The World's Oldest Profession - Now and Then

Modern banking found its roots during the Renaissance period casted by the European merchant banks. Their success was due in large part to their aggregation, absorption and deployment of information about borrowers, structures and markets. In the 21st century, banking again is being advanced due to insights developed by vast amounts of information and data, this time gathered and managed through new technologies and models, in quest of efficiency, improved risk management and improved portfolio performance. New entrants into the business of banking operate outside of existing regulatory structures, and may enjoy a level of competitive flexibility compared to existing commercial banks. Might this portend the end of the so-called modern commercial banking model, or might it serve as a strategic imperative for the banks to adapt to innovation?

Crowdsourcing New Tools to Start Lean and Succeed in Entrepreneurship

The very essence of the new entrepreneur is shattering tradition. On the heels of the new social internet, we are seeing the rise of the solo-entrepreneur or intrapreneur who embraces globalisation, failure and successes and collaboration. Powerful networks brought together by crowdsourcing are supplying the tools to start lean, innovate and solve complex problems. This chapter by Priti Ambani explores the changing ecosystem and the effect of networked crowds on starting lean and succeeding with entrepreneurship.

The Crowd Economy

A digital transformation is underway. One that is redefining the essence of human interaction and with ideas, share unused resources and create new on-demand services that are customisable and unique. These are only a few examples of real productivity that when layered on the Internet creates an abundance of resources and opportunity. This people-powered abundance is called the crowd economy. It is the way the society lives, works and plays. There is a new paradigm shift that challenges traditional notions of the “norm” while expanding possibilities. The hallmark of the digital age is social connections that are boosted by the web and mobile networks. These technological advances have taken collaboration and cooperation to a level never seen before. Social connections through the web have gone beyond social media likes and shares and has evolved into social productivity - a phenomenon that arises when networked crowds collaborate to solve problems, raise funds, and come up with innovative ideas and solutions.

Horizontal Crowdfunding Platforms

In recent years arose a multitude of crowdfunding platforms of different nature and with different goals. In this chapter some peculiar aspects of crowdfunding platforms will be examined, both in terms of their socio-economic impact and in terms of the exogenous and endogenous system of rules with which they interact. Crowdfunding is not governed exclusively by the rules of law and the regulations of the platforms that host it. Every campaign involves the construction of a community, with its specific rules, that are in part pre-established by the campaign creator and in part the result of the interaction of the community. However, these rules do not live in a closed set, building a case history to which the future campaigns will not necessarily have to conform, but with high probability they will use as a parameter. Although it is not possible to identify the rules that are common to all the crowdfunding campaigns, could be observed an evolution mostly harmonic between different campaigns with respect to the methods, the mechanisms of involvement and, of course, the rules.

Crowdsourcing Social Innovation

The growing awareness of humanity's finite resources and recognition of the limitations of one-off projects are prompting step changes in development planning. Sustainable development addresses the limitations of current practices; its aim is to achieve the triple bottom line of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity, meeting the needs of present society without compromising resources for future generations. Collective intelligence is considered by both Charles Leadbeater (former advisor to Tony Blair) and MIT as one of the most powerful ways to tackle complex problems, like climate change. This chapter explores the principles of crowdsourcing, its applications and the main trends. It presents theories, practices and examples of the use of crowdsourcing to innovate in the area of sustainable development for the common good. It announces the rise of collective brain-power to the challenge of creating better and more effective forms of civic and social engagement to solve problems on a world scale.

A Crowd-Funder Value (CFV) Framework for Crowd-Investment

Crowd-funding is used by business and social entrepreneurs to fund projects that impact society in many ways. Although crowd-funders fund and support entrepreneurial projects, stakeholders are less aware of crowd-funder motivations and behaviours towards products/services, which impact on the success of these projects. The purpose of this research, therefore, is two-fold: a) development of crowd-funder value framework for understanding crowd-funder motivations; and b) provision of robust theoretical basis to the construct of ‘crowd-funding'. Different social constructs, such as social identity, and symbolic, crowd and relational social capital related to crowd-funding are discussed based on symbolic convergence theory of communication and social identity theory. This framework will act as a roadmap to understand how crowd-funder motivations impact and create value for individuals, organisations and society, and inform how social, environmental and economic value and impact can be maximised through crowd-funding initiatives.

How to Launch a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

This chapter provides insights into the important characteristics of a successful crowdfunding campaign. It starts with providing the fundamentals of crowdfunding and shows the reasons why it is important to find the right target groups and communities for a campaign. It describes in details the Return on Involvement model, what the funders want in return for their support. In the second part the additional results of crowdfunding are discussed, such as market research, marketing, brand loyalty and the possibility to use crowdfunding to raise additional funding. The last part of this chapter will focus on the background of setting up and running a successful campaign.

Crowdfunding as a Marketing Tool

Most people, at a first sight, perceive Crowdfunding as a specific and exciting process to raise money. Of course, this is correct, but it is not the whole truth. A successful crowdfunding campaign must be addressed to a community of people, rather than to an indiscriminate crowd, which is also typical for any marketing strategy. Leveraging on this key element, crowdfunding can amplify almost any kind of communication activity, provided it is able to meet the needs of a community and to provide the benefits that the community expects. Therefore, if well exploited, crowdfunding is a powerful tool in the hands of marketers, whose potential goes far beyond the evidence of pre-selling a new product, to reach new marketing horizons such as branding, business development, CRM, credit scoring and even HR management.

The Crowdfunding Communities and the Value of Identification for Sustainability of Co-Creation

For a sustainable future, the actors of the market need a change in spirit that will elevate the life-chances of people by being an “empowered part” of the economic system. A participative, open knowledge economic and market system that will ensure the material well-being, the social visibility, the happiness and the consciousness of the individual is essential. Crowdfunding, as a recent online social community network market model is to be a new socio-technical system of co-creation through self “making and funding”. The aim of this study is to discuss the role of identification in co-creation for sustainability of newly rising crowdfunding communities. In line with this objective, the following two aspects are clarified: the key characteristics of crowdfunding platforms as online communities and the role of identification for co-creation in online crowdfunding communities.

The Crowdfunding Market, Models, Platforms, and Projects

The changing structure and intensity of competition on one hand, the ongoing pressure on creating differentiated offerings lead to seek out new ways to improve technology as well as new ways to perform business. Technological developments enable market participants or other interest parties to engage in the process of both innovation and production, resulting with an online social network market model of co-creation. This chapter focuses on describing different aspects of recently developing crowdfunding market models where new projects are offered and funded by large number of individuals from general public. The current extent and dynamics of the growing crowdfunding market, various models of crowdfunding, crowdfunding platforms and the projects that are crowdfunded are analyzed through the chapter by giving examples and comparative comments. The analysis of the market is concluded by the foreseen future trends.