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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Investment behavior analysis in equity crowdfunding : A consumer value approach

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Equity crowdfunding is a recent investment mode, opening acces to venture capital to unsophisticated investors. ECF allows platform-based online investment within a virtual community.This research aims to improve understanding of indivual investors financial products consumption, in the ECF context, the so-called crowdinvestors.Building on consumption value theory, this research helps defining ECF-investment value sources for crowdinvestors. It focuses especially on the ‘participation in community’ dimension of ECF as a determinant of various investment behaviors.A litterature review in entrepreneurial finance is presented to define profiles, motivations, investment behaviors and quality signals influencing crowdinvestors’ investment decision.To answer three main research questions, an exploratory study was conducted on 13 members on french ECF platform WiSEED. We put in evidence the difference between the investment experience and the participation in community experienceThus, an empirical study based on a theoretical model is conducted and various PLS analysis are run on a set of 436 surveys answered by WiSEED members. Results show that perceived value of participation experience has a positive and significant influence on perceived value of investment but no influence at all on investment decision.Though, we highlight the central role of individuals’ venture capital expertise both on their investment (amount and number), their engagement within the platform community and their participation experience perceived value. inally, results indicate that perceived risk is not a moderator of the model whereas investor sophistication is.