0000000001077767
AUTHOR
Douglas J. Cumming
Testing-the-Waters Policy With Hypothetical Investment: Evidence From Equity Crowdfunding
International audience; Digitization has enabled “testing-the-waters” in entrepreneurial finance whereby investors can make nonbinding commitments in equity crowdfunding prior to an actual campaign to ascertain interest in the project. We consider whether these nonbinding equity investment commitments are informative about actual investments during the campaign and, thus, ultimate startup funding success. The data indicate that only 18% of nonbinding commitments are, in fact, invested. The evidence is consistent with hypothetical bias. Hypothetical bias is significantly less pronounced among women and among investors living in higher income areas or in areas with higher levels of education.…
Hypothetical Investment Bias
Young, entrepreneurial firms are particularly dependent on external investors to sustain their development. Are non-binding equity investment commitments informative? Our large sample evidence in the context of equity crowdfunding shows that only 18% of non-binding commitments made by investors in entrepreneurial firms are actually invested. The evidence is consistent with hypothetical bias. Hypothetical bias is significantly less pronounced among women, and among investors with greater social capital, proxied by education and wealth. While investment intentions are only partially reliable at the individual level, the aggregate amount of collected investment intentions is a strong predictor…
Hypothetical bias in equity crowdfunding
International audience; Young, entrepreneurial firms are particularly dependent on external investors to sustain their development. Are non-binding equity investment commitments informative? Our large sample evidence in the context of equity crowdfunding shows that only 18% of non-binding commitments made by investors in entrepreneurial firms are actually invested. The evidence is consistent with hypothetical bias. Hypothetical bias is significantly less pronounced among women, and among investors with greater social capital, proxied by education and wealth. While investment intentions are only partially reliable at the individual level, the aggregate amount of collected investment intentio…