Success Factors in Reward based and Equity based Crowdfunding in Finland

Master’s Thesis 
29 
As for the characteristics of the business itself, there are varying success factors. 
Companies that have been in business longer prior to pursuing equity crowdfunding 
are more likely to raise their target amount of capital quicker (Ahlers et al., 2015). 
However, according to Belleflamme et al. (2013), the age of the company does not 
affect the amount of capital raised nor the success of the crowdfunding when facilitat-
ing the initiative independently without a platform. It seems the age of the company 
affects the speed with which crowdfunding initiatives are completed, not the amounts 
raised. 
In the field of donation crowdfunding, it seems fundraising success is related to the 
business’s online capacity and capability, not its financial capacity. Additionally, or-
ganizational efficiency does not seem to have an impact of success rates. Similarly, 
the size of a non-profit business has a negative correlation with the amount of dona-
tion – likely due to the large reach provided to small organizations via social media. 
(Saxton and Wang, 2013) 
It also seems external reinforcements of legitimacy do not affect success. According 
to Ahlers et al. (2015) external certification, such as patents and government grants 
have little or no significance on the success rate of crowdfunding initiatives. 
5.3. Social Network Ties 
5.3.1. Social Network of the Entrepreneur 
The social network of the entrepreneur and the venture itself has a significant impact 
of how well a crowdfunding initiative will succeed. The individual social capital, or 
goodwill, available to the entrepreneur through their social network has a positive 
impact on the likelihood of reaching the target amount of funding (
Giudici et al., 
2013). This goodwill can be measured in amounts of followers, supporters or interest 
in the entrepreneur’s activities. In equity crowdfunding, small businesses with better 
networks have been shown to have a bigger probability to attract funding and have 
more investors (
Ahlers et al., 2015)
.
A network can also become a community, where individuals support the entrepreneur 
in more way than one. Having the organization’s network form into an interactive 

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