Hazuková, M. The possibilities of using crowdfunding to finance public projects in the Czech Republic. Diploma thesis. Brno: Mendel University, 2019. The diploma thesis deals with the possibilities of using crowdfunding as an alternative source to finance public goods and projects. It discusses benefits, pro-blems and risks of this form of financing. Furthermore, the thesis examines pro-jects with public interest at two crowdfunding platforms, the Czech HitHit and the American Indiegogo. First of all, the gathered data is subjected to a quantitative analysis aimed at evaluating elements of a project with public interest that may most affect its success. The main part of this thesis is based on a logit model, which was used to evaluate factors leading to the most successful campaign with public interest. The conclusion discusses the potential for financing public and public be-nefit projects in the Czech Republic in the form of civic crowdfunding, and provides a summary of advantages and disadvantages of this way of financing. In addition, recommendations are formulated for the public sector on how to set key factors to make the campaign successful.

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Den svenska fastighetsmarknaden har tagit fart de senaste åren. Den gynnsamma marknaden har lockat allt fler nya aktörer till fastighetsbranschen. Detta ger upphov till nya finansieringsalternativ så som crowdfunding. Idag är det främst privatpersoner som investerar i fastighetsprojekt med crowdfunding-modeller. I den här uppsatsen undersöks varför investeringsviljan i crowdfunding är låg hos institutionella investerare. Information har hämtats från sex stycket interjuver med representanter från olika institutioner. Inställningen till det nya finansieringsalternativet crowdfunding har visat sig vara positivt men det är många faktorer som hindrar institutionerna från att investera. Framförallt är det den bristande likviditeten i investeringen, förtroende hos projektutvecklarna & crowdfunding-plattformen samt den projektvolymerna som begränsar viljan att investera i crowdfunding-projekt. Crowdfunding inom fastigheter i Sverige är fortfarande något som är väldigt nytt och behöver därför fortsätta att växa för att skapa ett vidare intresse hos institutionella investerare. / The Swedish real estate market has taken off in recent years. The growing market has attracted an increasing number of new actors to the real estate industry. This promotes new alternatives to traditional financing, such as crowdfunding. Currently crowdfunding models is used to invest mostly by private individuals invest in crowdfunding models. This paper examines the incentives of institutional investors to invest in crowdfunding.  Information have been gathered from six interviews with representatives from different institutions. While the attitude towards the new funding option crowdfunding has proved to be positive, there are many factors that prevent the institutions from investing. Above all, it is the lack of liquidity in the investment, trust of the project developers & crowdfunding platform, as well as the project volumes that limit the incentive/will to invest in crowdfunding projects. Crowdfunding within real estate in Sweden is still very new and therefore needs to continue to grow to create a wider interest in institutional investors.

Denna rapport tar sikte på de två konkursprojekt som till viss del finansierats av småsparare viacrowdfundingplattformen Tessin. Syftet är att diskutera om och i så fall hur konkursprojekten skiljersig från lyckade bostadsprojekt som finansierats via Tessin och om det finns anledning att tycka att deinte borde ha finansierats överhuvudtaget. Avgränsningar görs till bostadsprojekt finansierade viaTessin i Sverige sedan tjänsten grundandes 2014. Rapporten baseras på en kvantitativ metodansats där53 stycken lyckade projekt inom bostadsutveckling sammanställts till ett typprojekt som senarejämförs rent numeriskt mot de två konkursprojekten. Jämförelser görs både på projekt- ochverksamhetsnivå med avsikten att identifiera eventuella avvikelser. Avvikelsernas betydelseutvärderas och kopplas till den utvalda teorin, däribland The Pecking order Theory och Market forLemons. Målet är att besvara frågeställningen: Finns det för konkursprojekten betydande avvikelserfrån Tessins typprojekt av sådan karaktär att man bort inse ett misslyckande redan före finansiering? Idet ena konkursprojektet är avvikelserna så pass betydande att man bort inse ett misslyckande redanföre finansiering och således kunnat undvika att nu 20 mkr från småsparare står på spel i ett långdragetkonkursförfarande. I det andra projektet är bristerna inte lika uppenbara. / This bachelor thesis focuses on the two housing projects partially financed via Tessin’s crowdfundingplatform that faced insolvency. The purpose is to discuss whether or not the two bankruptcy projectsdiffer from the successfully completed projects and if so, is there reason to question the fact that theywere financed at all. The report is limited to crowdlending and geographically to Sweden and theSwedish crowdfunding platform Tessin. The report takes a quantitative approach where a typical projecthas been derived from 53 successful real estate development projects. This typical projects is laternumerically compared with the two unsuccessful ones. Project owner factors as well as project specificfactors for the two unsuccessful projects have been compared to its peers with the intention to identifyany significant deviations. The deviation is then evaluated and discussed in line with the theoreticalframework. Among theories are The Pecking order Theory and Market for Lemons. The ultimate goalis to answer the question: With regards to the data available before the financing of these unsuccessfulprojects. Was there, at the time for financing, deviation from the typical project of such character oneshould have realized the two projects were doomed to fail? In one of the unsuccessful projects theconclusion is that the deviations were of such character, and in the other it is not as clear.

Regulation Crowdfunding, enacted in May 2016, is intended to facilitate capital formation in startups and small businesses funded primarily by small investors (Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 2016b). This dissertation investigates (1) the risk of fraud in equity crowdfunding offerings and (2) whether investors respond to fraud signals by selecting (rejecting) offers with low (high) fraud risk. Because equity crowdfunding is quite new, no frauds have yet been identified. Therefore, I employ a predictive analytics tool, Benford’s Law, to assess the fraud risk of the offering. I select observable indicators to represent the Fraud Triangle dimensions—incentives, opportunities and rationalization—and test if they predict fraud risk. I also compare offer funding outcomes to my fraud risk assessments to identify if investors’ selections consider fraud risk appropriately. The relaxed auditor assurance and disclosure requirements attracts both honest and dishonest founders, but I find that the risk of fraud is higher in equity crowdfunding offers than in public offerings as reported by other studies. I find that there are several individual fraud indicators and models that explain fraud risk, but these do not predict whether the offer is funded or not (funding outcomes) or the amount that is raised if funded. This dissertation is the first to apply Benford’s Law to equity crowdfunding offers and map fraud attributes to fraud risk and funding outcomes. My dissertation can inform investors, issuers, regulators, intermediaries and practitioners of the high risk of fraud in equity crowdfunding offerings and of several noteworthy fraud indicators. / Business Administration/Accounting

Denna kvalitativa studie behandlar ämnet Internetbaserad crowdfunding, enfinansieringsmetod där ett stort antal människor ger en liten summa pengar vardera till ettprojekt via en crowdfundingplattform på Internet. Studiens fokus är engagemang: vad somskapar engagemang för crowdfunding och vad som kan stärka engagemanget. Studienundersöker också om enbart kommunikation via Internet är tillräckligt för att skapa stortengagemang för crowdfunding. Syftet med studien är att bidra till kunskapsutvecklingen inomforskningsområdet crowdfunding så att skapare av crowdfundingkampanjer, i utvecklandet avsina kampanjer, kan öka engagemanget hos de personer som stöttar eller funderar på att stöttaen crowdfundingkampanj. De problemformuleringar som ska bidra till att nå upp till syftet ärföljande: varför engagerar sig människor i crowdfunding? Hur kan interaktionen mellanstöttare och kampanjskapare förbättras? Hur kan ansikte-mot-ansikte-kommunikation, genomevent, öka engagemanget för crowdfundingkampanjer? För att besvara studiensproblemformuleringar och därmed nå upp till syftet genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuermed sju personer som stöttat crowdfundingkampanjer. Resultatet av undersökningen visar attdet finns flera motiv till varför människor engagerar sig i crowdfundingkampanjer. De motivsom representerades av flest respondenter var att hjälpa en vän och viljan att ett projekt skafinnas. Andra motiv som delades av flera respondenter var att stötta kampanjer där förtroendeoch tillit finns till kampanjskaparna, för att få belöningar för sitt engagemang, för att bli en delav gemenskapen och för att idén med crowdfunding gillas. Undersökningens resultat visaräven tre förbättringsmöjligheter i interaktionen mellan kampanjskapare och stöttare: 1) mervarierande statusuppdateringar på kampanjsidan på crowdfundingplattformen med fokus påannat än enbart det finansiella, 2) mer uppdateringar även efter kampanjens slut och 3) attkampanjskapare bör visa upp sina projekt i en livestream. Studiens resultat visar också attansikte-mot-ansikte-kommunikation, genom event, kan öka engagemanget förcrowdfundingkampanjer. Detta då stöttare får möta personerna bakomcrowdfundingkampanjen samt får se resultatet av kampanjen de stöttat på riktigt, inte enbartvia Internet. I studiens anges hur skapare av crowdfundingkampanjer praktiskt kan tillämpadenna studies resultat för att öka engagemanget hos stöttare samt potentiella stöttare. / This qualitative study addresses Internet-based crowdfunding, which is a financing methodwhere a large number of people give small amounts of money to a project via a crowdfundingplatform on the Internet. The focus of the study is engagement: what creates engagement incrowdfunding and what can increase the engagement. The study also examines ifcommunication only via the Internet is enough to create great engagement. The purpose of thestudy is to contribute to the knowledge development in the research area of crowdfunding. Bydoing that, it will also increase the knowledge among creators of crowdfunding campaignsand enable them to increase the engagement among backers and potential backers in thedevelopment of their campaigns. The research questions that will help achieve the purpose ofthe study are: why do people engage in crowdfunding? How can the interaction betweenbacker and creator of campaigns improve? How can face-to-face communication, throughevents, increase engagement in crowdfunding campaigns? To address these questions andachieve the purpose seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who hadbacked crowdfunding campaigns. The result of the study shows that there are differentmotives to why people engage in crowdfunding campaigns. The motives that was mostrepresented by the respondents was in order to help a friend and wanting to realize a certainproject. Other motives that were represented by several respondents were to back campaignsbecause they had confidence and trust in the creators of the campaigns, to receive rewards fortheir engagement, be a part of the community and to back a campaign because they like theidea of crowdfunding. The result of the study also shows three improvement possibilities inthe interaction between creator of the campaigns and the backers: 1) more dynamic updates onthe crowdfunding platform with focus on other than the financial aspect, 2) more updates afterthe end of the campaign and 3) that creators of the campaigns could show their projects in alivestream. The result of the study also shows that face-to-face communication, throughevents, can increase the engagement in crowdfunding campaigns. This is because backers canmeet the persons behind the crowdfunding campaign and see the result of the campaign in reallife and not just via Internet. How creators of crowdfunding campaigns can use the result ofthis study is indicated in the study. The language of the study is Swedish.

The current thesis explores a relatively new academic topic – equity-based crowdfunding. The purpose is to examine which quality signals, used by the entrepreneurs in their fundraising process, tend to increase the probability of closing an equity-based crowdfunding campaign successfully. The findings in this thesis serve as an additional contribution to a relatively unexplored topic of signaling in equity crowdfunding. Besides a theoretical contribution, it provides practical insights that may help entrepreneurs and crowdfunding platforms to increase the probability of successful campaign closure. The data for this study was collected from an international crowdfunding platform Fundedbyme.com. The explanatory variables, both continuous and binary, were divided into several thematic groups, while the dependent variable was defined by either successful or unsuccessful outcome of the campaign. The effect of the explanatory variables on the outcome of the campaign was tested with the help of the logistic regression (logit) model. The results showed that crowd investors in the network of Fundedbyme.com use particular quality signals to distinguish between the projects, in fact, both financial signals and more qualitative signals. Increases in the financial signals such as funding goal and price per share affect the probability of success negatively, while the presence of the qualitative signals (received awards and the indication of the non-executive board) contribute to a higher probability of success. Secondly, the results imply some similarities between the selecting mechanism in traditional funding, reward-based and the equity-based crowdfunding. As a third point, this research shows that the presence of a specific selecting mechanism in crowdfunding helps to some extent decrease the information asymmetry and adverse selection in the market of crowdfunding.

Purpose: The study aims to describe and analyze how investors are influenced by information in decision-making processes regarding equity and debt-based crowdfunding. Theories: Elaboration Likelihood Model, Asymmetric information and previous relatable studies.  Method: Qualitative method with semi-structured interviews. Conclusion - The results from the study showed that central factors can lead to debt-based projects and peripheral factors to equity-based projects. The decision-making processes differed in the two different types of crowdfunding according to the security, or uncertainty, of the project. It also turned out that investors preferred debt-based crowdfunding projects. The study also proved the importance of information for the investors differs whether it is a debt- or equity based project.

群眾募資是近年來最廣為被討論與使用的新興籌資方式，自2008年Indiegogo以及2009年Kickstarter等群眾募資網路平台相繼出現後，這種創新型態的籌資方式便從美國擴展到全世界。募資方透過平台展示提案理念與商品原型，以換取贊助者的出資贊助，並於計畫成功執行後提供回饋予出資者。群眾募資網路平台在這其中擔任兩者之間的牽線者，提供平台資源與行銷傳播建議。群眾募資平台依據其回饋方式的不同主要有四種不同的類型，分別為借款基礎集資、股權基礎集資、獎酬基礎集資、捐贈基礎集資。除了國際上廣為人知的Kickstarter與Indiegogo外，近幾年亞洲市場也受到了這波風潮影響，分別出現了中國的眾籌網、點名時間，以及台灣的flyingV、嘖嘖zeczec等等群眾募資平台。近年來台灣的許多重大事件，亦可在群眾募資網站上見其蹤影。可見其在社會上的影響力與日俱增。 本研究採個案研究法，選擇Indiegogo、Kickstarter、眾籌網、點名時間、flyingV、嘖嘖zeczec，分屬美國、中國、台灣三地、六個平台作為研究個案，欲了解其功能發展、內容服務、運作模式、創新價值、成功要素與商業模式策略。希望藉由對產業資料的蒐集，了解群眾募資產業的發展現況與市場定位。群眾募資網路平台已不僅僅是單純的募集資金功能，對小型創業團隊或中小企業而言，眾籌平台提供產品曝光機會與市場反應測試，降低初期的創業門檻與資金問題；對大型企業而言，群眾募資平台兼具新興行銷與網路通路的功能，除了能增加產品曝光的機會，亦能規避現有銷售通路的限制，加速產品的銷售! / Recent years, crowdfunding is the most widely discussed and used way to raise finance resources. Since Indiegogo founded in 2008, Kickstarter in 2009 and other crowdfunding web platforms, this innovative funding model has spread from the United States to the whole world. The project creator show their proposal and prototype on the platform in order to earn their support. When the project successfully executed, providing feedback to the financial contributions. The crowdfunding website platform serve as the router between this relationship, providing resources and marketing communication submittal. Owing to its feedback functional, crowdfunding platform can be categorized into four primary types: reward-based、donation-based、equity-based、credit-based. In addition to well-known international platform such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter, the Asian market has also been the impact of this effect in recent years such as the establishing of China’s zhongchou, demohour and Taiwan’s flying and zeczec. Last several years, many important events of Taiwan could also had been seen on the crowdfunding platform. Its influence power on the community has been more powerful day by day. This research adopts case study method, selecting Indiegogo, Kickstarter, zhongchou, demohour, flyingV and zeczec accordingly belong to the United States, China and Taiwan three different region as study cases. With theirs function rolls, content service, operating model, creative worth, wining factors and business model strategy, hopes to realize the crowdfunding industry current development and crowdfunding market. Crowdfunding platform is not only a simple function for raising funds for small entrepreneurial team or SMEs, but also providing product exposure and to test market reaction. Lower the financial gap for startup group’s venture capital. Besides the crowdfunding platforms combine the functions of marketing and physical channel, large enterprises could increase product exposure on platform avoiding the limitations of existing sales channels and accelerate product sales.

Non-equity Crowdfunding: Funding Success and Dynamics on Hithit Veronika Machová Abstract Non-equity crowdfunding, as an innovative way of financing new ideas, has been growing enormously over recent years. Crowdfunding projects are often characterized by a predetermined monetary goal and the length of the campaign. Furthermore, potential contributors can observe the level of funding provided by others, which suggests that details of previous contributions play an essential role in funding behavior. We obtain data from the Czech crowdfunding platform Hithit, which allow us to empirically analyze the determinants of success and the funding dynamics of crowdfunding projects. Outcomes from several probit regressions indicate that shorter campaigns and campaigns offering private rewards of lower value are more likely to be successful-but these results do not demonstrate causality. A short campaign signals confidence; this positive signaling effect outweighs the marketing- opportunities effect of a long campaign. Applying fixed effects model to panel data, we show that the amount of contributions is negatively associated with the level of funding already achieved, providing evidence of free-riding effect. However, the effect of past contributions is reversed in the final phase of the campaign as the risk of...