Unlocking the power of the crowd : a case study analysis of the potential of green crowdfunding platforms to accelerate sustainability transitions

Abstract

In light of the ever-increasing urgency to successfully tackle environmental challenges that arise around the globe, growing attention is given to bottom-up approaches such as sustainable grass-root movements, to incubate and foster disruptive change. Yet, despite their salient importance, lack of financial resources has often brought such endeavors to an abrupt halt. More recently, new hopes have been evoked by the practice of online crowdfunding, which has slowly established itself as a new, alternative instrument to help fill the funding gap for grass-root entrepreneurs. Since crowdfunding itself and especially crowdfunding within a sustainability context is currently still an under-researched field, this thesis intents to advance academic understanding thereof by studying the potential of green crowdfunding platforms for accelerating sustainability transitions within the energy regime. Against this background, this paper complements the concepts of the Multi-Level Perspective with Business Ecosystem theory to lay the theoretical groundwork that allows to systematically analyze the case study of the Dutch crowdfunding platform Greencrowd. Findings showcase that Greencrowd acts as leader of its respective ecosystem, aligning and coordinating actors and activities in its immediate environment to enable green entrepreneurs to not only gain access to funding, but, perhaps even more importantly, to secure societal support and grant access to mainstream markets. Due to this dualistic capacity, crowdfunding platforms seem to possess significant potential to accelerate sustainability transitions. Yet, results also illustrate the dependency of this value proposition on financial and political institutions that operate outside the direct control of the crowdfunding platform. Thus, this thesis concludes, that in order to fully exploit their potential, green crowdfunding platforms need to systematically nurture and strengthen their ties with these stakeholders. Entering into close collaborations is regarded as highly beneficial for all involved parties and might form the basis for a new, promising approach towards managing sustainability transitions. Keywords: Sustainability transition, Crowdfunding Platforms, Business Ecosystems, MultiLevel Perspective