Equity crowdfunding is steadily becoming a valuable alternative source of financing for Italian companies. The number of startups, investment vehicles and SMEs that rely on this innovative funding channel increases year after year as well as the number of platforms enabling the financial transactions. Within this context, the aim of this dissertation is to shed light on the role of a specific investors typology which is well-known to entrepreneurial finance, namely serial investors. More precisely, we investigated the impact of serial investors on the degree of success of an Italian equity crowdfunding campaign. Despite the literature stream on crowdfunding determinants of success already includes some elements related to the investor base, there is a knowledge gap because there are no previous empirical studies on this topic. Using a sample of 187 Italian equity projects successfully concluded between January 2014 and April 2019, a linear regression has been performed between the degree of success and a set of independent variables where the presence of serial investors has been gathered in a dynamic way. The empirical research highlighted a significantly positive relationship between the presence of serial investors, measured both in absolute and relative terms, and the degree of success of an equity campaign. This resulted to be consistent also after performing robustness checks. In light of this finding, a second study has been conducted in order to figure out the typical traits of a serial investor. The analysis consisted of a count regression model built on information about 6335 natural persons corresponding to investors of the above-mentioned sample. The number of investments committed by each single backer has been used as dependent variable. The explanatory variables have been grouped into three clusters: demographic characteristics, first investment characteristics and first investment satisfaction. It has been found that male investors living in North Italy have more chances to become serial while investors’ age at the time of the first investment is negatively correlated with the number of future investments committed. Similarly, the amount of money an investor spends in his/her first equity crowdfunding campaign is negatively correlated with the dependent variable. Lastly, the satisfaction associated with the first investment positively affects the probability of determining serial investors. While the first study suggests that entrepreneurs and platforms should be interested in attracting serial investors, the second study delivers useful insights to platforms about how to recognize potential serial investors in order to attract them in a proactive way and generate higher value in the long term.
L’equity crowdfunding sta diventando progressivamente una valida fonte di finanziamento alternativa per le aziende italiane. Il numero di startups, veicoli di investimento e PMI che si affidano a questo canale di finanziamento aumenta di anno in anno così come il numero di piattaforme che ne abilitano le transazioni finanziarie. In questo contesto, l’obiettivo di questa tesi è di fare luce su una specifica tipologia di investitori, ossia gli investitori seriali. Più precisamente, è stato investigato l’impatto degli investitori seriali sul grado di successo di una campagna italiana di equity crowdfunding. Sebbene la letteratura sulle determinanti di successo del crowdfunding già annoveri alcuni elementi relativi agli investitori, esiste un gap informativo poiché non vi sono studi empirici pregressi su questo argomento. Usando un campione di 187 campagne italiane di equity crowdfunding concluse con successo tra gennaio 2014 e aprile 2019, è stata performata una regressione lineare tra il grado di successo e un set di variabili indipendenti dove la presenza degli investitori seriali è stata ricavata secondo una logica dinamica. L’analisi empirica ha evidenziato una relazione positiva e robusta tra la presenza di investitori seriali, misurata sia in termini assoluti che relativi, e il grado di successo di una campagna di equity crowdfunding. Alla luce di ciò, è stato condotto un secondo studio al fine di identificare i tratti distintivi di un investitore seriale. L’analisi è consistita in un modello di regressione count basato su informazioni riguardanti 6335 persone fisiche corrispondenti agli investitori del campione di campagne sopra citato. Il numero di investimenti effettuati da ogni singolo investitore è stato usato come variabile dipendente. Le variabili predittive sono state raggruppate in tre categorie: caratteristiche demografiche dell’investitore, caratteristiche del primo investimento e soddisfazione dal primo investimento. È emerso che gli investitori di sesso maschile che vivono nel Nord Italia hanno maggiore probabilità di diventare seriali mentre l’età degli investitori al momento del primo investimento è negativamente correlata al numero di investimenti futuri. Allo stesso modo, l’importo speso per la prima campagna sostenuta è negativamente correlato con la variabile dipendente. Infine, si evince che la soddisfazione scaturita dal primo investimento influisce positivamente sulla probabilità di generare investitori seriali. Mentre il primo studio suggerisce che imprenditori e piattaforme dovrebbero essere interessati nell’attirare investitori seriali, il secondo studio fornisce spunti utili alle piattaforme per riconoscere potenziali investitori seriali al fine di attirarli in modo proattivo generando un maggior valore nel lungo termine.
The impact of serial investors on the Italian equity crowdfunding market
GIUDICE, SALVATORE;
2018/2019
Abstract
Equity crowdfunding is steadily becoming a valuable alternative source of financing for Italian companies. The number of startups, investment vehicles and SMEs that rely on this innovative funding channel increases year after year as well as the number of platforms enabling the financial transactions. Within this context, the aim of this dissertation is to shed light on the role of a specific investors typology which is well-known to entrepreneurial finance, namely serial investors. More precisely, we investigated the impact of serial investors on the degree of success of an Italian equity crowdfunding campaign. Despite the literature stream on crowdfunding determinants of success already includes some elements related to the investor base, there is a knowledge gap because there are no previous empirical studies on this topic. Using a sample of 187 Italian equity projects successfully concluded between January 2014 and April 2019, a linear regression has been performed between the degree of success and a set of independent variables where the presence of serial investors has been gathered in a dynamic way. The empirical research highlighted a significantly positive relationship between the presence of serial investors, measured both in absolute and relative terms, and the degree of success of an equity campaign. This resulted to be consistent also after performing robustness checks. In light of this finding, a second study has been conducted in order to figure out the typical traits of a serial investor. The analysis consisted of a count regression model built on information about 6335 natural persons corresponding to investors of the above-mentioned sample. The number of investments committed by each single backer has been used as dependent variable. The explanatory variables have been grouped into three clusters: demographic characteristics, first investment characteristics and first investment satisfaction. It has been found that male investors living in North Italy have more chances to become serial while investors’ age at the time of the first investment is negatively correlated with the number of future investments committed. Similarly, the amount of money an investor spends in his/her first equity crowdfunding campaign is negatively correlated with the dependent variable. Lastly, the satisfaction associated with the first investment positively affects the probability of determining serial investors. While the first study suggests that entrepreneurs and platforms should be interested in attracting serial investors, the second study delivers useful insights to platforms about how to recognize potential serial investors in order to attract them in a proactive way and generate higher value in the long term.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/153940