This past weekend, CrowdBerkeley hosted the 3rd annual academic symposium on crowdfunding to take a global look at the developing phenomena of social finance for SMEs and Innovation - whether strictly “crowdfunding” or more broadly the application of social finance mechanisms including Peer-to-Peer lending, Peer-to-Business lending, and all other forms of crowdfunding and crowdfund investing. Since the 2013 conference, the number of platforms has more than doubled, and despite significant delays in enacting rules to allow equity crowdfunding in the United States, many nations have adopted laws and rules to allow crowdfunding.
There has also been significant interest from NGOs, Foundations, Philanthropic groups, universities, and other groups in the application of crowdfunding mechanisms to solve both complex global challenges as well as fund hyper-local programs.
These are the articles that were presented at the symposium:
CrowdBerkeley – Databases and Tools for the Study of Crowdfunding
Equity Crowdfunding, Information Asymmetry, and the Rise of Online Syndication
Peer to Peer Rental Markets in the Sharing Economy
Bias and Reciprocity in Online Reviews
When Firms are Potemkin Villages
“Smart Money” – Institutional Investors in Online Crowdfunding