Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit Gründungstrends bei neu gegründeten Vereinen in Österreich von 2006-2017. Vereine haben ihre Anfänge zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie sind in Österreich die häufigste Rechtsform für Organisationen im Bereich der Zivilgesellschaft. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden mithilfe von Text-Mining-Verfahren die Namen neu gegründeter Vereine analysiert. Anschließend werden Kategorien gebildet und anhand der vorkommenden Worthäufigkeiten Trends dargestellt. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass im gesamten Untersuchungszeitraum diverse Förderungsvereine, Vereine in den Bereichen Kunst und Kultur sowie Sparvereine zu den häufigsten Neugründungen zählten. Zudem wird ersichtlich, dass Neugründungstrends oftmals mit politischen und gesellschaftlichen Vorgängen zusammenhängen. / Series: Working Papers / Institute for Nonprofit Management

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