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Crowdfunding offers a new funding model for research activities at universities. It combines fundraising with public engagement and an entrepreneurial spirit. While universities might be expected to show enthusiasm for the possibilities of crowdfunding, support has not been widespread in Australia. Only a small number of Australian universities have provided active support for crowdfunding of research activities. Interviews with academics and administrators from two Australian universities with a history of providing strong support for research crowdfunding show that clear vision and firm leadership are required to overcome organizational inertia. Universities need to provide space for academics and administrators to innovate, try new approaches, and even fail as they learn whether crowdfunding works for them. Peer support and organized training can help academics as they seek to build an audience via social media engagement. Universities can also provide analysis of campaign progress and, in some cases, funding to support campaigns. The article concludes with best-practice advice for universities that wish to encourage research crowdfunding supported by a framework that describes a continuum of support, ranging from an outright ban to benign neglect to strong support for this new activity.

When it comes to raising money via crowdfunding, the language used in campaign narratives matters. Little practical guidance has been offered to those wishing to use crowdfunding concerning how to tailor the language in a crowdfunding campaign to enhance funding prospects. We take insights generated in academic research and distill those down to practical guidance for crowdfunding users. Here, we focus on two important aspects of language. First, we highlight how language that provides insight into the entrepreneurs' personality--words expressing positivity, charisma, resilience, or narcissism--relates to funding. Second, we outline how various linguistic styles used to describe the general topics of the campaign relate to funding. Our work is particularly applicable to one of the most popular forms of crowdfunding: rewards-based crowdfunding.

In this article, we look at how to leverage the positive face of the fear of missing out (FOMO) to foster brand community-building in the context of equity crowdfunding in the post-COVID-19 era. Using thematic analysis from 15 interviews with crowd investors across Europe and North America, we investigated how FOMO influences the decision-making of crowd investors. Findings suggest that FOMO is a powerful belongingness facilitator that can support the crowd investor's self-determination strategies and thus their willingness to take part in a crowdfunding community, sharing in its values and beliefs. FOMO can be used by entrepreneurs to activate identification mechanisms through which they can create a loyal fan base. We conclude by proposing an entrepreneurial action plan to guide the entrepreneur in making the most of FOMO in equity crowdfunding ventures.

Crowdfunding platforms enable entrepreneurs to bring to life ideas that may otherwise have remained unrealized. When crowdfunding campaigns go well, campaigners are able to fulfill their vision, funders' engagement is rewarded, and society gains access to a range of new offerings. But some recent high-profile medical-technology campaigns have failed to deliver their promised rewards despite reaching and at times far exceeding their funding goals. The objectives of this article are to shed light on why donors fund campaigns that turn out to be too good to be true and to examine how this engagement reduces trust in crowdfunding. To this end, I explore the role of product creativity as a dual mechanism for both funding success and postfunding delivery failure. Product creativity is typically associated with positive crowdfunding outcomes. But in the context of medical-technology campaigns, product creativity may make community members more attracted to campaigns that are less likely to deliver on their campaign promises. This phenomenon then increases the likelihood that the campaign will reduce trust in crowdfunding, hurting donors, the focal venture, and future campaigners. I offer practical implications for crowdfunding platforms, campaigners, and supporters interested in learning more about the pitfalls associated with initially successful crowdfunding campaigns.

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular tool for entrepreneurs to solicit public funding from individuals. As its popularity grows, entrepreneurs are seeking to learn more about crowdfunding to improve their chances of success. In this article, we explore how podcasts can offer fresh insights to crowdfunding and serve as an effective tool for entrepreneurs to improve their knowledge and the likelihood that their campaigns are funded. We discuss key insights for entrepreneurs offered by ten popular podcast episodes on crowdfunding. Each episode offers enduring lessons for entrepreneurs interested in launching a campaign and also exemplifies the value that podcasts can potentially offer entrepreneurs.

This article focuses on entrepreneurs' self-funding behavior in the reward crowdfunding context and its relation to crowdfunding success. Theoretically anchoring our discussion in signaling theory, we argue that self-funding sends similar information to that conveyed by quick-fix bootstrapping efforts. Accordingly, we hypothesize that self-funding behavior is positively associated with crowdfunding success as it can help alleviate uncertainties around a fundraiser's intent and quality as perceived by prospective backers. To show this, we use a sample of 1,583 campaigns collected from Zhongchou, the largest Chinese reward-based crowdfunding platform, to test our hypotheses. Our results demonstrate that entrepreneurs' direct self-funding is positively associated with crowdfunding success. Moreover, this effect is partially mediated by the quality of campaigns' content elements.

Aftertaste Foundation (Aftertaste) was an organization that provided livelihood support to women living in the impoverished urban areas of Mumbai, India, who created sustainable handicrafts. Aftertaste was started in 2013 and initially employed three craftswomen. By 2021, the organization had expanded to two locations and had increased the number of craftswomen employed to 40. Aftertaste's business model was focused on creating social impact by generating revenue through the sale of handcrafted items to corporate and retail buyers. For six years, Aftertaste was supported financially by the social impact organization Avanti Foundation. In September 2019, Aftertaste was registered as an independent entity. However, shortly after its transition, in March 2020, the foundation was confronted by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationwide order for temporary lockdowns soon forced Aftertaste to stop all in-person operations. When the country started reopening after pandemic lockdowns, Aftertaste's owner struggled to maintain the financial sustainability of her organization. Surrounded by enduring pandemic uncertainty, she had to decide what strategy to pursue for the future of her organization. How could she overcome her venture's losses and lead Aftertaste on a path of financially sustainable growth?

This case study is set in November 2021. It describes how Amanda Khoo, Director of Nipo International (Nipo), had been exploring ways to innovate and expand the company's core product that was bitumen-based coatings. Khoo had led Nipo to embark on its innovation journey for more than 20 years. In the last 10 years, Khoo had been collaborating with several research institutes in Singapore including the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS) on four innovation projects. After a multi-year journey of research and development (R&D), Nipo had a few promising products to show. However, these products were still undergoing field trials as at November 2021. The outlook for Nipo's focused industry - the construction industry, was predicted to be promising for the next 30 years. What should Khoo do to further drive innovation and commercialise the products?

Jake Lisby, co-founder and CEO of Simplifyy, a property technology startup in Kansas City, Missouri, was both exhausted and exhilarated by the flurry of activity surrounding the pivot of the business model in late 2021. Simplifyy, a venture-backed PropTech company, was transforming from a full-service property management company to a pure SaaS player, selling end-to-end software to "simplify" the labor-intensive property management industry. Lisby, a Missouri native, knew that the change was not without its challenges. Running a software business in the Midwest, which lacked the entrepreneurial ecosystem of other well-known tech hubs, made it challenging to attract the necessary talent, customers, and fundraising. But the upside of pure SaaS company was attractive, and his team knew that not only to survive but to thrive, they had to get this right.

In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth expectations, abandoning plans to raise more venture capital, and keeping tight control over costs. Dating Ring's founders originally aimed to achieve a billion dollar valuation, and their participation in the elite Y Combinator accelerator has stoked their ambitions. However, growth had subsequently sputtered and the founders had not been able to raise more venture capital.

The case portrays Dr. Tamara Stenn, a researcher and social entrepreneur wrestling with a market entry decision in December 2020. Stenn spent three years in Bolivia researching the quinoa farming industry as a Fulbright scholar. Upon her return to the US in 2018 she founded a co-operative, A Perfect Seed (APS) with Bolivian farmers and US-based academics in order to import exclusive Royal Bolivian quinoa varieties into the US market. Quinoa, considered a superfood, was already widely available in the US market but most of the sales were of the cheaper Peruvian variety farmed with industrial means. Stenn saw an opportunity to appeal to the most sophisticated US consumer that valued the authenticity and cultural nuances of foods. However, in late 2020 Stenn found herself with limited sales, opportunistic in nature, and needed to decide on what market to focus on as she was re-applying to the Start Co-op accelerator in Boston, MA. The case includes the social entrepreneur and APS' backgrounds, challenges faced, elaborates on the quinoa industry, and discusses different market options. This case is written to be used in undergraduate courses related to marketing, entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship. Additionally, it could also be used in development economics courses, as the students need to grapple with market-driven conditions, brought about by economic development projects and global trade, that impact the wellbeing of native producers.

Paul Polizzotto, a serial social entrepreneur, believes that his new technology startup idea, Givewith, will enable businesses to tie social impact giving to their everyday business transactions, and thereby open up the floodgates to more resources for social and environmental change. Fundamental to the viability of Givewith is what Polizzotto calls "Social Value Economics", the construct that attaching social impact giving to a business transaction can increase its value - through enhanced brand, more satisfied employees, and higher Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings. With his employment contract meeting coming up next day with CBS, the media conglomerate, Polizzotto has to decide whether or not to pursue Givewith and whether to launch it as an independent startup or as a corporate venture. Students are given the opportunity to integrate their analyses of the case, including Polizzotto's entrepreneurial competence and motivation, validity of social value economics, and viability of Givewith to arrive at their recommendation.

In September 2017, Fernando Impuesto, Commercial and Technical Services Director at Madrid-based natural gas infrastructure company Enagas, was offered the opportunity to transform the company's pilot intrapreneurship initiative into a robust corporate entrepreneurship program to support the company's new "decarbonization" strategy. Within two weeks, he needed to make a proposal about how to structure the program and focus his efforts in the first year, with the ultimate goal of generating a new portfolio worth €1 billion in five to ten years. Stepping into Impuesto's shoes, students will make recommendations for effectively addressing key corporate entrepreneurship tensions, including: tight vs. loose control; internally focused vs. externally focused initiatives; and old versus new ownership and governance models and relationships.

It was March 2020 and a newly hired account executive at LinkedIn Corporation (LinkedIn) was keen to close his first major deal. His job was to help marketing teams acquire new customers and grow their businesses by leveraging the LinkedIn Ad network. He had secured a meeting with the vice-president of marketing for the video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom). He had just one hour to prepare for the meeting and determine the best way to position LinkedIn as a solution for Zoom to handle its growth challenges and opportunities.

O’Desi Meals was a food and beverage start-up based in Dublin, Ireland that aimed to deliver high-quality, healthy, home-cooked Indian food meals at affordable prices to customers who wanted delivery without compromise on taste or health. A second and more important objective that had driven the founding of the venture was to empower the population of underprivileged homeless individuals in Dublin. In March 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected projected estimates for O’Desi Meals operations and revenues. Demand for meals and its subscription-based sales increased exponentially. The substantial increase in orders and popularity strategically challenged the venture’s sustainability. To address this challenge, O’Desi Meals adopted two strategies: one short-term, to ensure sustainability (i.e., revenue generation); and one long-term, to ensure growth. Could O’Desi Meals become a successful and socially responsible authentic Indian meals provider by applying these two strategies?

In 2016, a Black woman entrepreneur in Ajax, Ontario, Canada, in the greater Toronto area founded a small but successful venture named Kids Swag in response to a gap she identified in the children's products market, which was failing to represent the Black community. The founder started her business while working as a full-time marketing professional. Kids Swag sold globally sourced products that featured positive Black personas and imagery in pop-up stores, local community events, and online through her social media account. Within four years, she exceeded her initial goals and found herself struggling to keep pace with the growing demand for her products. Her clientele grew from the local community and Facebook groups to international customers, large companies, and institutional clients such as retail outlets and school boards. By the end of 2020, the founder was wondering if she should open a physical store to complement her online presence and if she should leave her full-time career to devote herself fully to running her business. With warehouse space becoming increasingly limited and demand for her products continuing to grow, could she invest the necessary time and resources to take Kids Swag to the next level?

Meesho is a three-part case that highlights the ups and downs, and the twists and turns, of a typical entrepreneurial journey. It follows the experiences and decisions of Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, two IIT Delhi graduates, as they build their venture - Meesho. The idea that they begin with, morphs substantially as they go through the process of finding a product-market fit. Each time they face a hurdle, they dig deeper into the needs and challenges of their customers, until they arrive at what could potentially be product-market fit. Even then, they struggle to monetize and decide to pivot yet again, in order to unlock the value created by their venture. The case provides rich material to discuss the iterative, non-linear nature of venture building. It reinforces the importance of continuously measuring and responding to metrics.

Meesho is a three-part case that highlights the ups and downs, and the twists and turns, of a typical entrepreneurial journey. It follows the experiences and decisions of Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, two IIT Delhi graduates, as they build their venture - Meesho. The idea that they begin with, morphs substantially as they go through the process of finding a product-market fit. Each time they face a hurdle, they dig deeper into the needs and challenges of their customers, until they arrive at what could potentially be product-market fit. Even then, they struggle to monetize and decide to pivot yet again, in order to unlock the value created by their venture. The case provides rich material to discuss the iterative, non-linear nature of venture building. It reinforces the importance of continuously measuring and responding to metrics.

Meesho is a three-part case that highlights the ups and downs, and the twists and turns, of a typical entrepreneurial journey. It follows the experiences and decisions of Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, two IIT Delhi graduates, as they build their venture - Meesho. The idea that they begin with, morphs substantially as they go through the process of finding a product-market fit. Each time they face a hurdle, they dig deeper into the needs and challenges of their customers, until they arrive at what could potentially be product-market fit. Even then, they struggle to monetize and decide to pivot yet again, in order to unlock the value created by their venture. The case provides rich material to discuss the iterative, non-linear nature of venture building. It reinforces the importance of continuously measuring and responding to metrics.