Month: January 2018

Topic/Title: To what extent has crowdfunding influenced the sharing economy?
Research Question: To what extent has crowdfunding influenced innovation?
Below is my start, and my references:
To what extent has crowdfunding influenced the sharing economy?
Introduction
In todays world, most start-ups and entrepreneurs find it difficult to attract external finance at their early stages, by means of bank loans or equity capital. As so many find it difficult to fund, many ventures have failed in the early stages. In order to overcome these finance issues, many entrepreneurs have employed crowdfunding as a way of securing investment. Rather than raising funds from a small group of investors, crowdfunding helps firms to obtain finance from large audience, where each person invests a very small amount. Such an investment can take the model of equity purchase, donation, loan, or the pre-ordering of the good.
The Sharing Economy is a socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human, physical and intellectual resources. It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organisations.
Crowdfunding is changing how entrepreneurs bring new products to market. It has allowed thousands of innovating entrepreneurs to raise money, build brand awareness, and join a broader conversation with large numbers of potential backers, all while still in the product development process (Stanko & Henard, 2016). I want to investigate how crowdfunding campaigns can help – or hinder – innovation efforts. Hence, the central question of, “To what extent has crowdfunding influenced innovation?”. I hope to answer the central question by means of literature review, and by combining data from the campaigns with survey data from the crowdfunding entrepreneurs, from various sources.
In the introduction, I hope to introduce the crowdfunding phenomenon, and state a successful example of a campaign. I will describe the situation and motivation for this work, to answer the central question. I will then explore different perspectives of crowdfunding and the innovation process. I will then use empirical research by means of direct and indirect observations. I will then discuss the empirical findings about the impact of crowdfunding on the entrepreneurial innovation process. I will then give my opinion on the matter, and use facts to back it up. I will then conclude my findings, and answer the central question.
References
Agrawal, A., Catalini, C., & Goldfarb, A. (2014). Some simple economics of crowdfunding. Innovation Policy and the Economy, 14(1), 63-97.
Barnett, C, (2015), Trends Show Crowdfunding to Surpass VC in 2016. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chancebarnett/2015/06/09/trends-show-crowdfunding-to-surpass-vc-in-2016/#4b2edc684547
Boudreau, K. J., & Lakhani, K. R. (2013). Using the crowd as an innovation partner. Harvard Business Review, 91(4), 60-9.
Hamari, J., Sjöklint, M., & Ukkonen, A. (2016). The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(9), 2047-2059.
Malhotra, A., & Van Alstyne, M. (2014). The dark side of the sharing economy… and how to lighten it. Communications of the ACM, 57(11), 24-27.
Matofska, B. (2016). What is the sharing economy. Diambil kembali dari the people who share: http://thepeoplewhoshare.com/blog/what-is-the-sharing-economy
Richardson, L. (2015). Performing the sharing economy. Geoforum, 67, 121-129.
Scholz, N. (2015). The relevance of crowdfunding: the impact on the innovation process of small entrepreneurial firms. Springer.
Schor, J. (2016). Debating the Sharing Economy. Journal of Self-Governance & Management Economics, 4(3).
Seltzer, E., & Mahmoudi, D. (2013). Citizen participation, open innovation, and crowdsourcing: Challenges and opportunities for planning. CPL bibliography, 28(1), 3-18.
Stanko, M. A., & Henard, D. H. (2016). How crowdfunding influences innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(3), 15.
Taeihagh, A. (2017). Crowdsourcing, sharing economies and development. Journal of Developing Societies, 33(2), 191-222.
Van Alstyne, M. W., Parker, G. G., & Choudary, S. P. (2016). Pipelines, platforms, and the new rules of strategy. Harvard Business Review, 94(4), 54-62.