Call for Papers : Digital Technologies and Crowdfunding for Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets

This special issue (SI) explores how digital technologies can be better utilized to enhance crowdfunding for entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Entrepreneurial funding in the early stages poses challenges, but the appeal of distributed online financing for new ventures is increasing due to accelerated innovation and market adoption rates. While online social networking initially emerged as a consumer-focused service, entrepreneurs are now leveraging both formal and informal networks to gather capital. Crowdfunding, a type of venture funding obtained through crowdsourcing, has become a rapidly growing online ecosystem. Resource-constrained entrepreneurs are turning to crowdfunding as an innovative way to manage capital by pre-emptively securing funds for production and sales (Frydrych, et al., 2014; Harrison 2013). Rather than pitching to professional investors, entrepreneurs target "amateurs" or consumers with shared interests to pre-finance their services or products. Crowdfunding helps mitigate the risk of underfunding a project for both entrepreneurs and investors since investments are only executed when the minimum funding threshold is met.In emerging or developing countries with limited access to digital technologies, offline crowdfunding activities still hold significance. These activities include community-based crowdfunding, offline crowdfunding events, local business sponsorships, traditional savings and lending circles, and print media/flyers. However, in recent times, crowdfunding platforms have attracted funding from a wider range of investors to allow entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas and projects to a large audience.This SI will provide a more solid understanding of the potential to improve funding availability for entrepreneurs. This is likely to democratize access to funding in emerging markets, and open opportunities globally. Thus, it is important to examine the role of digital technologies in supporting crowdfunding in emerging markets’ entrepreneurial ventures