Given the difficulty to access traditional bank funding by creative businesses and start-ups, crowdfunding as an alternative way to finance innovative and creative projects has been adopted, enacted and successfully used by several Western countries, which can serve as best practice examples. However, in many countries crowdfunding is still an emerging phenomenon due to its novelty and variety, the general awareness regarding this alternative funding method being relatively low. The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Poland and Romania, the two largest Central and Eastern European member states, have adopted and used crowdfunding to support innovative and creative projects and to assess the sustainability of such a novel funding method in the respective countries. The objective of the comparative analysis is to determine how the existing legal framework supports the implementation of crowdfunding activities and what crowdfunding types are being used in each country based on the existing local crowdfunding platforms, to identify and explain the main strengths and weaknesses of each of the two markets, as well as to provide a set of measures and proposals that can be adopted by the two countries in order to promote and enhance the crowdfunding phenomenon, which we argue is a factor that ensures business sustainability in creative and innovative activities carried out especially by start-up companies. Apart from the empirical analysis of legislation and platforms, the research methodology includes a survey among business students and fresh graduates of business schools, the purpose of which being to assess the level of awareness of young entrepreneurs-to-be regarding this funding method.
In the context of the European Green Deal, green finance represents an important development in the financial landscape. We hereby do a comparative analysis of perceptions and awareness in terms of green finance products and future demand for green finance in Poland and Romania, the two largest CEE EU countries. Using a survey (n=363), we identify the main similarities and differences between the two categories of respondents. More than a half of the respondents from each country are interested in green finance activities. While for most issues, Polish and Romanians provide similar answers, there is a big discrepancy in the level of awareness regarding green finance, which is higher in Poland. The similarity resides from the side of the main benefits resulting from implementing green financial instruments by companies. Both Polish and Romania respondents choose cost savings and improving company’s image as the factors with highest importance. We then discuss the main research and practical implications.
The role of commercial banks in promoting sustainable development goals in Europe has gained ground recently. The momentum is also due to the Green Deal context. Their activity has shifted towards the achievement of such goals by getting involved in environmental projects or by raising awareness about sustainability. Their endeavors can also be directly reflected in the products and services they provide to the population and businesses. This is how commercial banks have taken up the role of educating the public towards sustainability and sustainable development goals. The aim of this paper is to investigate the green banking products and services of the largest five banks, by the number of clients, in Poland in Romania. A descriptive qualitative analysis is used to estimate the degree of sophistication of green banking products and services in the two countries.
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