Entrepreneurship and equity crowdfunding: a research agenda

The potential of 'the crowd' to enhance investments, especially at levels previously that could reduce the financial constrain faced by new ventures, has led to the introductions of regulations to facilitate crowdfunding activities. One of regulated areas is equity crowdfunding, which has the potential to disrupt the existing market provision for equity finance to early stage firms. This paper aims to provide a theoretical review of the extant literature and develop from that review an agenda for future research. The results identify, from the perspective of entrepreneurs, equity investors and government, the key issues that potentially differentiate crowdfunding from other sources of equity finance and how these issues change the relationship between entrepreneurs and potential funders. Based upon the findings of the theoretical review, the paper suggests research directions in which future researchers can employ behaviour theory, agency theory and signalling theory to explore, investigate and accomplish our understanding about equity crowdfunding in the entrepreneurial context.