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

2019

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