Archetypes of Crowdfunding Platforms: A Multidimensional Comparison

129 Pages·2014·1.69 MB·English

by  Florian Danmayr (auth.)

BestMasters
Springer awards “BestMasters” to the best application-oriented master’s theses,
which were completed at renowned chairs of economic sciences in Germany, Aus-
tria, and Switzerland in 2013.
Th e works received highest marks and were recommended for publication by su-
pervisors. As a rule, they show a high degree of application orientation and deal
with current issues from diff erent fi elds of economics. Th e series addresses practi-
tioners as well as scientists and off ers guidance for early stage researchers.
Florian Danmayr
Archetypes of
Crowdfunding Platforms
A Multidimensional Comparison
With a foreword by Dr. Othmar Lehner
Florian Danmayr
Steyr, Austria
ISBN 978-3-658-04558-6 ISBN 978-3-658-04559-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-04559-3
Th e Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografi e;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013955728
Springer Gabler
© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2014
Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole
or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical
way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, compu-
ter soft ware, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereaft er developed.
Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or schol-
arly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed
on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this
publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of
the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained
from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright
Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law.
Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date
of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal re-
sponsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. Th e publisher makes no warranty,
express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
Printed on acid-free paper
Springer Gabler is a brand of Springer DE.
Springer DE is part of Springer Science+Business Media.
www.springer-gabler.de
Geleitwort
Crowdfunding ermöglicht jungen UnternehmerInnen einen alternativen se-
mi-regulierten Zugang zum Kapitalmarkt. Grob unterschieden wird zwischen
Crowdfunding für Eigen- oder Fremdkapital, je nach Eigentümerstatus und
Risikotragung. Dabei dienen sogenannte Plattformen im Internet als Inter-
mediäre und übernehmen vielfältigste Aufgaben, von Investor Relations bis
hin zur treuhänderischen Abwicklung von Investorengeldern. Solche Platt-
formen weisen ein enormes Marktpotenzial auf und so verwundert es kaum,
dass zahlreiche Anbieter sich weltweit auf diesen 2.8 Mrd. USD Markt stür-
zen (Quelle: Massolutions Crowdfunding Report 2013), allerdings mit sehr
unterschiedlichem Erfolg.
Die vorliegende Thesis beschäftigt sich mit diesen Plattformen, untersucht
aus einer multiperspektivischen Sicht deren Business Modelle und versucht
eine kategorisierende Typologie zu entwickeln. Durch die Erarbeitung von
geeigneten Unterscheidungsmerkmalen trägt die Thesis daher zur Weiter-
entwicklung der Theorie im Bereich Business Modelle und Crowdfunding
bei, indem die Phänomene im Durkheim‘schen Sinne objektiviert und mess-
bar gemacht werden. Gleichsam informiert sie die Praxis über mögliche Ge-
schäftsmodelle, deren Erfolgspotentiale und mögliche Vorbilder.
Die theoretische Aufarbeitung der Hintergründe, von Finanzierungsmodellen
über Web 2.0 Darstellungen bis hin zu rechtlichen Entwicklungen wurde
hervorragend gemeistert. Die Theorie wird in zahlreichen synoptischen Dis-
kussionen verknüpft und durch graphisch ansprechende Schaubilder illus-
triert, sodass der Leser oftmals auf einen Blick die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse
erfassen kann.
Der Autor Florian Danmayr reflektiert in einem eigenen Methodenkapitel
über Ontologie und Epistemologie sowie den „Status“ der vorhandenen Lite-
ratur in diesem prä-paradigmatischen Feld. Die Thesis verfolgt ein qualitati-
ves Forschungsdesign und nutzt eine Content-Analyse zur Auswertung der
empirisch gefundenen Materialien.
Archetypen sowie im Unterschied dazu Stereotypen von Crowdfunding
Plattformen werden herausgearbeitet und die zugrundeliegenden Business
Modelle dabei kritisch gewürdigt.
Die Erkenntnisse informieren einerseits die Praxis und zeigen dabei Mög-
lichkeiten und Geschäftsmodelle auf und bieten andererseits Ansatzpunkte,
VI Geleitwort

um darauf aufbauende wissenschaftliche Modelle für weitere quantitative
Forschung zu erstellen.
Dr. Othmar Lehner
Professor für Finanz- und Risikomanagement
FH Oberösterreich, Campus Steyr, Fakultät für Management

Dr. Othmar Lehner MBA is currently Director of Programme at the ACRN
U. Centre for Research Methodology, Austria, Cambridge UK, and a full
Professor of Finance and Risk Management at the University of Upper Aus-
tria. Previously he was a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of
Jyväskylä, Finland. He studied Sociology, Business and Finance at the Uni-
versity of Linz, Austria and at the University of London.
After his Master in Finance, he went into a professional career working as a
bank manager for 10 years before he continued his academic calling in a
joint PhD programme of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and Stanford
University, California to complete one of the first Doctor of Science theses at
that time in Social Entrepreneurship, under the examiners Johanna Mair
from Stanford US and Kai Hockerts, CBS Denmark.
His research interests are Social Entrepreneurship, especially the compara-
tive and political dimensions, Social Finance and Crowdfunding, in which he
deals with issues of the interface between the public and social sectors; or-
ganizational legitimacy and governance; the development of social finance
markets; and impact measurement and innovation. In 2011/12 he was a
guest at Harvard U. in the research group assisting the Obama administra-
tion in creating the JOBS act. Dr Lehner is widely published in peer re-
viewed journals and is the author of the research book “Social Entrepre-
neurship Perspectives: Triangulated Approaches to Hybridity” at JSBE pub-
lishing house. He is a regular speaker at a range of international confer-
ences and has held guest lectureships at a variety of academic institutions
including: Oxford University SAID, Cambridge Hughes Hall, University of
Heidelberg, University of Business and Economics Vienna. At the ACRN he
leads a research consortium aiming to explore the dimensions of social and
sustainable finance, and is responsible for the annual FRAP conference se-
ries of Finance, Risk and Accounting Perspectives. He also serves as asso-
ciate editor at the Routledge Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and the
Routledge Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment.
Acknowledgements
Baby steps…
…everything develops step by step. Writing up such a thesis represents a
challenging endeavour in a student’s life. It is like standing in front of a
mountain, asking oneself how to cope with this path leading to the top of the
mountain. There have been a lot of people during this period who encour-
aged me to accept this challenge.
I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Othmar Lehner for his support, espe-
cially his critical and constructive feedback while writing this work. In valua-
ble discussions he has shown me alternative ways for further development
of my work and took away occurring doubts. Finally his attitude on work has
to be pointed out since he has been contactable almost around the clock
when I was seeking advice.
The most important thing that carried me through the process of writing this
master thesis has been my family, Magdalena and Jakob. Being next to my
son, catching every step he made in his development has been fascinating
and challenging at once. The hours of writing have shown that our young,
little family can hold together, even in challenging times. Therefore this ac-
complished challenge can be referred to as a trial for future challenges
which life will definitely come up with.

Florian Danmayr
Table of contents

Geleitwort ..................................................................................................... V
Acknowledgements ................................................................................... VII
Table of contents ........................................................................................ IX
Table of figures ........................................................................................... XI
List of tables .............................................................................................. XIII
List of abbreviations / glossary ............................................................... XV
Abstract ................................................................................................... XVII

1 Introduction ............................................................................................ 1
1.1 Problem definition ......................................................................... 2
1.2 Objective & research question ..................................................... 4
1.3 Structure of this thesis .................................................................. 5

2 Web 2.0 and crowdfunding platforms .................................................. 7
2.1 Web 2.0 – the collaborative web ................................................... 8
2.1.1 Basic principles of Web 2.0 .................................................. 8
2.1.2 From crowdsourcing to crowdfunding ................................ 15
2.2 Explaining the phenomenon crowdfunding .............................. 17
2.2.1 Types of crowdfunding ....................................................... 21
2.2.2 The market of crowdfunding platforms ............................... 26
2.2.3 Crowdfunding as a source of finance ................................. 29
2.2.4 Motivational- and key success- factors influencing
crowdfunding ...................................................................... 33
2.2.5 Legal limitations of and critique on crowdfunding .............. 37
2.3 Summary and proposition: ......................................................... 46

3 Methodology ........................................................................................ 49
3.1 Literature review .......................................................................... 51
X Table of contents

3.2 The nature of content analysis ................................................... 56
3.3 E-research: The internet as object of analysis ......................... 57
3.4 Research framework .................................................................... 59
3.4.1 Data and sample ................................................................ 60
3.4.2 Coding manual ................................................................... 60
3.4.3 Anchors: ............................................................................. 65

4 Empirical findings ................................................................................ 77
4.1 Description of the sample ........................................................... 77
4.1.1 Excluded items ................................................................... 77
4.1.2 Included items .................................................................... 79
4.2 Summary and proposition .......................................................... 95

5 Conclusion and outlook .................................................................... 101
5.1 Connections between existing literature and the empirical
findings ....................................................................................... 101
5.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the thesis ................................ 103
5.3 Suggestions for future research .............................................. 104
5.4 Summary ..................................................................................... 105

6 List of references ............................................................................... 111