Crowdfunding for Entrepreneurs

This is the first book of its kind to systematically integrate crowdfunding in the entrepreneurial finance research field and extend the current debate to show how crowdfunding can be leveraged as a strategic tool to grow new ventures.Utilising original empirical evidence of companies that have raised funds via crowdfunding, it discusses the value-added services that the crowd provides to entrepreneurs, as well as how and under which conditions crowdfunding helps company development by facilitating subsequent access to critical financial and non-financial resources from external stakeholders. The first part introduces the most popular models and tactics for a successful crowdfunding campaign and illustrates the characteristics of the crowdfunding phenomenon and its evolution across the world during the last decade. The second part of the book, demonstrating how crowdfunding can be a starting point to seed financing, illustrates and discusses how entrepreneurs can use crowdfunding as a strategic tool for accessing subsequent resources from external stakeholders – showing the benefits, beyond capital, that entrepreneurs can gain from the crowd, as well as potential risks.Crowdfunding for Entrepreneurs is particularly useful for academics, advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in entrepreneurship and innovation, entrepreneurial finance, strategic management, as well as professionals interested in how crowdfunding can be utilised as a strategic tool to create competitive advantage.

"Di Pietro’s book provides a fresh and original outlook to the crowdfunding phenomenon: it offers insights on the worldwide diffusion of crowdfunding and its impact ventures’ performance. Crowdfunding for Entrepreneurs is an outstanding book: a must-read for researchers studying crowdfunding and for entrepreneurs and professionals who would like to read an essential and effective guide of such phenomenon." — Professor Andrea Prencipe, Rector, LUISS University, Rome, Italy"It’s time to take crowdfunding seriously. Francesca Di Pietro offers a badly needed overview of the crowdfunding phenomenon with a focus on how it works in practice. The systematic scholarly perspective helps to go beyond the surface and to make sense of the opportunities as well as pitfalls of crowdfunding. A must-read for scholars and practitioners alike." — Eero Vaara, Professor in Organisations and Impact at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, UK"This book addresses how crowdfunding has shaped the entrepreneurial finance landscape. It is designed to help students, scholars, and entrepreneurs to develop a critical understanding of the phenomenon, its worldwide adoption, and its impact on venture performance. The book is innovative and clear, and can lead to new ideas for research." — Vangelis Souitaris, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Cass Business School, City University of London, UK"At lightning speed, crowdfunding has gone from a novelty to the mainstream in entrepreneurial finance. The need to understand this relatively new form of finance is, therefore, paramount for both those engaged in entrepreneurial finance and researchers. So this book, by one of the experts in the field, provides the solution by providing a comprehensive and in-depth analytical overview of research. It is a welcome and indispensable source of reference." — Professor Andrew Burke, Dean & Chair of Business Studies, Trinity Business School, Ireland

Francesca Di Pietro is assistant professor in Business Strategy and associate director of the MSc in Entrepreneurship at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her main research interests are on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance. Her research has appeared in major scientific journals and books.