Basic Types of Project Initiators: Contributor Relations in Platform-Based Online Crowdfunding

Abstract

Crowdfunding has helped many businesses and projects to take off easily and is replacing the traditional methods of fundraising since more platforms are being created. Evaluation of the risk for both the borrower and the donor is important before investing or borrowing to ensure that the project is a success. Crowdfunding is changing the way that projects and startups get funded. Most of crowdfunding money is raised on reward-based platforms, although equity crowdfunding is growing quickly. It can be expected that crowdfunding will become more popular, with many crowdfunding new opportunities available, which will make not easy for potential investors to choose what to support. In this chapter, we introduce the reader to the basic types of project initiators-contributor relations in online crowdfunding. We review the current literature identifying the research questions relevant for our purpose. We subsequently conduct a research method of systematic review to identify the relevant papers that address those research questions.