Dr Emma Green

Background Internet Enabled Crowdfunding (IECF) is evolving fast to become a global phenomenon and has an increasingly important role for the seed financing of Nascent Entrepreneurs. Although Crowdfunding is growing in popularity, basic academic knowledge in understanding of the general phenomena is still necessary. Academic and policy attention is drawn to the high growth "Gazelle's" rather than the more typical entrepreneur who starts from an under privileged position, using their own savings to start a low-productivity firm in a highly competitive market. A number of non-economic aspects appear to be impacting on the IECF process. Aim The aim of this paper is to explore the barriers to finance for Nascent Entrepreneurs in the context of internet-based crowd funding. While the advantages of IECF are documented, for many potential entrepreneurs, it can be source of new barriers or a new learning environment. The debates around problems faced by nascent entrepreneurs are reviewed and the impact of IECF is considered. Research Approach The review is carried out via the use of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The particular approach to the SLR used in this study is explained. The paper then explores the findings outlining themes emerging from the review and discussing the emerging barriers under those themes. Contribution This paper positions the phenomenon of IECF against the landscape and context of Nascent Entrepreneurs and explores the barriers that face Nascent Entrepreneurs in their start up journey. Research suggests a lack of access to funding as being a fundamental problem faced by Nascent Entrepreneurs. But this paper goes beyond the identification of traditional barriers and focusses on issues that are emerging because of the innovative use of web 2.0. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the role and impacts that Web 2.0 and social media is having on the access to finance for nascent entrepreneurs. This paper concludes with implications of the emergence of new barriers for Nascent Entrepreneurs. Future research questions are proposed based on emergent themes.

Responding to calls for more diverse management research methodologies, this paper proposes a methodological approach based on hermeneutics. This methodology is a reflexive strategy for analysis, which incorporates the researcher's personal lived experience in comparison to the lived experience of interviewees. Drawing on the philosophical hermeneutics of Heidegger and Gadamer, it argues that the preunderstanding cannot be set aside, so could be utilised as a productive tool for analysis. It is combined with the reflexive turn within hermeneutics in order to illuminate previously unseen aspects of a phenomenon and reflexively analyse underlying assumptions. Research using philosophical hermeneutics is not common among management research, so this paper draws on methodologies from qualitative health research to develop the approach. To demonstrate the application of the methodology, two case studies from an on-going study are used as examples. Finally, the benefits and limitations of utilizing this hermeneutic approach are discussed.

The topic of this study is Rewards-Based Crowdfunding and understanding how it is being used by startups in the UK.

Internet Enabled Crowdfunding (IECF) is evolving fast to become a global phenomenon and has an increasingly important role in the financing of Entrepreneurs. The debates around problems faced by entrepreneurs in securing funding through IECF is reviewed in this paper. Through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), the paper explores the themes emerging from the review and discusses the emerging issues that prevent access to funding through crowdfunding platforms. Research suggests a lack of access to funding as being a fundamental problem faced by entrepreneurs, but this paper goes beyond the identification of traditional barriers and focusses on issues that are emerging because of the innovative use of web 2.0. Further, it concludes with practice and policy implications on the emergence of new barriers for entrepreneurs.

Young informal carers (YICs) are non-professional young individuals providing care and support in various forms, usually to immediate family members, afflicted from a diverse range of both long- and short-term health conditions. Although there is significant knowledge about the information needs of adult carers in general, information needs and information seeking characteristics of the YICs’ community are understudied and are different. This study aims to identify the information needs of YICs communicated over the Internet and understanding their information seeking characteristics through a three-stage qualitative content analysis of posts written by YICs on two notable Internet forums. The analysis of 323 posts dated between March 2010 and April 2019 finds YICs’ needs are categorised by two types of online expression of needs, situational and information. Situational needs are illustrations of current difficult conditions and information needs are direct requests for information. Under situational and information needs, we identify four types of needs expressed: personal and professional growth, health (self and caree), finance and relationships. In addition, the findings indicate 94.36% posts in the sample as situational needs, which depict the uncertainty experienced by YICs under caring circumstances. The findings can assist government organisations and charities by improving the indexing of advice pages of their websites appropriate to the YICs’ search words, better availability of information and advertising, in addition to building quality mobile applications or digital support tools.

Whilst both academic interest and public funds are directed at scalable businesses in the interests of achieving job creation and economic growth, recent growth in the number of businesses in the UK is primarily from non-employing businesses. Concurrently, Rewards-based Crowdfunding (RBCF) has emerged with the potential to support emerging businesses in addressing the gap in access to finance. Emerging literature on this new source of finance has to date not considered the characteristics of businesses using Rewards-Based Crowdfunding. This paper is an exploration of businesses in the UK that have been successful in raising funds through the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, a platform that is the largest worldwide. Kickstarter is cited as a source of seed capital, enabling entrepreneurs to create ongoing businesses and established creative businesses to test the market. The investigation employs a two-stage methodology, the first stage involves a systematic literature review on RBCF and the second stage is engaged in the exploration of the businesses that have successfully engaged with RBCF. A qualitative and interpretative approach is used in this study. An examination is then undertaken of eight cases that have systematically used RBCF platforms to achieve their business objectives. Data is drawn from the web pages of the campaign, associated social media pages. These cases are analysed and compared to understand whether RBCF plays an important role in delivering competitive advantage in early growth stages. The paper contributes to the debate around the use of Internet-based crowdfunding and its ability to provide alternative funding to entrepreneurs.