I en tid då tidningsbranschen står inför en omfattande strukturomvandling, är jakten igång att hitta komplement och substitut till gamla intäktskällor. Som ett led av detta har intresset väckts för att använda crowdfunding för att finansiera nyhetsjournalistik. Crowdfunding är en finansieringsform där privatpersoner och organisationer kan ansöka om ekonomiskt stöd från ett större antal finansiärer. Frågan är dock om det finns en potentiell marknad för crowdfunding-finansierad journalistik i Sverige.Den här rapporten ämnar kartlägga den svenska befolkningens kännedom om, och deras inställning till, att finansiera journalistik med crowdfunding. Detta görs genom en enkätundersökning som syftar till att svara på följande frågor:Vilken inställning har den svenska befolkningen till crowdfunding som en finansieringsformför granskande journalistik?Vilka förutsättningar krävs för att finansieringsformen ska accepteras av svenskanyhetskonsumenter?Vilka hinder upplever svenskarna till att betala för granskande journalistik med crowdfunding?Resultatet visade att kännedomen om crowdfunding är låg och slutsatsen är att marknaden för crowdfunding är omogen i Sverige. Vidare är det är få som uppger att de med crowdfunding skulle kunna tänka sig att betala för en journalistik granskning i förväg. Dock ställer sig en femtedel positiva till finansieringsformen och en potential finns att omvandla denna inställning till betalningsvilja om rätt åtgärder görs.Respondenterna är beredda att betala för granskningar av orättvisor eller missförhållanden och gärna ämnen som de har ett personligt intresse av att få granskat. En förutsättning för att få finansieringsmodellen att fungera i Sverige är att man lyckas formulera för läsaren vilket mervärde som följer att betala för journalistik i förväg. Samtidigt krävs att framtida crowdfundingtjänster är tydliga kring finansiärernas rättigheter och skyldigheter, tillsammans med en fullständig transparens kring processen. / In a time when the newspaper industry face major structural changes, a search for new andsupplemental sources of revenue has begun. In line with this, crowdfunding has been addressed as a way of financing journalism. Crowdfunding is a model of financing where individuals and organizations, can apply for funding from a wide range of funders. Several experiments have occurred in the world, e.g. Spot.us and Krautreporter. The question is whether there is a potential market for crowdfunded journalism in Sweden.The purpose of this paper is to describe the market for investigative journalism financed withcrowdfunding, from a consumer’s view. This is done through a survey that aims to answer the following questions:What is the attitude of the Swedish population towards crowdfunding as a form of financing of investigative journalism?What conditions are required for crowdfunding to be accepted by Swedish consumers?What obstacles do Swedish consumers experience to pay for journalism with crowdfunding?The results show that awareness of crowdfunding is low and the conclusion is that the Swedish market for crowdfunding is immature. Furthermore, only a few percentages of the respondents stated that they would be willing to pay for a journalistic work in advance. However, one fifth of the respondents are positive to the model of financing, and there are signs showing that this attitude can be converted into a willingness to pay, if the right measures are made.Most of the respondents state that they are willing to pay for the investigation of maladministration or injustices, and preferably subjects that they have a personal interest in getting audited. However a prerequisite for the model to work in Sweden is that one manages to articulate the added value of paying for journalism in advance. In the same time, future crowdfunding services must be absolutely clear about the financiers' rights and responsibilities along with full transparency around the process.

Gräsrotsfinansiering har under 2010-talet vuxit till att bli ett betydelsefullt finansierings-alternativ för små och medelstora företag, vilket även möjliggjort för privatpersoner (icke-professionella investerare) att investera i denna typ av bolag genom att teckna aktier i dem. Investeringar i bolag av mindre storlek kan potentiellt ge mycket god avkastning, men är även förenade med stor risk. Dessa investeringar kan fungera som ett komplement till sedvanliga investeringar på vad som i dagligt tal kallas för ”börsen”, men investeringar i småbolag skiljer mot aktiemarknadsbolag. Värdepappersmarknaden är föremål för rigorös reglering, i syfte att värna om ett starkt investerarskydd och upprätthålla förtroendet för marknaden. Mot bakgrund härav, föreligger högt ställda krav på aktiemarknadsbolagens löpande informationsgivning. Alla inträffade händelser och uppkomna förhållanden, vilka kan tänkas ha en påverkande effekt på aktiens pris ska, i regel, så snart som möjligt delges marknaden. På så vis ges alla befintliga och potentiella aktieägare en rättvis tillgång till information om bolaget, för att ha möjlighet att fatta välavvägda investeringsbeslut. Något motsvarande investerarskydd finns inte implementerat för investeringar i onoterade aktiebolag, utan investerare har få rättsliga medel för att tillskansa sig ytterligare information som kompletterar vad som utges under och i samband med bolagsstämman. Möjligheter till detta finns, men är praktiskt komplicerade att genomdriva. Detta ger upphov till frågan om balans råder mellan ett intresse att värna om investerare, å ena sidan, och ett intresse att underlätta företagande, å andra sidan. Gällande rätt är knappast ändamålsenlig, utan ändringar krävs för att råda bot på obalansen. Investerare bör ges utvidgad rätt till informationsgivning från onoterade aktiebolag när gräsrotsfinansiering tillämpats, eller om investerarkretsen annars är spridd. Krav på löpande informationsgivning av samma brådskande karaktär som råder på aktiemarknaden är emellertid inte önskvärt, utan vore alltför betungande för företagen. Därför föreslås istället kvartalsvis regelbunden informationsgivning från onoterade aktiebolag till investerarna, med komplettering av omedelbar informationsgivning av väsentliga händelser och förhållanden. Sådan reglering skulle tillförsäkra investerare en bättre ställning och hålla dem informerade om bolagets förehavanden, samtidigt som efterlevnaden inte vore oproportionerligt betungande för bolaget och dess befattningshavare. / Crowdfunding has, during the 2010s, grown rapidly to become a meaningful alternative financing solution for small and medium-sized businesses, which has also made it possible for individuals (non-professional investors) to invest in these types of companies, by subscribing for shares. Investments in smaller sized businesses are, however, associated with greater risk. Such investments could work as a complement to more traditional investments on the stock market, but investments in small companies differ from publicly traded companies. The securities markets are subject to rigorous regulation, in order to ensure strong investor protection, as well as maintaining a high level of trust in the market. Therefore, extensive demands on the companies are in place regarding their distribution of ad hoc information. All occurring events and circumstances that might have an impact on the shares’ value, shall, subject to some exceptions, immediately be made public to the market. This will ensure that both existing and potential shareholders are given a fair access to information regarding the company, to have the possibility to make sound investment decisions. Any corresponding investor protection scheme is not implemented for investments in non-publicly traded companies. Investors have access to very few legal tools for obtaining other information than what is given during, and in connection to, the shareholders’ meeting. There are however, a handful of such possibilities, but they are practically complicated to use. This raises the question whether there is a balance at all between an interest of protecting investors on the one hand, and an interest of facilitating for entrepreneurs on the other hand. Today’s regulation is hardly appropriate, and changes are needed, in order to solve the imbalance. Investors should be given a wider right to enforce issuing of information from non-publicly traded companies that have raised capital through crowdfunding, or for other reasons have a diverse group of investors. However, similar urgency for such information, as is demanded on the stock market, is hardly necessary, as it would be far too burdensome for the companies. Therefore, quarterly information distribution is suggested, complemented with immediate information for essential occurring events and circumstances. Such regulation, would ensure investors a better position and keep them informed regarding the business’ operation, while the actions required for ensuring compliance would not be disproportionately burdensome for the company or its executives.

Diese kumulative Dissertation untersucht die Rolle von Informationen und Finanzkompetenz im deutschen Crowdinvesting-Markt. Die erste Studie erforscht den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Umfang der von Start-Ups auf Companisto veröffentlichen Informationen und dem Investitionsverhalten von Crowdinvestoren auf Basis proprietärer Nutzer-level Companisto-Daten. Meine Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass (unerfahrene) private Investoren, im Gegensatz zu institutionellen Investoren, auch „weiche“ Informationen im Rahmen ihrer Investitionsentscheidungen berücksichtigen. Meine zweite Studie untersucht das tatsächliche Informationsverhalten von Crowdinvestoren im Vorfeld von Investitionen auf Basis von Nutzer-level Google Analytics-Daten. Meine Ergebnisse suggerieren, dass Investoren einen Großteil der von Start-ups bereitgestellten Informationen im Vorfeld von Investitionen ignorieren. Darüber hinaus zeige ich auf, dass das Informationsverhalten von Investoren mit den demografischen Merkmalen, der Crowdinvesting-Erfahrung und den (durchschnittlichen) Investitionsbeträgen von Investoren zusammenhängt. Meine Ergebnisse deuten zudem darauf hin, dass Investoren beim Vorliegen potentieller Indikatoren für die Qualität eines Start-ups bzw. bei weniger riskanten Investitionen, weniger Information akquirieren. In meiner dritten Studie, welche ich gemeinsam mit Joachim Gassen durchführe, untersuche ich den kausalen Effekt einer Online-Finanzschulung auf das Informations- und Investitionsverhalten von Crowdinvestoren im Rahmen eines Feldexperiments auf Companisto. Während das Experiment noch nicht abgeschlossen ist, motiviert der in dieser Dissertation enthaltene Zwischenbericht die zugrundeliegende Forschungsfrage und beschreibt das Forschungsdesign. Die vorläufigen Ergebnisse zeigen auf, dass Crowdinvestoren im Vergleich zu repräsentativen Stichproben der Gesamtpopulation, welche vergleichbaren Studien zugrunde liegen, ein signifikant höheres Maß an finanzieller Grundkompetenz aufweisen. / This cumulative Ph.D. thesis investigates the role of information and financial literacy in the German crowdinvesting market. Using proprietary investor-level data from Companisto, one of the largest German crowdinvesting portals, the first paper explores how the magnitude of start-ups’ disclosures on Companisto is associated with crowdinvestors’ investment behavior. My findings suggest that the investment decisions by both retail and institutional crowdinvestors are positively associated with the magnitude of start-ups’ voluntary disclosures. However, while start-ups’ ‘soft’ disclosures seem to play a role in the decision-making of (inexperienced) retail investors, they appear to be irrelevant for the investment decisions of institutional investors. My second thesis paper uses investor-level Google Analytics data to explore investors’ actual information acquisition prior to investing. My results indicate that crowdinvestors tend to neglect a substantial fraction of start-ups’ disclosures before investing. Moreover, I show that investors’ information acquisition varies with their demographics, their level of crowdinvesting experience as well as their (average) investment amounts. My findings further suggest that investors acquire less information in the presence of potential signals of start-up quality and (thus) in cases where the investment appears to be less risky. In my third paper, which is co-authored by Joachim Gassen, I study the causal effect of online financial training on crowdinvestors’ information and investment behavior by conducting a field experiment on Companisto. While the experiment is still ongoing, the interim report included in my thesis motivates the overall research question and explains the research design. Our preliminary results indicate that, compared to survey samples representative for the overall population, crowdinvestors exhibit a significantly higher level of ‘basic’ financial literacy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-01T19:18:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rica A.pdf: 60295 bytes, checksum: b02941d27c1b34333cfecc842d8470d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aimed to propose a complementary model of fundraising, using the contemporary method called Crowdfunding, in order to enhance the cultural policies and democratize the decision-making process of decision making about the use of public resources Brazilian State, with participation and social control, in harmony with the Brazilian Law. The research strategy used is multicase study, die predominantly qualitative and descriptive, procedural, contextual insight, using the method of historical-interpretive research. Data were collected through documentary research collection in regards to national and international affairs proposed, unstructured interviews with cultural entrepreneurs and by participant observation at conferences, meetings of the national cultural sector, with direct observation and the theoretical and practical pertaining to Cultural Rights, Public Cultural Policies, Creative Economy, Cultural Entrepreneurship, Virtual Organizations and Crowdfunding, in order to subsidize the contextualist analysis provided by the method of Pettigrew (1987). The analysis of the process of change occurring in the emergence of methodologies capture Rouanet and Crowdfunding was made by classifying and grouping the strategic agents, enabling the identification of the following dimensions of change: Brazilian State, Cultural Entrepreneurs, Organizations and Society civil. Based upon the results, it was proposed a platform for cultural funding directed to individuals able to promote the empowerment of civil society, with respect to national leadership in cultural production, particularly in defining the targets of application of public resources as the effectiveness of Brazilian cultural policies / O presente trabalho possui o objetivo de propor um modelo complementar de captação de recursos utilizando o método contemporâneo de financiamento colaborativo denominado Crowdfunding, visando potencializar as políticas públicas culturais bem como democratizar o processo decisório na resolução sobre a aplicação dos recursos públicos do Estado Brasileiro com participação e controle social, em harmonia com a Lei Rouanet. A estratégia de investigação utilizada é de estudo multicasos, de cunho predominantemente qualitativo e descritivo, em uma visão contextual-processual, utilizando-se do método de investigação histórico-interpretativo. Os dados foram coletados por meio de pesquisa documental no acervo nacional e internacional atinente aos assuntos propostos, de entrevistas não estruturadas com empreendedores culturais e pela observação participante em conferências, assembleias e reuniões do setor cultural nacional, além da observação direta e dos fundamentos teóricos e práticos concernentes aos Direitos Culturais, Políticas Públicas Culturais, Economia Criativa, Empreendedorismo Cultural, Organizações Virtuais, e Crowdfunding, no intuito de subsidiar a análise contextualista proporcionada pelo método de Pettigrew (1987). A análise do processo de mudança ocorrida no surgimento das metodologias de captação da Lei Rouanet e do Crowdfunding foi feita por meio da classificação e do agrupamento dos agentes estratégicos, possibilitando a identificação das seguintes dimensões de mudança: Estado, Empreendedores Culturais, Organizações e Sociedade Civil. Embasando-se no resultado disso, propôs-se uma plataforma de financiamento cultural direcionada às pessoas físicas, capaz de promover a emancipação da sociedade civil no que tange à tomada das rédeas da produção cultural nacional, em especial, na definição dos destinos de aplicação, tanto dos recursos públicos quanto da efetivação das políticas culturais brasileira

Equity crowdfunding, which has primarily been developed by private operators, is considered as an alternative financing form where capital is raised from a group of individuals through digital platforms. In the absence of formal regulations and existing high information asymmetries between businesses and crowd-investors, businesses need to build up legitimacy and trust through social actions. In this way, knowing the main participants and developing good relationships with them, become key factors for crowdfunding success. The purpose of this thesis is to examine equity crowdfunding and its context by identifying and describing stakeholders that interact there. In particular, this thesis aims to describe relationships that are being developed between businesses and their crowd-investors. The data has been collected through interviews with both businesses and investors that have experience in using equity crowdfunding in a Swedish context. The interview data have been analysed by using the stakeholder theory. This has helped us to identify and characterise several stakeholders that exist in the context of equity crowdfunding. Especially, two stakeholder management approaches – arm length- and fairness approach - have been chosen as the analytical tools for this thesis. These categories have primarily been used to analyse relationships that are being developed between businesses and crowd-investors. Our discussion highlights equity crowdfunding as a new and alternative type of capital market, where participants act more cooperatively and have versatile roles. As a financial tool, equity crowdfunding opens up possibilities for closer interaction between businesses and investors. As a consequence of high information asymmetries, developing relationships and creating a transparent environment through active communication, become particularly important for businesses. However, our data has shown us that in reality the collaborative relationship depends on how much businesses allow to be influenced by investors as well as how much the investors request participation.

Peer-to-Peer-Finanzierungen haben in den letzten Jahren nicht nur aufgrund ihres disruptiven Charakters, sondern auch aufgrund ihres raschen Wachstums und der wachsenden Bandbreite an Dienstleistungen zunehmend Beachtung gefunden. Peer-to-Peer Kreditplattformen versuchen, Banken zu umgehen, um Kreditnehmern eine Alternative und Anlegern eine neue Anlageklasse anzubieten - wird dies zu einem „Banking ohne Banken“ führen? Peer-to-Peer Betreiber müssen darauf achten, dass sie ihre Geschäfte gemäß den geltenden Gesetzen und Vorschriften planen und betreiben, auch wenn sie mit einer Bank zusammenarbeiten, die als Kreditgeber fungiert, da die Nichteinhaltung der geltenden Vorschriften unter anderem zivil- und strafrechtliche Sanktionen, Prozesskosten sowie nachteilige Publizität und im schlimmsten Fall die Beendigung des Geschäfts nach sich ziehen kann. Zusätzliche Schwierigkeiten ergeben sich aufgrund unterschiedlicher Vorschriften in den europäischen Ländern. Infolgedessen muss eine neue Beurteilung des rechtlichen Umfelds vorgenommen werden, bevor ein Peer-to-Peer Betreiber sein Geschäft auf andere Länder ausweiten kann, was häufig zu unterschiedlichen Konfigurationen und Geschäftsmodellen führt. In dieser Dissertation sollen die wichtigsten Bestimmungen für die Vergabe von Peer-to-Peer Krediten herausgearbeitet werden. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für Peer-to-Peer Kredite in Deutschland, d.h. welche Vorschriften diese Plattformen erfüllen müssen, um ihr Geschäftsmodell zu betreiben, und/ oder welche Vorschriften und Lizenzanforderungen für diese Unternehmen gelten. Zunächst wird erklärt, was Peer-to-Peer Kredite sind, wie sie sich entwickelt haben und wie sie funktionieren. Die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen werden sowohl für Deutschland als auch für europäische Länder, nämlich das Vereinigte Königreich, Schweden und die Niederlande, im Vergleich untersucht. Anschließend wird untersucht, warum verschiedene europäische Länder unterschiedliche Regeln anwenden und ob es möglich wäre, solche Regelungen für Peer-to-Peer Kredite in ganz Europa zu harmonisieren und gleichzeitig sicherzustellen, dass die Hauptgründe der Länder erfüllt werden. / Peer-to-peer finance has received increasing attention over the last years, not only because of its disruptive nature, but also because of its rapid growth and expanding breadth of services. Peer-to-peer lending platforms try to circumvent banks to offer borrowers an alternative and investors a new asset class – will this lead to a “Banking without banks”. Peer-to-peer operators need to be careful to plan and operate their business in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, even if they cooperate with a non-affiliated bank that acts as lender of record, since failure to comply with applicable regulations can result in, among others, civil and criminal penalties, litigation expenses as well as adverse publicity and in the worst case the termination of the business. Additional difficulties arise due to different regulations across European countries. Consequently a new assessment of the legal environment needs to be made before a peer-to-peer operator can expand its business into other countries and often leads to differing setups and business models. The dissertation is intended to identify principal regulations that apply to peer-to-peer lending. The focus lies on the legal framework for peer-to-peer lending in Germany, i.e. which regulations such platforms have to comply with in order to operate their business model and/or which regulations are applicable to such businesses and which license requirements apply. First of all it will be explained what peer-to-peer lending is, how it evolved and how it works. The legal framework will be investigated with regards to Germany as well as European countries, namely the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands, in comparison. It will then be examined why different European countries apply different rules and whether it would be possible to harmonise such regulations for peer-to-peer lending across Europe whilst ensuring that the countries’ main rationales are fulfilled.

I den här studien har vi undersökt hur investerare upplever asymmetrisk information och principal-agentproblem i den relativt nya investeringsformen equity crowdfunding. Vi har även undersökt hur investerarna går tillväga för att hantera den asymmetriska informationen och principal-agentproblemen. För att göra detta genomfördes studien med ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt där vi samlade in data med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna hölls med equity crowdfunding investerare från FundedByMe, Sveriges ledande crowdfunding-plattform. Resultaten av studien indikerar på att investerarna finner asymmetrisk information som närvarande inom equity crowdfunding och en nödvändighet av att ta reda på fler uppgifter om bolagen utanför FundedByMe, med anledning av att uppgifterna som finns på plattformen upplevs vara bristfälliga för att kunna ta ett beslut om investering. För att överkomma problem gällande asymmetrisk information har det visat sig att investerarna tenderar att följa andra investerares val av kampanjer. Därmed används alltså ett flockbeteende av investerarna som en metod för att överkomma problem gällande asymmetrisk information som de stöter på. För att överkomma problemet ännu mer, så använder sig investerarna främst av ledningsgruppens egenskaper i deras due diligence då den finansiella informationen anses vara begränsad.Resultaten av vår studie indikerar även på att principal-agentproblem upplevs vara närvarande inom equity crowdfunding då investerarna anser att företagarna utövar ett själviskt beteende som är i kontrast med investerarnas egna intressen för att maximera sin egna nytta. Flertalet respondenter i vår studie angav dock att de inte agerar på något särskilt sätt för att hantera det eventuella problemet. Av det som däremot görs består insatserna till största del av kontroll samt övervakning av ledningsgruppernas arbete. Investerarna använder sig även av gruppforum på Facebook för att förbinda sig med de övriga mindre investerarna i bolagen för att tillsammans med dem förstärka sitt inflytande. / In this study, we have investigated how investors experience asymmetric information and principal-agent problems in the relatively new investment form equity crowdfunding. We have also investigated how investors deal with the asymmetric information and principal-agent problems. To do this, the study was conducted using a qualitative approach where we collected data using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were held with equity crowdfunding investors from FundedByMe, Sweden's leading crowdfunding platform. The results of the study indicate that investors find asymmetric information to be present in equity crowdfunding and a need to find out more information about the companies outside FundedByMe, as the information available on the platform is perceived to be deficient in being able to make an investment decision. In order to overcome problems relating to asymmetric information, it has been found that investors tend to follow other investors choice of campaigns. Thus, a flock behaviour is used by the investors as a method to overcome problems regarding asymmetric information that they encounter. In order to overcome the problems even more, investors mainly use the management group's characteristics in their due diligence since the financial information is considered to be limited. The results of our study also indicate that principal-agent problems are perceived to be present in equity crowdfunding, as investors think that companies are pursuing selfish behaviour that is in conflict with investors own interests to maximize their own benefit. However, the majority of respondents in our study indicated that they do not act in any particular way to deal with the potential problem. However, of efforts that are made, they largely consist of control and monitoring of the work of the management groups. Investors also use groupforums on Facebook to connect with other smaller investors in the companies to strength their influence with them.

Syfte: Undersöka vad som påverkar privata investerare inom crowdfunding equity i Sverige i deras investeringsbeslut och hur informationsgapet hanteras. Teori: Informationsgap inkluderar, pecking order, asymmetrisk information, negativt urval och moraliskt dilemma som kommer att hanteras tillsammans med beteendekonomi inkluderar flockbeteende, “Word of mouth”, nätverk och legitimitet. Tillsammans med tidigare forskning om crowdfunding equity och finansiella gap. Metod: Explorativ studie med 10 kvalitativa intervjuer med privatinvesterare inom crowdfunding equity. Slutsats: Resultatet visar att investerare använder emotionella grunder för sina investeringar på då företag inom crowdfunding equity tenderar att ha kortare historik som omöjliggör fullt rationella investeringsbeslut. Empirin tyder på att investerare köper andelar i företag för egen vinning men även på grund av sociala aspekter som ger dem en känsla av att delta. Informationsgapet bryggas genom att investerare tenderar att använda flockbeteende och tredje-parts information för att skapa sin uppfattning om företaget inför en investering.

<div>The digital transformation of markets can remove traditional geographic restrictions, democratizing access to previously unattainable products, and enable individuals to extract rent from their personal assets. However, these digital innovations often have competitors and complementors that are not immune to the impact of local factors such as the local market structure, economic condition, and even demographics. This dissertation examines the geographic and demographic heterogeneity driven disparities in two digitally transformed markets, the financial and accommodations sectors respectively.</div><div><br></div><div>First, we study the impact of local financial market competition in managing online peer-to-peer loans. With the boom of financial technologies (FinTech), a critical question is whether the local financial market structure still matters. Unlike traditional retail financial institutions that are predominantly territorial, FinTech-based platforms, in particular peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, provide individuals equal access to funds by removing typical geographic restrictions. Combined with other benefits such as ease-of-use and lower interest rates, P2P lenders are increasingly threatening the traditional local lenders. A largely unanswered question in the literature is whether the local retail financial institutions strategically respond to the rise of such P2P platforms. Moreover, if the strategic reaction of traditional institutions continues the legacy of being territorial, borrowers will ultimately gain unevenly from the competition. That is, where a borrower lives may still matter. In this chapter, we devise multiple strategies to empirically analyze the extent and nature of the strategic response of traditional institutions to P2P lending. This includes: (1) utilization of a Probit model that leverages the richness of our local market data and (2) exploitation of bank mergers as exogenous shocks to local market structure. We find consistently that a borrower from a more competitive market is more likely to prepay, suggesting that local market structure plays a pivotal role in P2P borrowers' debt management. We validate the underlying mechanism by studying the improving credit profiles of borrowers and platforms' (exogenous) changes in pricing in moderating the main effect. This mechanism reveals that traditional banks, especially when their local market conditions support, credibly responds to the growth of P2P and are successful in attracting consumers back to traditional financial products. Relatedly, we document heterogeneity in the benefits that borrowers gain from the local market structure (using a machine learning algorithm) and verify the robustness of our main findings. We discuss the implications for P2P lending, other crowd-based markets, and local retail financial markets.</div><div><br></div><div>Second, we examines the heterogeneous economic spillover effects of a home sharing platform---Airbnb---on the growth of a complimentary local service---restaurants. By circumventing traditional land-use regulation and providing access to underutilized inventory, Airbnb is attracting visitors of a city to vicinities that are not traditional tourist destinations. Although visitors generally bring significant spending power, it is, however, not clear if the visitors use Airbnb primarily for lodging, thus, not contributing to the adjacent vicinity economy. To evaluate this, we focus on the impact of Airbnb on the restaurant employment growth across vicinities in New York City (NYC). Our results indicate that if the intensity of Airbnb activity (Airbnb reviews per household) increases by 1\%, the restaurant employment in an average area grows by approximately 1.03\%. We also investigate the role of demographics and market concentration in driving the variation. Notably, restaurants in areas with a relatively high number of Black residents do not benefit from the economic spillover of Airbnb activity. Also, restaurants in more competitive areas reap the benefit from this spillover most. We validate the underlying mechanism behind the main result by evaluating the impact of Airbnb on Yelp visitor reviews -- areas with increasing Airbnb activity experience a surge in their share of NYC visitor reviews. This result is further validated by evaluating the impact of a unique Airbnb neighborhood level policy recently implemented in New Orleans. </div>

Background Companies realization of the possibility to target specific audiences in an intimate setting through podcasts, has created a significant expansion of the podcast industry during the last decade. This development has created possibilities for independent podcast hosts to earn revenue. Today, investments towards marketing in the medium is projected to continue to grow substantially.   Problem Since podcasts are consumer controlled and categorized as a pull-medium, listeners’ attitudes and preferences are critical for podcast hosts to consider when monetizing their content. The largest audience of podcasts is found within Generation Y, which increases the importance of accounting for these attitudes and preferences, since they are assumed to be a particularly challenging consumer segment to target.   Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationships that Generation Y have to hosts in different type of podcast categories. Following, the research aims to investigate how these relationships influence the podcasts’ possible opportunities to maximize their revenue.   Method This qualitative research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with individuals from Generation Y. The empirical data was analyzed according to the conceptual framework developed through existing literature within the field of study.      Result The findings of this research enabled the authors to provide recommendations regarding preferable forms of monetization for the four identified podcast categories. The sponsorship approach was identified as the preferable primary form of monetization for Category 1, 3 and 4. Whereas the Subscription Model was recommended for Category 2. The authors further suggested the most beneficial supplementary forms of monetization for each podcast category as well as general recommendations for all.