Alessia Pedrazzoli

From Nakamoto’s genesis block, 15 years of technological advancements, new financial instruments, regulations, and emerging participants have defined the Crypto Ecosystem. This paper chronicles its development from the creation of Bitcoin to the present-day landscape of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and decentralized finance applications. It explores the foundational technologies, financial instruments, key players, and regulatory frameworks in Europe and the US. By critically assessing the current state of the crypto market, the paper identifies both the promises fulfilled and the challenges that remain. It contributes to the existing literature by providing a synthesized understanding of the crypto ecosystem, highlighting the interplay between technological advancements and financial market dynamics.

The study investigates the effects of ESG washing on banks' reputational exposure. We define ESG washing as a disparity between a bank's environmental and social disclosure level and the practical implementation of the relative measures. The analysis involves an international sample of 120 banks operating across 35 countries from 2014 to 2020. The results evidence a different effect based on the pillar considered: the higher the inconsistency on environmental issues, the higher a bank's reputational exposure. Conversely, higher levels of disclosure compared to performance on social issues appear to reduce reputational exposure. In addition, citizen movements and the country's legal system play a significant role in amplifying or mitigating a bank's reputational exposure. Our findings offer insight into the phenomenon of ESG washing in the banking industry, supporting the need for more verified information across countries and all economic sectors.

Purpose: This study analyses how different forms of online accountability – hierarchical/individualising, hierarchical/calculative and socialising accountability – influence online financing success of non-profit organisations (NPOs).Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on 797 NPOs’ projects listed on three international crowdfunding platforms providing space for NPOs to present, account for and fund social projects.Findings: Results show that accountability forms developed online play significantly different roles in NPOs’ financing. While online hierarchical/individualising and socialising accountability enhance NPO funding, hierarchical/calculative accountability reduces financing success.Research limitations/implications: The empirical analysis is limited to the specific research context. However, the research provides theoretical and practical insights for the accounting literature.Practical implications: The paper recommends that NPOs invest more in explaining their past and future activities rather than reporting on pure financial performances, as this may lead to stakeholders’ perception of mission drift and reduce financing success.Originality/value: This research enhances the understanding of online accountability and its significance in securing financial resources for NPOs by highlighting the necessity of examining various accountability forms individually, as they may serve distinct functions in the financial sustenance of NPOs.

Purpose: The authors investigate the contributions of social capital (SC) dimensions (bridging, bonding and linking) in crowdfunding campaigns by comparing the dynamics of agri-food businesses with those of two other sectors – cultural and technological.Design/methodology/approach: The authors develop linear regressions on a proprietary data set of 5,290 projects launched on the Italian platform “Produzionidalbasso.com”, from 2014 to 2020.Findings: The authors’ findings suggest that combining the three social capital dimensions (bridging, bonding and linking) has a more substantial overall effect on the number of backers involved in agri-food projects than in cultural and technological projects. Agri-food entrepreneurs effectively mobilize all resources embedded in the SC dimensions and therefore create the conditions to develop new ties that financially support the project.Practical implications: Agri-food entrepreneurs may benefit from those results improving their funding strategies. Therefore, agri-food entrepreneurs can explore and exploit the instruments available on the CFD platform – video and rewards associated with the campaign – gaining more benefit from the backers involved compared with other project categories.Originality/value: The study proposes a broader perspective regarding SC that encompasses the proponent, the company and the campaign with three different types of ties: bonding, bridging and linking. These SC dimensions can differently shape diverse sectors and this eclectic configuration can differentiate the effects of SC in crowdfunding campaigns. This study pinpoints how crowdfunding determinants change, based on project categories.

Purpose: Recognising the growing importance of environmental and sustainable activities and the role of communication strategies in soliciting their financing, this work investigates the influence of message framing, green emphasis and quantitative information on the probability of green crowdfunding campaigns' success. Design/methodology/approach: This analysis is based on crowdfunding campaigns published between 2015 and 2020 on the Indiegogo platform in the category “Community projects – Environment”. The study develops an in-depth qualitative content analysis of the projects before performing an empirical examination to determine funding causes. Findings: Communication strategies (message framing, green emphasis and quantitative goals) affect funding success. However, project category moderates the impact of message framing and green emphasis on campaign success. While positive framing increases agri-food campaign success, negative framing is more effective for clean energy and climate preservation projects. Moreover, indication of a quantitative goal and a marked green emphasis in a project's presentation increase campaign success, but a too marked green emphasis is only effective for agri-food projects. Practical implications: Green entrepreneurs and campaign managers must work carefully on their projects' communication, accounting for the type of product proposed, emphasising green components in its description and utilising quantitative information to present future goals. These strategies maximise backers' responses and enable entrepreneurs to obtain funding. The authors’ findings may be extended to other contexts, including the banking sector, to craft effective communication strategies for green financial products. Originality/value: By applying framing theory in a new context (i.e. the online financing of green entrepreneurs), this study identifies new campaign success determinants and provides evidence for the moderating role of project category. Furthermore, the study highlights the need to develop different communication strategies for social and environmental-oriented projects.

Purpose: A network of partners helps and assists a crowdfunding platform (CFP) in scouting, assessing and selecting projects. This cooperation increases the number of successful projects by attracting a sizable number of investors, proponents and attracting marginal investors when a campaign falls short of the threshold for success. This study examines the role of partner networks in a platform ecosystem, specifically in terms of number of different partners and their diversity in the performance of the crowdfunding campaign.Design/methodology/approach: Using logistic and linear regressions, we analyze a sample of 233 projects, both funded and not funded, launched by 10 Italian equity CFPs between 2014 and 2018.Findings: Our findings indicate that the variety of partners in a platform's network influence the probability of campaign success and how much capital the proponent company raises. CFPs are resource-constrained new ventures, and a network with a wider variety of partners ensures the strategic resources and competencies that are required in an early stage market, thus facilitating campaign funding.Practical implications: The variety of partner networks could help CFPs to offer unique and strategic value propositions and define the competitive positioning of platforms.Originality/value: This study provides a deeper understanding of the determinants of equity crowdfunding campaign performance by emphasizing the role of CFP's network of partners on the entire crowdfunding ecosystem and its underlying organizational elements.