RADICAL INNOVATION AND EARLY STAGE FINANCING GAPS: EQUITY-BASED CROWDFUNDING CHALLENGES

Abstract

Innovations and innovativeness in a business context is considered as one of the key determinants of competitive advantage due to its productive role in driving new markets and revenue growth as well as other value propositions. The success of this economic transition will pass by a context favorable to the innovation in general and to the entrepreneurial innovation in particular. Earlystage start-ups financing face particular difficulties. We focus on current challenges concerning entrepreneurial radical innovation financing. After presenting the radical innovation idea, the linear chain of financing and the equity gaps, our purpose is to discuss the role of equity-based crowdfunding, a relatively new form of informal financing of early-stage ventures. The main question of this explanatory research is to discuss if crowdfunding can help to bridge the equity-gap in financing innovative projects and under which conditions it could be possible.