A review of crowdfunding research and findings

Crowdfunding is a relatively new form of venture financing that allows entrepreneurs to appeal directly to the general public (i.e., the “crowd”) for help getting their innovative ideas off the ground. Due to the growing number of online crowdfunding communities and availability of public data, academic research is beginning to explore the drivers behind successfully crowdfunded projects. In this chapter, we summarize key findings from reward-based, lending-based, equity-based, and donation-based crowdfunding studies. Based on our review, we propose several promising directions for future research.