More than a financial alternative: discovering equity crowdfunding as a tool for entrepreneurial ventures to acquire loyal customers

Gaining new and loyal customers is a major challenge for all companies, particularly for entrepreneurial ventures. To address this challenge, we investigate the potential of transforming investors into customers in the equity crowdfunding context. In particular, we aim to understand under what circumstances crowd-investors transform into customers and whether these customers have the potential to remain loyal to the venture. Based on a survey of crowd-investors of a German equity crowdfunding platform, we show crowd-investors' potential as loyal customers and find that their trust and affective commitment towards a funded venture are the main drivers in their transformation into loyal customers. Furthermore, we find that trust and affective commitment intervene the positive effects of identity-driven precursors. Our findings highlight that equity crowdfunding has the potential to address two major challenges entrepreneurial ventures are faced with: finding investors and gaining loyal customers.