Crowdfunding: The collaborative economy for channelling institutional and household savings

The financial disintermediation mechanism known as “loan-based-crowdfunding” has recently come under regulation in several countries. This competitive investment and finance vehicle is already well established in the US and British markets.By compiling empirical data from a reference crowdfunding platform, this article compares loan-based crowdfunding with traditional investment vehicles such as investment funds, equities or pension funds.The conclusion of the study is that saving through crowdfunding allows the optimization of a portfolio comprising both institutional and retail investors.     

Crowdfrauding: Avoiding Ponzi entrepreneurs when investing in new ventures

Crowdfunding has gained substantial interest in the U.S., allowing entrepreneurs to raise startup capital in exchange for equity in their ventures. This approach to equity capital can open up new sources of venture finance to legitimate entrepreneurs, but little attention has been given to how it offers new opportunities for illegal entrepreneurs to defraud investors. We adopt a forensic approach to examine entrepreneurs who launch Ponzi ventures—businesses that continually bring in new investors in order to use their money to pay returns to earlier investors—to demonstrate the ease, creativity, and audacity with which these illegal entrepreneurs operate. The provided examples of Ponzi entrepreneurs show how easily they can circumvent the safeguards purported to protect investors: screening by ‘the crowd,’ transparency and documentation requirements, independent audit reports, and withholding of funds until the venture's financial goal has been met. In this article, we offer possible solutions to help protect investors, legitimate entrepreneurs, and business in general from the damage created by illegal entrepreneurs.     

众筹中创新项目质量和报酬率的激励效应研究

众筹是整合社会分散财力资源从而实现筹资投资双方获得便利目的的一种有效的新型融资投资模式,属于互联网金融的一种形式.本文针对众筹过程中两大参与主体筹资方和投资方各自特征,依据成本收益理论,建立激励效用模型,考虑创新项目质量和报酬率两大因素的变化对众筹双方的期望效用的影响作用.研究结果表明:在三种不同的假设条件下,项目质量和报酬率两大因素影响众筹双方期望效用,进而可以激励双方主体,并且提出了众筹双方效用最优化状态的存在性.     

众筹平台对创业融资的影响:前沿研究述评与未来展望

关于众筹平台对创业融资的影响，国内外研究主要集中在同一平台内不同项目之间的特征差异方面，即平台内特征分析，且研究结论并不统一；相较之下，关于不同平台之间的特征差异，即平台间特征，现在才开始受到重视。通过对众筹平台与创业融资前沿研究的系统梳理，一方面针对众筹平台内特征，从资金筹措和资金回报两个层面阐释了影响创业融资成功的关键因素，涉及项目特征、创业者特征、投资者互动等；另一方面，针对众筹平台间特征，从平台类型、平台机制、融资渠道3个层面阐释了影响创业融资成功的关键因素。未来，可以从众筹平台间特征对资金回报的影响、综合平台内和平台间特征对资金筹措的影响、众筹平台动态变化机制等多个角度展开深入研究。     

Higher education and stakeholders’ donations: successful civic crowdfunding in an Italian university

Can civic crowdfunding be used to improve the structures and services offered by public universities? Are stakeholders willing to make donations to such projects? This paper answers these questions by analysing a successful civic crowdfunding project in an Italian university. Stakeholders were found to be willing to engage in crowdfunding and make donations. The key to success is to ensure effective communication and to draw on feelings of belonging to the institution.     

Social identity and signalling success factors in online crowdfunding

Online crowdfunding means relying on the Internet to seek financial support from the general public. In this paper, we examine success factors in the social capital networks of the top 5000 most funded projects in Kickstarter.com at the time of this study. We first look at how fundraisers and backers identify themselves with the projects they support in their own social networks. This is modelled using Facebook friends and Facebook shares, respectively, guided by social identity theory. Secondly, we use signalling theory to investigate crowdfunding success based on backers’ and fundraisers’ ability to engage in a forum, modelled using the number of comments between them, or with unilateral signals using the number of updates from the fundraiser. This study suggests that funders and backers who identify themselves with the projects in their own social networks are associated with greater pledge/backer ratio. We also find that projects where the fundraiser and its backers exchange more signals in a joint forum, but not signals delivered unilaterally by the fundraiser, have a greater pledge/backer ratio. These findings, based on a scalable quantitative study, highlight the importance of a multi-theory approach, advance social identity theory and signalling theory in the context of crowdfunding, and could be applied to online and normal entrepreneurship environments alike.     

互联网科技众筹金融生态风险控制体系构建

互联网科技众筹将民间资本与中小微企业科技创新项目对接,能有效解决中小微企业融资难题。目前互联网金融生态乱象丛生,互联网科技众筹发展尚不完善,建设互联网科技众筹金融生态应重点落地风险控制体系。运用金融生态系统理论,基于互联网科技众筹业务模式,梳理了互联网科技众筹金融生态风险控制体系逻辑与架构,从生态主体风险行为、生态环境内外部风险、生态关系风险类别3个角度总结分析互联网科技众筹金融生态当前存在的风险,研究与构建了互联网科技众筹金融生态风险控制体系,并从发挥生态主体作用、促进生态环境改善、维持生态关系平衡3个方面提出建议。     

众包、众筹、众创——高校科研模式创新研究

互联网的普及催生了众包、众筹以及众创等大众创新形式,将有力促进高校科研创新模式向开放式、现代化转变。从论述高校科研模式创新的必要性和合理性出发,提出解决科研团队、科研教师、科研学生面临问题的新思路及运作机理,即借助互联网技术,构建高校科研众包平台、科研众筹平台以及科研众创平台。建议依托三大平台,有效利用各方科研资源,广泛筹集社会研究资金,充分发挥智力资本价值,加大政策支持和制度规范,以促进高校科研模式健康发展。     

天使众筹联合投资网络结构及动态演变的探索性研究

天使众筹通过开放的互联网平台连接投资人与创业者,使得天使众筹联合投资网络的形成情境不同于风险投资联合投资网络。基于2015—2018年蚂蚁天使众筹平台联合投资数据,分析天使众筹联合投资网络结构特征与演变趋势,结果表明,天使众筹联合投资网络与风险投资联合投资网络具有显著差异,前者是强凝聚性和高开放性并存的网络,后者则是弱凝聚性和低开放性并存的网络。结论可丰富联合投资网络和众筹领域的理论研究,有助于深入分析天使众筹联合投资网络及其在数字经济时代的作用。     

众筹平台双边市场特性与竞争策略研究

当前,众筹平台逐渐分化为综合型与垂直型众筹平台,其用户规模和交易费率都存在显著差异,需要制定有针对性的竞争策略。根据众筹模式特征,构建了Hotelling竞争模型,分组实证考察了综合型和垂直型众筹平台双边用户交叉网络外部性、支持者自网络外部性和平台定价的综合影响。结果表明,在综合型众筹平台中,支持者规模对支持者投资需求产生了显著正自网络外部性;而在垂直型众筹平台中,支持者规模对发起者筹资需求、发起者规模对支持者投资需求均产生了显著的正交叉网络外部性,且平台定价显著负向影响发起者筹资需求。