Can crowd wisdom - and funding - enhance regional innovation and entrepreneurship? Evidence to inform policy.

创新和创业活动往往集中在少数几个地区，这是由于创始人所在地、融资和风险资本网络的可及性以及监管环境的差异。众筹等新的融资形式与新的金融监管相结合，有可能鼓励传统集群之外的创业，从而增加经济增长的空间分布。特别是，被传统融资渠道忽视的有抱负的企业家可能更有可能得到支持。同样，不被允许投资风险企业的小投资者现在可以从成功的初创企业中获得一小部分利润。此外，以对活动的回应形式出现的群众反馈，有可能更快地突出好主意，淘汰坏主意。在绘制和描述了众筹的分布和特征之后，本研究发展了理论，并（如果可能的话）检验了众筹如何影响企业形成和生存、风险投资、（贫富）地区之间的投资、专利、科学研究、就业和产业集中度等许多现象的机制。政策制定者支持众筹，希望它能将机会传播给更广泛的社会群体。本研究最终试图回答众筹是否可以减少获得启动资金的地区不平等。Kickstarter和Indiegogo等互联网平台为活动寻求支持和建议，并为本项目提供数据。为了确定众筹的传播和影响，本研究考察了众筹对区域经济的影响，并表明在硅谷、波士顿和纽约等传统的风险投资堡垒之外，众筹相对较高。此外，众筹成功的地区，其活动达到了融资目标，随后吸引了更多的风险投资资金。这种效应在技术活动成功的地区尤其明显（相对于艺术和戏剧活动）。本研究考虑了众筹对创造就业、就业、创业和行业集中度的影响，并通过深入了解众筹的机制、收益和回报分配，为政策提供信息。

Innovative and entrepreneurial activity tends to be clustered in a few regions due to founder locations, access to financing and venture capital networks, and differences in regulatory environment. New forms of financing, such as crowdfunding, combined with new financial regulations, have the potential to encourage entrepreneurship outside of traditional clusters, thereby increasing the spatial distribution of economic growth. In particular, aspiring entrepreneurs that are overlooked by traditional sources of finance might be more likely to receive support. Likewise, small investors that have not been allowed to invest in risky ventures can now seek a small share of the profits of successful startups. Furthermore, crowd feedback, in the form of a response to a campaign, has the potential to highlight good ideas and winnow bad ideas more quickly. After mapping and describing the distribution and characteristics of crowdfunding, this research develops theory and (causally if possible) tests the mechanisms for how crowdfunding could impact many phenomena including firm formation and survival, venture capital investment, investment between (rich and poor) regions, patenting, scientific research, employment, and industry concentration. Policy makers have supported crowdfunding in the hope that it will spread opportunity to a wider segment of society. TThis research ultimately seeks to answer the question of whether crowdfunding can reduce regional inequality in access to startup capital.Internet platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, ask for support and advice for campaigns and provide the data for this project. To establish the spread and impact of crowdfunding, this research investigates its impact on regional economies and demonstrates that crowdfunding is relatively higher outside of traditional bastions of venture capital investment such as Silicon Valley, Boston, and New York. Furthermore, regions with successful crowdfunding, where campaigns reach their funding goals, subsequently draw in greater venture capital funding. This effect is particularly strong for regions with successful technology campaigns (as opposed to art and theatre campaigns). This research considers the impact of crowdfunding on job creation, employment, venture start up, and industry concentration and informs policy by providing insight into the mechanisms, benefits, and distribution of returns from crowdfunding.