Crowdfunding as Entrepreneurial Investment: The Role of Local Knowledge Spillover

TL;DR

This study investigates how local knowledge spillover and human capital influence the adoption of equity crowdfunding campaigns across Italian regions, highlighting the importance of inbound knowledge in fostering entrepreneurial investment.

Contribution

It provides new empirical evidence on the impact of regional inbound knowledge and human capital flow on equity crowdfunding adoption, an area previously underexplored.

Findings

Inbound knowledge significantly affects crowdfunding adoption.

Regions attracting more students have higher crowdfunding activity.

Territorial factors influence financial source utilization.

Abstract

This paper explores the role of local knowledge spillover and human capital as a driver of crowdfunding investment. The role of territory has already been studied in terms of campaign success, but the impact of territory on the use of financial sources like equity crowdfunding is not yet known. Using a sample of 435 equity crowdfunding campaigns in 20 Italian regions during a 4-year period (from 2016 to 2019), this paper evaluates the impact of human capital flow on the adoption of crowdfunding campaigns. Our results show that inbound knowledge in the region, measured in terms of ability to attract national and international students, has a significant effect on the adoption of crowdfunding campaigns in the region itself.