The article emerged in collaboration with his PhD student Eliza Stenzhorn and Dr. Tim Vintis from the University of Bremen.

The authors investigate how investors' motives affect their investment behavior in equity crowdfunding. In particular, the authors compare the investment behavior of sustainability-oriented investors with ordinary crowd investors on six leading equity crowdfunding platforms in Austria and Germany. They evidence that, according to Dorfleitner et al. (2019), default shock in equity crowdfunding usually occurs immediately after the event or when investors become insolvent more than twice. Moreover, by distinguishing between sustainability-oriented and ordinary crowd investors, the authors show that sustainability-oriented investors pledge higher amounts and invest in more campaigns. The results are consistent with the notion that sustainability-oriented investors care about nonfinancial returns because they react more negatively when they experience a default in their portfolio, suggesting that they suffer beyond pure financial loss. The findings contribute to the recent literature on equity crowdfunding, socially responsible investing, and further demonstrate how individual investment motives and personal experiences influence investment decisions.

The full article can be downloaded here.