Equity crowdfunding as an innovative fintech tool for entrepreneurs

This doctoral thesis investigates Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) as an innovative fintech tool for entrepreneurs, focusing on its evolution, theoretical underpinnings, and practical implications. The study is articulated in three main chapters. The first chapter presents a comprehensive bibliometric review of the ECF literature from 2013 to 2023, identifying major research clusters, including foundational models, market dynamics, success factors, managerial approaches, and platform intermediation. The second chapter adopts signaling theory to explore the active role of ECF platforms in influencing investment decisions, using multiple case studies of Italian platforms and qualitative interviews to highlight how both explicit and implicit signals affect investor behavior. The third chapter applies fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to examine the configurations of innovation, team creativity, and intellectual property protection that drive the success of ECF campaigns. The thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of ECF by offering an integrated view of its theoretical developments and practical applications, and it identifies future research directions concerning sustainability, inclusivity, and post-campaign impacts. Overall, the findings emphasize ECF’s potential as a democratizing and strategic financing mechanism for startups and SMEs, while also acknowledging the regulatory, managerial, and structural challenges it entails.