Crowdfunding: A Review and Research Agenda

Crowdfunding is an alternative model for project financing, where a large and dispersed audience participates through relatively small financial contributions, in exchange for physical, financial or social rewards. It is usually done via Internet-based platforms that act as a bridge between the crowd and the projects. Over the last few years, academic scholars have explored this topic, both empirically and theoretically. However, the mixed findings and array of theories used have come to warrant a critical review of past works. To this end, we perform a systematic literature review on crowdfunding and seek to extract (1) the key management theories that have been applied in the context of crowdfunding and how these have been extended, and (2) the principal factors contributing to success for the different crowdfunding models, where success entails accomplishment of both fundraising and timely repayment. In the process, we offer a comprehensive definition of crowdfunding and identify avenues for future research based on the gaps and conflicting results in the literature.