a constructive replication through a randomized experiment, providing consistent support that an OSS approach can be advantageous in the crowdfunding context. Plain English Summary: Can rewards-based crowdfunding open new doors to finance open-source software (OSS) projects? Our research suggests that crowdfunding backers are more likely to support OSS projects because they are perceived as more trustworthy. While the economic principles of OSS can be counterintuitive, OSS promotes widespread product adoption and collaboration. This allows anyone to benefit from OSS. Our research builds on the notion that crowdfunding, much like OSS, is a communal endeavor. We leverage data from the rewards-based crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com and a controlled experiment, finding a connection between projects that espouse the OSS approach and crowdfunding success. The culmination of the two studies advances knowledge of the unique preferences of crowdfunding backers and suggests that the crowdfunding context is fertile ground to bring new insights into OSS-focused start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a large body of research on donation-based crowdfunding platforms, the ways that people appeal for help, and the impact of different appeal types, remain unclear. In particular, it is not clear the extent to which individuals benefit from a temporal orientation on the past, where they can provide personal background, or the future, where they can explain how they will benefit from donors' help. Building on a novel dataset of 6,282 fundraising campaigns and 44,757 donor comments gathered from a donation-based crowdfunding platform, this study analyzes donors' financial contributions and expressions of emotional responses in response to past and future oriented appeals. This analysis combines an instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching, natural language processing, and image analysis. The results indicate that verbal responses are similar for past and future oriented appeals, but that future oriented appeals are more effective for fundraising. The results further suggest that, when lower levels of positive affect are used in past oriented appeals, this combination may be linked with more rapidly diminishing financial contributions over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurs increasingly tap into both spatial and digital resource environments to mobilize critical resources in support of new ventures. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how entrepreneurs make joint use of these environments. Linking the recent debate on spatial and digital affordances to the resource mobilization literature, this study examines how entrepreneurs mobilize critical resources from local ecosystems and the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in complementary ways. We discuss two strategies of resource mobilization. (1) The circular strategy, which is mainly applied by social ventures, leverages community narratives and support for crowdfunding campaigns to strengthen and expand the very community support the campaigns are based on. (2) The cumulative strategy, which is mainly applied by commercial high-tech ventures, mobilizes the symbolic value of local institutional ties to attract crowdfunding backers and uses crowdfunding success to attract new resource-holders in local ecosystems. Our findings contribute to research on entrepreneurial resource mobilization and our understanding of the interplay of spatial and digital affordances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing global attention on achieving sustainable development goals, businesses worldwide face mounting pressures to incorporate sustainability into their business models and operations. However, despite the recognized importance of sustainability in modern manufacturing operations, the path toward embedding sustainability remains unclear and challenging for many manufacturing firms. Within the theoretical framework of dynamic capability theory and the imperative of sustainable development goals, this study investigates the influence of sustainable business models, crowdfunding, Industry 4.0 technologies, and stakeholders' pressure on the sustainable performance of manufacturing firms in Pakistan. Based on survey data from 370 small and medium enterprise owners and managers, our study utilized a hybrid approach by combining partial least squares–Structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural networking techniques. The results emphasize a significant and positive impact of a sustainable business model on firm sustainability. Moreover, the findings reveal that Industry 4.0 technology and crowdfunding partially mediate the relationship between sustainable business models and sustainable performance, highlighting the significant role of advanced technologies and alternative financing. Besides, stakeholders' pressure emerges as a crucial moderator, further strengthening the relationship between sustainable business models and firm sustainability. This study advances knowledge of sustainable business actions within the firms and constitutes a valuable input for businesses, policymakers, and other stakeholders dedicated to enhancing sustainable growth in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities in Oaxaca face challenges such as food insecurity, economic instability, and the loss of traditional agricultural knowledge. Home gardens, once essential for food production and income generation, have declined due to migration, environmental degradation, and modern agricultural pressures. This study evaluated how community-driven models, supported by crowdfunding, can revitalize home gardens to improve food security, build community resilience, and promote economic empowerment. A mixed-methods approach, including household surveys, interviews, and focus groups, was used to assess the impact of these gardens. The results showed that over 70% of households experienced improved food security and reduced reliance on external food sources. Home garden production also led to a 20% reduction in food expenses, and the sale of surplus crops provided additional income, enhancing household economic stability. Women's involvement in agricultural decision-making increased, fostering empowerment within both family and community contexts. Traditional practices, such as seed saving and organic pest control, were maintained, contributing to the ecological sustainability of the gardens. Crowdfunding was an effective tool for financing home gardens, boosting community engagement and strengthening social bonds. The findings highlight the potential of integrating traditional knowledge with modern funding strategies to create resilient, sustainable agricultural systems in rural Oaxaca. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding refers to the online collection of certain capital from a vast number of individuals or groups that each contribute a relatively small amount. Recently, the credibility of crowdfunding platforms has been undermined by fraudulent projects, inadequate fund management, and other forms of disorder. The decentralization and anti-tampering features of blockchain provide the possibility to solve the above problems, and many studies have proposed blockchain-based crowdfunding schemes. However, the existing state-of-the-art methods do not provide user authentication, transaction auditing, and identity management in a privacy-preserving way. Accordingly, this paper presents a novel blockchain-based crowdfunding system called CrowdChain. Initially, the distributed identity and BLS signature are employed to establish a user authentication mechanism, enabling CrowdChain to withstand Sybil attacks while preserving the non-linkability of user identities. Secondly, the physically unclonable function (PUF) is used to generate keys associated with digital identities that are not stored in external devices to resist physical attacks. Subsequently, a crowdfunding mechanism is constructed utilizing zero-knowledge proofs to facilitate streamlined auditing procedures while safeguarding the confidentiality of transactions. Additionally, the formal security analysis proves the security of the CrowdChain scheme. The system prototype is implemented on the Hyperledger Fabric. Empirical evidence indicates the viable efficiency of CrowdChain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding has become a vital source for many projects related to business, invention, healthcare, education, and social issues. Traditional platforms, however, are susceptible to security flaws that could reveal investors' and project creators' private and financial information. This study presents blockchain technology to improve the security and decentralization of crowdfunding transactions. The constraints of centralized cloud storage are addressed by employing decentralized file storage technologies such as Inter-Planetary File Systems (IPFS). Our study creates a blockchain-based crowdfunding prototype framework with Ethereum Smart Contracts (ESC), which greatly increases the efficiency and reliability of the crowdfunding process by releasing cash automatically at predetermined milestones. Blockchain technology offers an immutable and transparent ledger, reducing the need for intermediaries and thus minimizing operational costs. Furthermore, using decentralized systems ensures that no single entity has control, promoting fairness and security for all users within the crowdfunding ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Crowdfunding is increasingly favoured by entrepreneurs for online financing. Predicting crowdfunding success can provide valuable guidance for stakeholders. It is a new attempt to evaluate the relative performance of different machine learning algorithms for crowdfunding prediction. Objectives: This study aims to identify the key factors of crowdfunding, and find the different performance and usage of machine learning algorithms for crowdfunding prediction. Method: We crawled data from MoDian.com, a Chinese crowdfunding platform, and predicted the crowdfunding performance using four machine learning algorithms, which is a new exploration in this area. Most of the existing literature focuses on empirical analysis. This work solves the problem of predicting crowdfunding performance using a dataset with a minimal number of highly contributive features, which has higher accuracy compared to the regression analysis. Results: The experiment results show that feature‐selection‐based machine learning models are effective and beneficial in crowdfunding prediction. Conclusion: Feature selection can significantly improve the prediction performance of the machine learning models. KNN achieved the best prediction results with five features: number of backers, target amount, number of project likes, number of project comments, and sponsor fans. The prediction accuracy was improved by 16%, the precision was improved by 13.23%, the recall was improved by 22.66%, the F‐score was improved by 18.48%, and the AUC was improved by 14.9%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines and compares the funding distribution inequities in arts organizations across three different funding institutions—government grantmaking, charitable contributions, and crowdfunding—through different inequity measures. Based on three different datasets including the National Endowment for the Arts grants data, National Center for Charitable Statistics data, and Kickstarter crowdfunding data starting in 2009, we find that compared to non-arts funds on the same platforms, arts-related funds in these institutions are not more concentrated in the hands of a few, although the level of concentration is strikingly high. In addition, we find that nonprofit contributions are heavily concentrated, far more than government grants. However, contributions to arts nonprofits are not more concentrated than to other nonprofits. We also explore how the pandemic crisis impacted arts funding distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By harnessing the power of the crowd, crowdfunding has changed the way startup ventures, innovation‐minded entrepreneurs, and private individuals raise capital. Reward‐based crowdfunding is an established and attractive fundraising option for entrepreneurs with creative projects, while investment‐based crowdfunding has also gained popularity thanks to the progress of related regulations. Both types of crowdfunding are drawing a growing number of startups that seek funding opportunities, although backers on different types of crowdfunding platforms exhibit distinct motivations. Understanding the behavior and interaction of different types of backers is thus critical for a startup to launch a successful crowdfunding campaign across distinct platforms. To address this issue, we conduct a field study on a popular crowdfunding platform, where each campaign offered both reward‐ and investment‐based funding. Interestingly, we find a positive relationship between investor contributions in the early stage of the campaign and the likelihood of the campaign's success. Our empirical analysis reveals that investor–consumer interaction mediates the main effect of early investor contributions. Moreover, the positive main effect is stronger when a larger amount of project‐relevant information is released and when a higher level of customization (using price discrimination or product differentiation) is offered in reward‐based funding options. These results are consistent with several robustness checks. Our findings provide relevant managerial implications for entrepreneurs and valuable insights regarding platform design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of culture as a motivator for young generations to travel and their willingness of using crowdfunding to sustain culture. Design/methodology/approach: Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design and through a quantile regression analysis for count data, a sample of 1,721 Italian young people is examined. Findings: The analysis reveals that culture is a significant factor for a trip's motivation among young generations and crowdfunding represents a key alternative instrument for financing culture. Originality/value: The research fills the gap in extant literature by clarifying the role of culture in the choice of a touristic destination by young generations. This is a significant achievement since understanding the motivations is crucial to attract tourists at a specific destination and it represents a relevant insight for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of crowdfunding campaigns varies from person to person; some investors are more interested in the project's creativity, and others are more concerned with the profiles of entrepreneurs. The study investigated how entrepreneurs' face disclosure influenced the success of crowdfunding. Secondary data were collected from multiple crowdfunding platforms for projects in Africa. That is, cross-country data from 54 African countries, to overcome data limitations from a single country. An econometrics analysis revealed that the facial disclosure of entrepreneurs increases the probability of crowdfunding success by 3%. Images, videos, and backers had a positive influence on the success of crowdfunding. On the contrary, the duration of the crowdfunding campaign was negatively associated with its success. To reduce the knowledge asymmetry between creators and backers, those prepared to start a crowdfunding project must provide as much information as possible to show their abilities. This study contributes to understanding the role of disclosing an entrepreneur's profile on economic exchanges to the success of online crowdfunding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic literature review examines the existing research on crowdfunding for renewable energy (RE) projects, with the purpose of identifying the factors that influence the need and the success of such crowdfunding campaigns, and the findings discuss the potential role of the public sector, and offer future research directions. The review synthesizes and analyses findings from 33 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2016 and 2023 in leading journals like the Journal of Cleaner Production, Energy Economics, and Journal of Business Research. The results show that crowdfunding can be an effective source of financing for RE projects, particularly in developing countries where traditional financing options are limited. The review identifies financial characteristics, communication and marketing strategies, media coverage, project category, and message framing as key factors that influence the success of crowdfunding campaigns for RE projects. The potential role of the public sector in supporting crowdfunding is also discussed, including creating an enabling environment, providing funding and technical assistance, promoting the benefits of RE and crowdfunding, addressing regulatory and information barriers, and collaborating with other stakeholders. Finally, the review identifies compelling areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding platforms are seen as potential solutions to facilitate disintermediated giving, where people can go directly to the public for help with their difficulties. Although disintermediation is widespread and active in the crowdfunding industry, the fiercely competitive environment, combined with concerns about personal data use and unethical conduct, has resulted in an enormous number of campaigns failing. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate factors that influence contributors’ intention to participate in the crowdfunding platform. Using a self-administered survey, this research collected data from 339 individuals with initial knowledge of crowdfunding activities. The results of hypothesis testing indicate that gamification has a direct positive impact on affective user experience and trust in the platform but insignificantly affects donation intention on a crowdfunding platform. Interestingly, the mediating role of affective user experience and trust are established. The results lead to the discussion that gamification alone not directly impact donors' intentions to contribute on crowdfunding platforms, it significantly influences intention when mediated by affective user experience and trust in the platform. The substantial contribution of the relationship between gamification and trust in the platform, emphasizing the importance of user experience as a key precursor to positive behavioural intentions in online and gamified environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Online fundraising has become a rapidly growing alternative business financing method for esports. Despite this, a lack of attention has been given to its fans' motivations for participating in crowdfunding (CF) projects or behavioral intentions for spectatorship. To address this, the present study (1) categorizes esport CF investors' motivations based on the big five personality traits and (2) compares whether motivations and behavioral intentions for esports spectatorships vary depending on each group. Design/methodology/approach: We applied K-means clustering analysis to classify investors. ANOVA was used to verify whether there were differences in CF motivations and behavioral intentions. Findings: The study identified six distinct investor segments. Overall, esports CF investors showed high agreeableness and conscientiousness with low neuroticism. Fanatic fans were the most motivated and had the highest spectatorship intentions, driven by strong openness. In contrast, recognition seekers and charity donors exhibited the lowest viewing intentions. Entertainment seekers were highly motivated by excitement and aesthetics, linking CF participation to a strong desire to watch events. Despite higher neuroticism, reward hunters also showed significant viewing intentions, driven by drama and aesthetics. These findings highlight the diverse motivations and their influence on esports spectatorship. Originality/value: This study investigates the motivations and behavioral intentions of CF investors and spectatorship, which has substantive theoretical and managerial implications for the business of esports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance, defined as channeling money into sustainable development activities, is still far lower than needed to achieve net-zero emissions objectives. In this paper, we discuss the role of technologies in developing green finance. We identify that green finance faces three major challenges, including the risk management of green projects, the scarcity of innovative green financing products, and compliance with the regulations. Then, in the context of the existing literature, we explore recent technologies, including blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics that are helping to deal with the challenges in green finance. We show that data-driven approaches utilizing AI and ML help in the risk assessment of green projects; FinTech-based crowdfunding platforms provide innovative green financial products and regulatory technologies (RegTech) support in compliance with regulations. We also identify that the environmental footprint of cryptocurrencies is an emerging area in the technologies and green finance domain. Our framework could be helpful to further extend the debate on the role of technology in green finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The article aims to formulate the problem of formation of such type of investment institutions as investment platform in BRICS.Tasks. The objectives of the article are defined by the fact that the executive director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund proposed to create a joint investment platform of BRICS countries, allowing BRICS members to invest more actively in the economies of their partners. And as is known, BRICS countries currently play a significant and constantly growing role in world politics and international relations. Methods. In the process of research the set tasks were solved by the author usin g general scientific (historical, dialectical, systemic, logical, method of analysis) and legal (comparative legal, sociological, axiological) research methods.Results. The result of the research is the proposal based on the Russian experience of regulation of platform services (financial platforms, investment platforms and information systems) on the formation on the basis of the Russian regulation model of the concept of building the corresponding institution within BRICS. At the same time, the article also draws attention to possible problems that may arise during the preparation of the relevant international act. In particular, the implementation of this initiative raises a wide range of technical, economic and legal issues that require detailed consideration.Conclusions. When choosing specific investment methods that can be used on such a platform, it is necessary to take into account the needs of businesses and the population, both in the long-term and short-term attraction and placement of resources. In particular, legal regulation of the choice of the legal regime for investment should influence the choice of the legal status of entities that will be admitted to such a platform, highlighting, for example, qualified investors or retail investors.

Introduction. The development of alternative lending channels in Russia at the present stage, taking into account traditional and new forms and methods of obtaining all types of loans, is relevant in the context of digitalization due to the diversification of models and strategies for providing credit services by various online platforms.Goal. Determining directions for the development of alternative lending channels in Russia in the context of digitalization.Materials and methods. To study alternative lending, the key rate of the Central Bank and Rosstat data were taken; taken into account: the interest of individuals and legal entities in ordinary bank lending, the economic and political situation in the country, the public availability of information about the conditions, advantages and disadvantages of alternative lending, and other options for investing funds.Results and discussion. The study presents a modern citation analysis of the definitions “alternative lending”, “digital economy”, “digitalization”. The presented classification of alternative lending is supplemented with advantages and disadvantages. An assessment of the dynamics of consumer lending in Russia for the period 2021–2023, determination of the share of this type of lending in the total volume of consumer loans, an assessment of the size of the consumer lending market, as well as average market values of the cost of alternative loans allowed us to conclude that the alternative lending segment is growing, to which influenced by the expansion of the fintech segment. The greatest growth by the end of 2023 is observed in crowdfunding (crowdlending).Conclusion. Based on the results of the study, we can conclude that currently alternative lending, also known as peer-to-peer, is a progressive event that offers other lending options. It makes it possible to receive loans and purchase banking products without the participation of credit institutions, directly carrying out transactions through other market participants.

Donation-based crowdfunding platforms invite people to tell stories of unmet health needs in a hybrid form—using both words and images—but research to date has not addressed the role of visual practice in this setting, in any detail. In this Photo Essay I present an art installation responding to this gap and informed by empirical data from a three-year study of medical crowdfunding in Aotearoa New Zealand. Through a feminist new materialist lens, and connecting to scholarship on visuality and the gaze, I used the medium of stained glass to evoke and connect the experiences of both campaigners and audiences. I briefly discuss the design process, alongside reflections on the role of graphic medical imagery in an assemblage of witnessing; on disability, shock, and the economic function of voyeurism; on non-normative bodies and subjectification through the gaze; on biases in audience recognition; and on paradoxes of intimacy and distance through digital technology. I highlight that both the content and the context of images have a role in shaping the ‘response-ability’ of networked publics to the suffering of distant others; in the case of medical crowdfunding, with significant consequences for healthcare access.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the legal regulation of the process of introducing FinTech in the sphere of impact finance within the context of digital technologies in the newly expanded BRICS bloc. This is a crucial step in order to be able to meet the challenges of the new global digital economy and cooperate in achieving common goals. The authors come to the conclusion that although the BRICS countries are geographically located on different continents, the states that decided to form this organization share a number of key features. Firstly, the governmental role in the digital transformation of all BRICS countries is significantly greater in comparison to the Western countries. Secondly, because not all BRICS countries have developed economies, the BRICS member states, despite their strong interest in digitalization of their countries, do not always have the capacity to finance such projects from their own national budgets, which highlights the important role of the BRICS New Development Bank in the process of digitalization of the BRICS economies. Thirdly, cooperation among the BRICS countries, through their participation in the New Development Bank in the digital realm, can significantly contribute to fostering the economic growth of each country within the integration. Since the greatest effect of digital technology penetration is achieved when starting from the lowest level, harmonization of approaches in the BRICS countries and new member countries of the bloc will most likely have a synergistic effect.

This study adopts a signaling theory perspective to examine whether and how crowdfunding (relative to angel financing) influences subsequent venture capital (VC) investments in startups. We used a bivariate probit model with propensity score matching to address the potential endogeneity of the initial funding choice. Subsequently, we found that crowdfunded startups have a lower chance of receiving VC funding than angel-financed startups and that the effect is more negative for startups located outside of startup cluster cities. We show that corporate VCs, unlike independent VCs comprising the majority of VCs, favor crowdfunded startups. Our study contributes to the literature on crowdfunding, startup finance, and the transformative effects of IT-enabled platforms. This study further discusses the practical implications of crowdfunding in startup finance ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors posit that in an initial exposure to a broadcast video, hearing different voices narrate (in succession) a persuasive message encourages consumers' attention and processing of the message, thereby facilitating persuasion; this is referred to as the voice numerosity effect. Across four studies (plus validation and replication studies)—including two large-scale, real-world data sets (with more than 11,000 crowdfunding videos and over 3.6 million customer transactions, and more than 1,600 video ads) and two controlled experiments (with over 1,800 participants)—the results provide support for the hypothesized effect. The effect (1) has consequential, economic implications in a real-world marketplace, (2) is more pronounced when the message is easier to comprehend, (3) is more pronounced when consumers have the capacity to process the ad message, and (4) is mediated by the favorability of consumers' cognitive responses. The authors demonstrate the use of machine learning, text mining, and natural language processing to process and analyze unstructured (multimedia) data. Theoretical and marketing implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]