Crowdfunding revisited: a neo-institutional field-perspective

Crowdfunding, which relies on the aggregatedfinancial power of themany non-institutionalised individuals, who pledge small amounts isseen in the literature as a particularly well-suited form of entrepre-neurialfinance. A reason for this may be that the investment deci-sions are more based on the value propositions of a venture than onpurelyfinancial factors. Yet, the communication and translation ofthe value propositions of a venture into various cultural and regula-tory contexts requires specialised services and joint efforts. Theseservices are enabled by so-called Crowdfunding Platforms (CFPs)which provide the necessary tools and services. However, they alsoinfluence and potentially limit thefield through their actions.Applying an institutionalfield-perspective in order to gain moreholistic insights on the interplay between structure and agents, werevise the originally proposed model developed in our 2013 article inVenture Capital based on an extensive update of the literature andprovide new insights from additional empirical cases to triangulatethe recent scholarly contributions. Wefinally enhance theory oncrowdfunding on an institutionalfield-level with a better conceptua-lization of the interconnectedness between actors and their activities,as well as their positions and links within the structure and crowd-funding platforms as powerful central actors