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Corporate Social Responsibility and Crowdfunding: The Experience of the Colectual Platform in Empowering Economic and Sustainable Projects

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  • Jesús Mauricio Flórez-Parra

    (Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain)

  • Gracia Rubio Martín

    (Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

  • Carmen Rapallo Serrano

    (Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences, University of Complutense de Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

In recent years, sustainable crowdfunding has been one of the key elements in the search for new sources of financing. This has involved eliminating financial barriers and intermediaries, bringing entrepreneurs’ projects closer to fund providers, and thus instigating changes in traditional investment and profitability parameters. Among these indicators, the sustainable business return and its relationship with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could be a relevant factor to improve the cost of funding, to explain the return on assets (ROA), and, consequently, impacting on the return on equity (ROE). In this context, this paper takes as a reference 101 projects that are part of Colectual’s lending. We analyze factors such as sustainability—the application of CSR across a social responsibility index; the financial characteristics of the company—liquidity, leverage, and solvency; and the characteristics of the loans related to crowdfunding—amount, maturity, and charge rate of the loan. Our study provides empirical evidence that, besides financial characteristics, the commitment to CSR can improve collective lending and the management of resources, as well as enhance the capital wealth of companies, by improving shareholder profitability or ROE. Investors consider not only financial risk but also sustainability factors.

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  • Jesús Mauricio Flórez-Parra & Gracia Rubio Martín & Carmen Rapallo Serrano, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Crowdfunding: The Experience of the Colectual Platform in Empowering Economic and Sustainable Projects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:13:p:5251-:d:377577
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    2. Shixian Ling & Guosheng Han & Dong An & Armigon Akhmedov & Hui Wang & Hui Li & William Cannon Hunter, 2020. "The Effects of Financing Channels on Enterprise Innovation and Life Cycle in Chinese A-Share Listed Companies: An Empirical Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Liqi Yi & Tao Li & Xiangyi Wang & Gentana Ge & Ting Zhang, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility performance evaluation from the perspective of stakeholder heterogeneity based on fuzzy analytical hierarchy process integrated TOPSIS," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 918-935, July.
    4. Irene Comeig & Ernesto Mesa-Vázquez & Pau Sendra-Pons & Amparo Urbano, 2020. "Rational Herding in Reward-Based Crowdfunding: An MTurk Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-21, November.
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