Vor dem Hintergrund der Digitalisierung in der Hochschulbildung, insbesondere ihrer didaktisch- methodischen, technischen und organisatorischen Implementierung und ihrer Integration in geeignete Lernmanagementsysteme, beschäftigt sich das vorliegende Paper mit dem Lernen von Studierenden in und mit digitalen Medien sowie der kollaborativen Wissensarbeit im Rahmen eines Crowdfunding-Projekts für Jugendliche. Im vorgestellten Lehrpraxisbeispiel wird ein Flipped-Classroom-Konzept kombiniert mit einem Community-based Service Learning-Ansatz umgesetzt, um die Vermittlung digitaler Kompetenzen mit einer fachlich-inhaltlichen Wissensvertiefung im Bereich alternativer Finanzierungsformen im Management von Einrichtungen der Sozialen Arbeit einerseits und dem gesellschaftlichen Engagement der Studierenden andererseits zu verknüpfen.

The challenge to obtain early-stage funding for small ventures is especially pronounced in Africa, where traditional funding sources are available only to a small extent. This lack, combined with the diffusion of mobile phones and internet access, enabled the unprecedented rise of mobile payments on a personal level in Africa in recent years. On a commercial level, ICT-enabled crowdfunding is given the potential to mitigate the early-stage funding gap for African entrepreneurs. Using exploratory research, the dissertation provides initial empirical evidence on crowdfunding in Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, it is shown that African entrepreneurs across the continent can raise substantial amounts of money by tapping into the global funding community. Moreover, empirical evidence is provided, that the basic economic constructs, institutions and infrastructure appear to play a decisive role for African crowdfunding and that their effect size depends on the respective institutional setting.:1. Introduction 2. Prevailing Forms of Funding for African Entrepreneurs 2.1 Informal Funding 2.2 Government Funding 2.3 Business Angels 2.4 Venture Capital 2.5 Factoring and Leasing 2.6 Banking Loans 2.7 Mobile Money 2.8 Microfinance 2.9 Summary 3. Crowdfunding 3.1 Definition of Crowdfunding 3.2 Taxonomy of Crowdfunding 3.3 Donation-based Crowdfunding 3.3.1 Characteristics 3.3.2 Platforms 3.3.3 Empirical Research 3.4 Reward-based Crowdfunding 3.4.1 Characteristics 3.4.2 Platforms 3.4.3 Empirical Research 3.5 Debt-based Crowdfunding 3.5.1 Characteristics 3.5.2 Platforms 3.5.3 Empirical Research 3.6 Equity-based Crowdfunding 3.6.1 Characteristics 3.6.2 Platforms 3.6.3 Empirical Research 3.7 The Emergence of Crowdfunding 3.8 The Worldwide Crowdfunding Market 3.9 The African Crowdfunding Market 4. Evidence on the Use of Reward-based Crowdfunding in Africa 4.1 Research Objective 4.2 Research Design and Methodology 4.3 Data Sample 4.3.1 Data Set Construction 4.3.2 Variables 4.4 Results 4.4.1 Project and Platform Results 4.4.2 Category Results 4.4.3 Country Results 4.5 Summary and Critical Reflection 5. National Competitiveness 5.1 What is National Competitiveness? 5.2 The Global Competitiveness Report 5.3 The Global Competitiveness Index 6. Evidence on Enabling Economic Factors for the Usage of Reward-based Crowdfunding in Africa 6.1 Research Objective 6.2 Research Design and Methodology 6.3 Data Sample 6.3.1 Data Set Construction 6.3.2 Variables 6.4 Results 6.4.1 Total Sample 6.4.2 Low-Income Countries 6.4.3 Middle-Income Countries 6.4.4 Below-Median Crowdfunding Activity Countries 6.4.5 Above-Median Crowdfunding Activity Countries 6.5 The Role of Productivity and Basic Requirements 6.6 Discussion and Connection of the Results 6.7 Summary and Critical Reflection 7. Summary and Implications 7.1 Executive Summary 7.2 Theoretical Implications 7.3 Implications for Policymakers 7.4 Implications for African Entrepreneurs 7.5 Implications for Other Stakeholders 7.6 Limitations and Avenues for Future Research 7.7 Concluding Remarks References Appendices

This publication-based dissertation covers four independent empirical essays using different methodological approaches that examine the role of social capital, especially networks of supporters in the venture crea-tion process from two perspectives, the financial and the knowledge development perspective. In particular, two of the essays focus on the financing process in crowdinvesting and its stakeholders from the ankles of the entrepreneurs and the investors. The second one also explores the investors’ characteristics, motivations and reactions to signals. Two further essays focus on supporting activities provided by third parties. One analyses the structure of supporters during the founding process and their relationship to the founder by using a novel approach for social capital research. The other essay highlights the special role of founder coaches during the first stages of the venture, including modelling five functional roles. It also analyses the quality of the relationship between founder and coach as well as its challenges. The data highlight that high quality networks and thus its social capital can be strategically created for the benefit of the founder during the venture development process. New insights coming from this thesis advance the current discussion on social capital by expanding it to recent phenomena in entrepreneurship of highly practical nature.:1 Introduction 1.1 Theoretical Foundations of Social Capital 1.2 Perspectives of Social Capital in Management Support 1.2.1 Essay 1: Using Repertory Grid Technique to Explore the Relationship Between Business Founders and Support Agents 1.2.2 Essay 2: Supporting fledgling entrepreneurs through founder coaching in Germany 1.3 PART II Perspectives of Social Capital in Crowdinvesting 1.3.1 Essay 3: The Financing Process of Equity-Based Crowdfunding: An Empirical Analysis 1.3.2 Essay 4: What motivates crowdinvestors? An empirical analysis of investors’ motivation and decision making in equity-based crowdfunding campaigns 1.4 Methodological Considerations 1.5 Conclusion 1.6 Implications for Academia and Practice 1.7 References 2 Essay 1: Using repertory grid technique to explore the relationship between business founders and support agents 3 Essay 2: Supporting fledgling entrepreneurs through founder coaching in Germany 4 Essay 3: The financing process of equity-based crowdfunding - an empirical analysis 5 Essay 4: What motivates crowdinvestors? An empirical analysis of investors’ motivation and decision making in equity-based crowdfunding campaigns

Crowdfunding är i den moderna digitala världen ett populärt sätt att samla in pengar till sitt projekt. Kickstarter är en av de ledande sidorna för crowdfunding. Predicering av ett Kickstarter-projekts framgång eller misslyckande kan därav vara av stort intresse för entreprenörer.Studiens syfte är att jämföra fyra olika algoritmers prediceringsförmåga på två olika Kickstarter-dataset. Det ena datasetet sträcker sig mellan åren 2020-2021, och det andra mellan åren 2016-2021. Algoritmerna som jämförs är KNN, Naive Bayes, MLP, och Random Forest.Av dessa fyra modeller så skapades i denna studie de bästa produktionsmodellerna av KNN och Random Forest. KNN var bäst för 2020-2021-datasetet, med 77,0% träffsäkerhet. Random Forest var bäst för 2016-2021-datasetet, med 76,8% träffsäkerhet. / Crowdfunding has in the modern, digitalized world become a popular method for gathering money for a project. Kickstarter is one of the most popular websites for crowdfunding. This means that predicting the success or failure of a Kickstarter-project by way of machine learning could be of great interest to entrepreneurs.The purpose of this study is to compare the predictive abilities of four different algorithms on two different Kickstarter-datasets. One dataset contains data in the span of the years 2020-2021, and the other contains data from 2016-2021. The algorithms used in this study are KNN, Naive Bayes, MLP and Random Forest.Out of these four algorithms, the top-performing prediction abilities for the two datasets were found in KNN and Random Forest. KNN was the best-performing algorithm for 2020-2021, with 77,0% accuracy. Random Forest had the top score for 2016-2021, with 76,8% accuracy. The language used in this study is Swedish.

The purpose of the study is to examine how the crowdfunding context facilitates value co-creation from a service-dominant logic perspective. Previous studies on crowdfunding have focused on crowdfunding as a way to raise capital, but there is a need to examine how value is created from a service-dominant logic perspective to understand the crowdfunding context. This has been examined through an embedded case study on the Swedish crowdfunding market, consisting of three crowdfunded companies and two branch experts. The study finds that the crowdfunding context facilitates value co-creation by engaging the involved actors in value co-creating activities, where both actors benefit. Community creation was found to be vital for the crowdfunding context while being important in the value co-creation process. The study contributes to the crowdfunding literature by adding an understanding of how the crowdfunding context facilitates value co-creation, by applying a service-dominant logic perspective, showing how the crowdfunding context includes more than financial aspects. The study also contributes to the service-dominant logic discussion by enabling future research in a new empirical setting. Finally, from a managerial point of view, the study contributes to how crowdfunding has additional benefits beyond raising capital, such as how the actors can co-create value.

All over the world, raising concerns about energy conservation and the environmental impacts of greenhouse gas emissions has promoted the development of a sustainable mobility transition. Successful electric vehicle (EV) deployment plays a vital role in this manner but is still facing obstacles, where public charging infrastructure is one of them. Additionally, digitization is transforming and introducing new industries worldwide, contributing with new constructs to be used in the evolving transition. Simultaneously, technology is surpassing the competition, and is one of the most potent transformational force affecting customer relations in the energy sector, leading to customers anticipating more from the power utility companies. To attain a long-termsustainable competitive advantage, firms have to retain, sustain, and nurture their customer base. To do so, corporations have comprehended the value of embracing customer-centric incentives, enabling them to capture more indirect business values. Furthermore, this thesis was done in collaboration with a power utility company, referred to as ‘Org X’ or ‘the CPO’. Influenced by the reasoning above, it investigated the opportunity to create indirect business values through a demand-driven roll-out of the national charging infrastructure with the use of crowdfunding. This was achieved by adopting an exploratory methodology approach, where a mixed inductive-deductive design was used. A multi-method qualitative data collection was made; consisting mainly of semi-structured-, and unstructured interviews with experts in the field. Thus, a profound perspective of the EV-charging market landscape was attained, which enabled adequate reasoning when proposing a strategy approach for the cause. Additionally, quantitative secondary data was used to develop a tool for an initial location evaluation, that is part of the recommended approach. This tool was also used to enhance the understanding of the national EV-charging market landscape, the customer segments, as well the potential market for a co-creating platform. The findings suggest that the perceived readiness level of crowdfunding charging infrastructure varies depending on what aspect that is being accommodated. A platform that connects stakeholders is encouraged by actors in the field, but crowdfunding through solely end-users is questioned as close proximity to the end-user’s location is a key-factor regarding motivation to fund a charging point. A ‘Tier based framework’, that facilitates this transition was therefore developed and evaluated. Additionally, the framework was considered in the market analysis case study, which further included a recommended implementation and communication approach. If used accordingly, this framework could bring both indirect- and direct business values to the power utility company in question, as well as the involved stakeholders. / Oro över energieffektiviseringar och miljökonsekvenser från utsläpp av växthusgaser världen över har främjat utvecklingen av ett hållbart energisystem. En framgångsrik marknadspenetration av elbilar (EVs) har en viktig roll i denna aspekt, men står fortfarande inför hinder där publik laddningsinfrastruktur är en del av problemet. Digitaliseringen leder till transformation och nya industrier vilket bidrar med ytterligare konstruktioner som används i övergången till ett mer hållbart samhälle. Samtidigt driver teknikutvecklingen till ökad konkurrens och har en kraftfull påverkan på vad kunderna förväntar sig från företagen. För att uppnå mer långsiktigt hållbara konkurrensfördelar måste företag sträva efter att behålla, upprätthålla och ta hand sin kundbas. Företag börjar förstå det ökade värde som finns i att utöva mer kundcentrerade incitament och strategier, vilket potentiellt bidrar till mer indirekta affärsvärden. Denna uppsats är i samarbete med ett Svenskt energiföretag, följaktligen refererat till som 'Org X' eller 'CPO'. Baserat på resonemanget ovan, har möjligheten att skapa indirekta affärsvärden genom verkställandet av en mer efterfrågedriven utveckling av den nationella elbilsladdning infrastruktur med hjälp av crowdfunding undersökts. Detta uppnåddes genom att använda ett utforskat tillvägagångssätt, där en blandad induktiv-deduktiv design användes. En kvalitativ datainsamling gjordes på flera sätt; huvudsakligen bestående av semistrukturerade och ostrukturerade intervjuer med experter inom området. Således uppnåddes ett djupgående perspektiv på av elbilsladdning marknaden vilket möjliggjorde sakliga resonemang kring den presenterade och rekommenderade strategin. Ytterligare användes kvantitativ sekundärdata för att utveckla ett verktyg för en initial plats bedömning, vilket är en del av den rekommenderade strategin. Detta verktyg användes dessutom för att öka förståelsen för den nationella elbilsladdning marknaden, kundsegmenten, liksom den potentiella marknaden för en samskapande plattform. Resultaten tyder på att den upplevda beredskapsnivån att crowdfunda laddningsinfrastruktur varierar beroende på plats och kundgrupp. En plattform som ansluter intressenter uppmuntras av aktörer på marknaden, men crowdfunding genom enbart slutanvändare ifrågasätts då närhet till slutanvändarens läge är en nyckelfaktor när det gäller motivationen att medverka i finansieringen. Därav har ett tier based framework utvecklats och presenterats, som bör underlätta transformationen mot en mer kunddriven affärsmöjlighet. Dessutom beaktades ramverket i fallstudien för marknadsanalysen, som ytterligare inkluderade en rekommenderad strategi för implementering och kommunikation. Om den används i enlighet bör ramverket ge både indirekta och direkta affärsvärden till det aktuella energi företaget, liksom till berörda intressenter.

Background: In today’s world, human attention has become a valuable resource that every entity wants to utilize and compete for. Attention together with funding have become two essential factors that start-ups are trying to acquire. Recently, crowdfunding has become a popular way for start-ups to obtain funding from investors, more specifically backers. However, crowdfunding can be utilized not only for gaining capital but also for interacting with backers, presenting an idea and as a marketing tool. Therefore, it is important to understand how start-ups can effectively grab and retain attention through crowdfunding.    Purpose: Only a certain number of studies researched the relationship between crowdfunding and the marketing aspect that it possesses. Additionally, there is a lack of studies that delved into the project presentations and communications aspects of reward-based crowdfunding platforms utilized for Generation Z and the attention span. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to discuss the role of project presentation and types of communication in grabbing and retaining Gen Z backers' attention on Kickstarter.    Method: To achieve the purpose of this study, qualitative research methods have been selected as preferred. Mainly deductive reasoning was followed, with some inductive elements adding precision to this angle from already established theories. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with backers of a Kickstarter campaign who belong to the Generation Z cohort. Thematic analysis was further employed to structure the data which involves coding, analyzing, and interpreting it.    Conclusion: Project & founder characteristics, as well as project presentation and its quality, are the main elements that need to be communicated through one of the communication types. Whether forms of visual content, copywriting or verbal and nonverbal communication, they all have their role and an impact on the attention being either grabbed, retained or both. Through these communication types, trust and credibility factors need to be gained, both visually and in the details of the campaign presentation. Additionally, the mediating and engagement factors have an impact on the grabbed and retained attention. Finally, signs of caught and retained attention of Generation Z backers on a Kickstarter campaign, do not necessarily translate into their donations.

Abstract  Background:                     In an equity crowdfunding campaign, the investor receives shares in the company in return for the investment, which makes equity crowdfunding similar to traditional sources of equity funding. Nevertheless, skeptics have referred to equity crowdfunding as “dumb money”, since it might not provide similar non-financial value added as realized from professional investors. The main literature used for the frame of reference were Boué (2007), Macht and Robinson (2008) and Macht and Weatherston (2014). The literature worked as a basis for deriving a table, outlining the non-financial value added received by venture capitalists and business angels, as well as showing where literature is lacking regarding non-financial value added by equity crowdfunding investors. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to explore the non-financial value added by equity crowdfunding investors to the entrepreneur. This purpose was answered by two research questions: (1) Do equity crowdfunding investors provide similar non-financial value added to the entrepreneur as traditional equity funding investors do? (2) Are there any additional non-financial value added realized from equity crowdfunding? Method: This thesis follows the interpretivist research paradigm and undertakes an abductive research approach in order to explore the purpose. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven entrepreneurs who had successfully conducted an equity crowdfunding campaign in Sweden. Secondary data was collected from peer-reviewed articles containing relevant theories and models. Conclusion: This research suggests that there are similarities between professional investors and equity crowdfunding investors in terms of non-financial value added. The contribution from equity crowdfunding investors seems to be dependent on the effort that the entrepreneur puts into the relationship with the investors. Furthermore, equity crowdfunding also allows the entrepreneur to maintain ownership and control over the company. However, each equity crowdfunding case is different and there are no guarantees of receiving certain types of investors.

Due to changes of regulations in the banking sector after the credit crunch, equity crowdfunding has become an alternative funding source in raising capital for small and medium sized enterprises, that face a lack of financial resources or trustworthiness. The aim of this thesis is to identify the determinants of a successful equity crowdfunding project. We base the study on a sample of 398 projects pitched on an equity crowdfunding platform (Crowdcube) between 2011-2016. The analysis of the cross-section dataset is conducted of Logit, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Negative Binomial regression models. The results show that the more investors participate in the investment, the higher is the success of equity crowdfunding. Moreover, a higher equity participation offered to the investors also has a positive impact on the financing success. However, a prior crowdfunding history of the company does not raise its reliability. Moreover, technology companies are less trusted by the investors and less successful on equity crowdfunding platform. Depending on the model used, start-up companies usually gain a higher success with their pitch, which can be positively influenced by a high social media presence.

Research question: How can Crowdfunding be used as a marketing tool?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the anomalies and trends in crowdfunding in order to explain how crowdfunding can be used as a marketing tool.Method: This research is exploratory with an inductive research approach. Primary data was collected with qualitative techniques. Semi-structured interviews was used when interviewing the participants in order to withdraw data.Findings: The empirical data showed that crowdfunding can be used for marketing and creating a buzz or awareness. These findings lead us to create a proposed model for how crowdfunding most effectively can be used as marketing.