Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Crowdfunding is a recent and rapidly growing method of raising funds for early-stage companies. It minimises the cost and effort involved in raising start-up funds compared to traditional equity funding methods such as venture capital investment. Very little systematic, non-survey research has been conducted into these methods of funding new ventures, however. ‘The wisdom of crowds in equity crowdfunding’ aims to fill this gap. Using the equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs, the project will ask the question ‘What motivates early-stage investors?’ There are many potential mechanisms at work, and this research will focus on the role of other investors and a ‘bandwagon effect’ on crowdfunding outcomes, building on previous attempts to gather data on these patterns with other crowdfunding sites such as AngelList and Kickstarter. Potential investors will be presented with randomised page layouts on the Seedrs website and their subsequent behaviour – specifically their investment decision – will be analysed based on these randomised conditions.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question Does including information about how much initial investors have invested into a venture influence the investment decisions of subsequent investors? Sample Trial population and sample selection Angel investors that use the Seedrs platform Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description In this study, the researchers randomly choose the categories of information first presented to a potential investor on Seedrs, an online equity investment platform that matches start-ups and angel investors, and exploit the variation across angels' reaction within to each start-up. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Digital recording of clicks and interaction a venture's online profile. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>In order to check the impact of the manipulation on potential investors' behaviours, the study will measure several parameters:<br /> - the number of tabs the memberclicks on<br /> - the time spent by the member on a campaign page<br /> - if the member clicks on the company's website link<br /> - if the member shares the project through any social media<br /> - if the member adds the campaign to his/her favourite bookmark<br /> - the amount invested by the member (if any) on the project</p> Results <p>Ongoing</p> Intervention costs Cost benefit ratio Reference Åstebro, T., Vulkan, N. (forthcoming). 'The Wisdom of Crowds in Equity Crowdfunding -- A Randomized Field Experiment'. Ongoing research. Citation for use in academic references
