Emotions and Values in Equity Crowdfunding Investment Choices 1

2Transdisciplinary Approach to the Issue of Investor Choice

This chapter first sets out its objective and the methodology adopted (section 2.1), followed by a review of the literature (section 2.2) and then a presentation of the theoretical framework chosen for this work (section 2.3).

2.1. Objective and methodology

2.1.1. Objective

The first chapter raised questions about an apparent paradox in equity crowdfunding investment. This paradox has to do with the growing number of unsophisticated investors taking high financial risks by becoming part of this industry. This first state of the art also allowed us to validate the existence of a gap between our naïve conjecture on the role of the emotions in investors’ project choices and the explanations given on this subject in the field of entrepreneurial finance. Thus, the problem posed is the result of a first review of the literature. Moreover, according to Dumez (2011), it is an original question because it is situated at the limit of knowledge: “[…] it is the very purpose of a literature review to specify the sphere of the already-done and already-known, and to identify the frontiers of knowledge in order to determine an original research question”.

It should be noted that while we are at the limit of knowledge, we are not beyond it, because, during this first stage, we discovered a few articles (though they were rare) adopting a reading prism that was close to ours, even if they are located in the field of entrepreneurship. ...