Towards financing the entrepreneurial SMEs: exploring the innovation drivers of successful crowdfunding via a multi-layer decision-making approach

Abstract

PurposeIn this research, extracting the innovation drivers of successful crowdfunding from the literature review, screening them for the entrepreneurial small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), analysing the cause-and-effect relationship amongst them and presenting a basic causal conceptual model and eventually determining the importance/weight of each relevant driver were the primary purposes of this research. As a result, the authors have also designed a score function to measure the future innovative crowdfunding score for SMEs.Design/methodology/approachA multi-layer multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach has been designed and employed to achieve research objectives. After extracting the initial list of drivers, Fuzzy Delphi was applied to screen the relevant innovation drivers of successful crowdfunding for entrepreneurial SMEs. Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) was used to analyse the cause-and-effect relationship amongst the drivers and illustrate a basic conceptual model. Analytical network process (ANP) and Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) were applied to determine the importance of the drivers and by aggregating them to measure the innovative crowdfunding score.FindingsInitially, 28 innovation drivers of successful crowdfunding were extracted from the literature. Then by employing the first-round Delphi fuzzy method amongst 15 international entrepreneurs in SMEs, the relevant drivers, including eleven items, were screened and selected. Then by implementing the DEMATEL method, the relationship amongst these screened drivers was identified, and seven drivers were determined as causes and the rest as effects. Subsequently, a conceptual model based on the causal analysis of the drivers from the DEMATEL method was designed. Eventually, by aggregating the weight of drivers emanated from SWARA, DEMATEL and DANP, the score function for measuring the situation of an SME was designed.Practical implicationsAccording to the crowdfunding scores in this research from entrepreneurs of SMEs, influential factors in developing countries were recognised as two times more prominent in developing countries. This might be rooted in the circumstances of developing countries where many startups and SMEs are emerging in vast areas and different fields due to investment in innovation management. In these countries, the authorities and officials support these companies to empower their capabilities and innovative ideas to (1) deal with the severe competitive market and (2) benefit from them as potential economic engines. Therefore, crowdfunding platforms and public initiatives can be considered one of the most effective government supports, which may involve financial risks.Originality/valueTo the best knowledge of the authors, investigating the innovation drivers of successful crowdfunding via quantitative analysis by multi-layer decision-making approaches has not been considered previously. Moreover, the authors have designed a crowdfunding score function to determine the situation of an entrepreneurial SME in this area. A combination of different MCDM methods, including Fuzzy Delphi, SWARA, DEMATEL, ANP and DANP, to investigate the innovation drivers of successful crowdfunding in SMEs has not been considered previously.

Measuring the readiness level for Kaizen projects: a multi-layer Bayesian decision-making framework

“…Subsequently, the defuzzied value for each factor was measured by Eq. 2 (Amoozad Mahdiraji et al. , 2023)In this study, the described process was repeated twice, and if the difference between the two rounds was less than 0.2, the process was stopped, and the factor was selected for the average scores above 0.7 (Amoozad Mahdiraji et al.…”

“…In this study, the described process was repeated twice, and if the difference between the two rounds was less than 0.2, the process was stopped, and the factor was selected for the average scores above 0.7 (Amoozad Mahdiraji et al, 2023). After screening the success factors, the finalised factors were weighted by the BBWM.…”

A Bibliometrik Analysis of Crowdfunding in Smes : A Decade Study Based on Sopus Scientific Mapping

“…Various challenges of funding and attracting investment to encourage entrepreneurship are classic problems, especially for start-up businesses, entrepreneurs are required to think creatively, dare to take risks, be independent and creative to realize business opportunities (Giudici & Rossi-Lamastra, 2018;Ibrahim et al, 2021;Rita et al, 2022). For the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), implementing digitalization is important so that they can develop and be successful in global competition (Abdi et al, 2022;Amoozad Mahdiraji et al, 2023;Cicchiello & Leone, 2020).…”

“…Based on the findings of Lambert and Schwienbacher (Al-Mulla et al, 2022;Galli et al, 2023) ), categorize firstCrowdfunding Donation based which is donation based because there is no reward in a physical or financial form, which is referred to as stock Crowdfunding. Secondly, called passive investment with high risk offers some form of reward to attract investors, owners crowdfunding This only focuses on raising capital but does not use other potential sources of support crowdfunding(Amoozad Mahdiraji et al, 2023;Astuti et al, 2021;Bagheri et al, 2019). Thirdactive investment offering the potential to be active in the project and providing rewards is seen as an active investment business model (Giudici & Rossi-Lamastra, 2018;Liang et al, 2019;Ribeiro-Navarrete et al, 2021;Troise et al, 2023).…”