Success Factors in Reward based and Equity based Crowdfunding in Finland

Master’s Thesis 
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categories differ.
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This could suggest that some industries are more attractive to 
crowdfunders than other. The impact of rewards was also found to align with earlier 
research. As according to Belleflamme et al. (2013), projects with products rather than 
services as rewards attracted more capital. Additionally, equity crowdfunding projects 
were found to have larger funding targets than reward-based projects. 
The composition and background of entrepreneurs was also found to be relatively 
inconsistent with earlier research. All interviewed projects were found to have been 
conducted successfully by teams or pairs, which is in accordance with research by 
Frydrych et al. (2014). However, results imply that entrepreneurs’ level of education 
might not have as large an impact on success as previously suggested by Ahlers et al. 
(2015). Especially equity based crowdfunding projects seemed to not be affected by 
the entrepreneur’s lower level of education. Results also suggest that the age of the 
organization does not affect the speed at which projects reach their funding target, as 
implied by Ahlers et al. (2015). 
Social networks were found to be a key success factor for crowdfunding projects. All 
interviewees had a large interested network, which according to 
Giudici et al. (2013) 
positively affects their success. However, the size of the network was not found to 
directly affect the amount raised in equity crowdfunding, as suggested by 
Ahlers et al. 
(2015). Instead of the size, the supportiveness of the network was found to be more 
important. All the interviewees who described their networks as a community were 
highly successful in their fundraising. This affirms research by Belleflamme et al. 
(2014) claiming a supportive community positively affects crowfunding. 
Results also reinforce research by Saxton and Wang (2013) claiming entrepreneurs 
are able to reach a larger amount of people with the help of their supporters, which in 
turn positively affects crowdfunding success. Findings imply that community behav-
ior and sharing information through networks is beneficial to a crowdfunding project. 
Additionally, results concur with earlier research by 
Ward and Ramachandran (2010) 
and 
Frydrych et al. (2014) claiming funders use the actions of other funders as a basis 
for their decision-making. In addition to the above, results show a strong perception 
that traditional publicity has a significant positive impact on success. Interviewees 
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