Alternative Fundraising: Success Factors for Blockchain-Based vs. Conventional Crowdfunding

Hartmann F.;Grottolo G.;Wang X.;Lunesu M. I.

2019-01-01

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Abstract

Blockchain-based crowdfunding is an emerging economic phenomenon and a state-of-the-art strategy to finance ventures. It bears similarity to conventional crowdfunding, but has its own unique characteristics. Therefore the success factors that affect the outcome of traditional crowdfunding may have a different impact on blockchain-based crowdfunding. Despite that the number of blockchain-based crowdfunding campaigns has increased drastically in the past few years, there is a lack of good understanding of what the success factors are for them in comparison to the ones for conventional crowdfunding. Such understanding is crucial for companies to design their blockchain-based fundraising initiatives properly and facilitate potential investors to seek main signals and drivers of outstanding projects. Furthermore it could help regulators and market participants to understand how the existing regulatory framework applies to blockchain-based crowdfunding. Due to specific characteristics of blockchain-based crowdfunding, regulatory frameworks may require potential re-interpretation of requirements to allow an effective application of regulations. To fill this knowledge gaps, we have reviewed a set of relevant literature on success factors for conventional and blockchain-based crowdfunding. The result of this literature review sheds light on the directions for future research and development. The contribution of our work is a better understanding of the distinctions and similarities of blockchain-based crowdfunding compared to traditional crowdfunding.