Crowdfunding and Entrepreneurship

9 The role of social relationships and networking in sourcing crowdfunding

DOI: 10.4324/9781003193975-9

Learning objectives

• Examine the role of social relationships and networks in crowdfunding
• Distinguish between social network and business network
• Explore the role of networking in equity crowdfunding
• Discuss the theoretical perspectives of networks in crowdfunding
• Discuss network dynamics in crowdfunding

Introduction

Crowdfunding involves raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the internet and social networks, to fund a project. In crowdfunding, projects are mainly funded by the project creator’s relatively small network of family and friends (Borst et al. 2018). Borst et al. (2018) argue that mobilizing ...