Crowdfunding in Europe. How to help participants of crowdfunding campaigns in making the right decisions?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the state of crowdfunding in European countries and to enrich the available information for participants of crowdfunding campaigns to help them make the right decisions. They function in conditions of information asymmetry, i.e. lack of much information necessary for proper behavior in the crowd of campaign participants. The original methodology of the two-stage classification of project categories submitted for crowdfunding and the specification of analytical indicators presented in this work significantly complements - with the use of IT tools - the gaps in information available on crowdfunding platforms. Source data on crowdfunding in selected European countries were used for the research.