The future of crowdfunding research and practice

This chapter critically reflects on current crowdfunding research and practice while highlighting eight dilemmas that are expected to shape the future of crowdfunding. Each dilemma is critically discussed and is followed by relevant suggestions for future research. These dilemmas include: (1) the balance between idealism and pragmatism; (2) the extent of cooperation between crowdfunding platforms and traditional financial institutions; (3) measurement of crowdfunding success and performance in financial and socio-economic terms; (4) the balance between quantity and quality in campaigns approved for publication by platforms; (5) domestic versus international growth of crowdfunding platforms; (6) manoeuvring between facilitation of collective decisions as crowd wisdom while avoiding crowd madness, as well as intentional and unintentional harmful crowd behaviour; (7) the focus of platforms’ technological developments in terms of efficiency gains versus community support; and (8) the balance between informing the public and constraining our understanding of crowdfunding in educational efforts.