Bishnu Kumar Adhikary

Crowdfunding—Theories and Empirical Works

This Chapter provides an overview of the academic research on crowdfunding. In doing so, it first discusses several economic theories as a foundation of crowdfunding and its rapid dissemination as well. Then, it reviews the extant literature of crowdfunding. This review has been structured according to the key players in crowdfunding such as capital seekers, capital providers, and intermediaries. The review also puts some avenues for future research.

Crowdfunding Potential in Developing Countries—A Case of Bangladesh

This Chapter explores crowdfunding potential for financing startups and SMEs in developing countries considering Bangladesh as a case. The Chapter discusses problems of the financial system of Bangladesh and argues that the principal financial actors such as the traditional banking system, stock markets, and non-government organizations (NGOs) tend to face a systematic problem to cater to the funding needs of the SMEs and the entrepreneurial firms, in particular. We argue that Bangladesh indeed has the opportunity to build a crowdfunding ecosystem to give access to credits to the entrepreneurial firms. Then, we study socioeconomic dynamics and market readiness of Bangladesh to introduce crowdfunding technology. We further discuss how Bangladesh can build a suitable crowdfunding ecosystem considering socioeconomic and cultural aspects.

Crowdfunding—Types and Models

This Chapter discusses basic types and models for crowdfunding. It also discusses how crowdfunding fits in a funding life cycle of a firm along with a new model for crowdfunding. This Chapter further highlights popular crowdfunding platforms.

Lessons of Crowdfunding

This Chapter delivers some lessons on crowdfunding to advance more research on this phenomenon and to make it efficient and sustainable. We argue, among other things, that the growth of crowdfunding in the future is likely to depend on how the agency problem or for that matter the governance of the capital-seeking firms will be addressed. Furthermore, the Japanese relationship or community-based approach to crowdfunding could be a suitable model for building crowdfunding in developing countries such as Bangladesh.

Crowdfunding—Trends and Growth

This Chapter deliberates patterns of crowdfunding. It highlights the size and growth of crowdfunding industry, the growth of crowdfunding by platforms and types of crowdfunds. It also discusses the amount of crowdfunding investment by sectors along with the campaign time by types of crowdfunding. Furthermore, it discusses risks involved in crowdfunding with future directions of crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding in Japan

Japan has always been unique in the world due to several factors such as intrinsic trust in the society, tacit knowledge, technological progress, and relationship-based governance framework. Considering the above characteristics, this Chapter discusses the activities of crowdfunding in Japan by including a case of crowdfunding platform (Music Securities) and giving evidence of a crowdfund-backed firm (SABAR restaurant). We note that unlike the Western crowdfunding models that are seemingly profit-oriented with a short-term focus, Japan’s crowdfunding models tend to be long-term with a community approach backed by stakeholder theory, as it incorporates local banks and city officials in the lending models. Thus, knowledge of Japan’s crowdfunding approach is indeed crucial for Asian economies to make the crowdfunding ecosystem vibrant, credible, and sustainable.

Crowdfunding—A Conceptual Talk

Crowdfunding can be defined as a practice of funding startups or small firms or a project by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people utilizing online social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other specialized blogs. It is an organized collective effort of many non-professional people who are embedded in trust to finance a venture via the internet. It is a market-based approach to finance entrepreneurial firms that lack capital for growth and development.