https://www.puntoorginternationaljournal.org/index.php/PIJ/article/view/90

Abstract

Thanks to fundraising from small investors, principally through social media and online forums, equity crowdfunding (EC) is emerging as an important new financing mechanism for new ventures. However, the literature about equity crowdfunding and social media is still scarce, and no studies have jointly investigated these topics in Italy. As a result, this study aims at investigating, through an exploratory quantitative research approach based on social network analysis (SNA) methodology, the role that equity crowdfunding platforms have on social media, specifically on Twitter. The results of our study indicate that higher numbers of tweets and users spoke about equity crowdfunding following the introduction of Consob Regulation no. 20264 (17/01/2018) on equity crowdfunding and the growth of the use of this instrument in the first quarter of 2019. The study contributes to the literature on crowdfunding and social networks, shedding light on specific aspects typical of an equity model.

Crowdfunding from the perspective of young people

“…Group 2 is a group dominated by topics related to technical matters. These results also align with research (Battisti et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2018), exposing the technical importance of technology in the success of crowdfunding campaigns. Group 3 consists of factors or topics dominated by problems with information or crowdfunding campaign narratives (Manning & Bejarano, 2017;Zhao et al, 2017).…”

“…This indicates that technical aspects of crowdfunding campaigns can encourage young people to communicate more intensely with social networks on crowdfunding platforms, thus influencing crowdfunding success (Liu et al, 2018;Nitani et al, 2019;Pratono et al, 2020). Factors such as web appearance design, features, and ease of process are among those that cannot be separated from the use of the website as the basis of the crowdfunding platform, where the presence of web technology itself is a trigger for the increase in crowdfunding platforms (Battisti et al, 2021) The development of this technology facilitates transactions in crowdfunding platforms, which have now become a lifestyle for young people (Bhardwaj et al, 2019). The findings made through text analysis denote that the ability to leverage the technology of building social networks in crowdfunding platforms will drive crowdfunding success through more effective campaigns (Borst et al, 2018;Datta et al, 2019;Leone & Schiavone, 2019).…”

“…The support of Web 2.0 technology has substantially impacted organizations by presenting a crowdfunding platform for fundraising, whether it is business or social. For businesses, the platform has provided an efficient funding alternative to conventional funding systems (Battisti et al, 2021). In Indonesia, crowdfunding has increased along with the increase in fintech adoption since 2016, which reached 78% (Arifah & Dalimunthe, 2021).…”

Rational herding: evidence from equity crowdfunding

“…Crowdfunding platforms should provide more channels for information communication. Scholars have identified the vital role of social media and social networks in equity crowdfunding (Battisti et al, 2021(Battisti et al, , 2022Graziano et al, 2023), through communication, investors can acquire more information from founders and other investors. Platforms should build an online community that actively engages more and more investors to increase campaign success chances and enhance the platform's performance.…”

“…Crowdfunding platforms should provide more channels for information communication. Scholars have identified the vital role of social media and social networks in equity crowdfunding (Battisti et al. , 2021, 2022; Graziano et al.…”