A Comparative Analysis of Crowdfunding in Poland and Romania

Abstract

Given the difficulty to access traditional bank funding by creative businesses and start-ups, crowdfunding as an alternative way to finance innovative and creative projects has been adopted, enacted and successfully used by several Western countries, which can serve as best practice examples. However, in many countries crowdfunding is still an emerging phenomenon due to its novelty and variety, the general awareness regarding this alternative funding method being relatively low. The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which Poland and Romania, the two largest Central and Eastern European member states, have adopted and used crowdfunding to support innovative and creative projects and to assess the sustainability of such a novel funding method in the respective countries. The objective of the comparative analysis is to determine how the existing legal framework supports the implementation of crowdfunding activities and what crowdfunding types are being used in each country based on the existing local crowdfunding platforms, to identify and explain the main strengths and weaknesses of each of the two markets, as well as to provide a set of measures and proposals that can be adopted by the two countries in order to promote and enhance the crowdfunding phenomenon, which we argue is a factor that ensures business sustainability in creative and innovative activities carried out especially by start-up companies. Apart from the empirical analysis of legislation and platforms, the research methodology includes a survey among business students and fresh graduates of business schools, the purpose of which being to assess the level of awareness of young entrepreneurs-to-be regarding this funding method.