Success Factors in Reward based and Equity based Crowdfunding in Finland

Master’s Thesis 
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(Belleflamme et al., 2013) Then again according to Frydrych et al. (2014), initiatives 
from creative categories tend to have better ability to assign a mixture of tangible and 
intangible rewards. 
In addition to rewards, contact with the entrepreneur and the project seems important. 
Belleflamme et al. (2013) states that having an initiative where funders a permitted 
direct involvement with the project allows entrepreneurs to extract additional value. 
This direct involvement can be decision-making or provision of time and expertise. 
Not only would this allow additional value to the entrepreneurs, but also create higher 
community benefits. 
5.2. Entrepreneur Background 
As mentioned earlier, the characteristics of the entrepreneurs and the businesses affect 
the likelihood of attracting funding. This pertains especially to the composition of the 
creator team and the background of the entrepreneurs. Additionally, the operations 
and background of the business being funded does have some implications to the suc-
cess likelihood of the crowdfunding initiative. According to Frydrych et al. (2014), 
organizational legitimacy is associated with various individual and organizational 
characteristics. 
Projects with pairs and teams as entrepreneurs experience higher success rates than 
projects being run by individuals (Frydrych et al., 2014). It seems individual entrepre-
neurs have trouble creating legitimacy for the venture. The heterogeneity of the entre-
preneurial team also seems to have an impact on the success of the crowdfunding. 
Additionally, projects created by females demonstrate higher success rates than those 
created by male entrepreneurs. (Frydrych et al., 2014)
According to Frydrych et al. (2014), the education level and work experience of the 
entrepreneur also affect organizational legitimacy and thus success rates. In equity 
crowdfunding, small businesses with more board members and ones with higher lev-
els of education are more likely to attract investment and have more investors (Ahlers 
et al., 2015). 

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