Emotions and Values in Equity Crowdfunding Investment Choices 1

Introduction

[…] we neither strive for, nor will, neither want, nor desire anything because we judge it to be good; on the contrary, we judge something to be good because we strive for it, will it, want it, and desire it.

Baruch Spinoza, quoted in Miller (2015)

This introduction begins with a brief introductory statement on the genesis of this research, then continues with a presentation of the context, the justification and exposition of the research object, the methodological approach taken, and the expected contributions of this book before concluding with a presentation of the general plan of this book.

The starting point for this research topic is a simple premise: “behaviors and, more specifically, the choices of investors operating on equity crowdfunding (ECF) platforms were, a priori, necessarily marked by a strong emotional dimension.” From this first approximate conjecture, the result of a spontaneous interpretation that comes from the psychology of common sense, the next step was to follow a rigorous, scientific approach. First of all, this inductively inferred conjecture required a literature review in the field of entrepreneurial finance.

Research context

ECF is a recent financing method. Therefore, of course, the scientific literature on the subject is not very developed. The first works, which are descriptive, focused on themes such as the success of fundraising campaigns or the motivations of the participants on the platforms. The historical sectors or professions ...