IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijesbu/v46y2022i4p483-504.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Crowdfunding in Italy - an exploration of chances and challenges for women entrepreneurs

Author

Listed:
  • Stefanie Pakura
  • Federica Maria Raiti
  • Verena Meyer

Abstract

Crowdfunding is supposed to 'democratise' the entrepreneurship funding process, as it provides access for women entrepreneurs and investors to participate. In Italy, the barriers for the participation of women in entrepreneurship, especially with regard to funding, are particularly high. In this challenging context, crowdfunding is a promising alternative, which we explore with a context-specific study from a cultural gendering perspective. Findings reveal that the interviewed crowdfunding experts and women entrepreneurs believe that, in crowdfunding, only the idea and personal commitment count, while gender does not. Interestingly, results illustrate several barriers for women entrepreneurs in practice. Overall, crowdfunding structures in Italy currently reveal gender-based barriers, but have the potential to create a more 'open space' of entrepreneurship in the future. While crowdfunding might not be the allegedly gender-neutral environment that it is often illustrated as, it might open up the path for more women-led businesses to succeed in acquiring financial resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefanie Pakura & Federica Maria Raiti & Verena Meyer, 2022. "Crowdfunding in Italy - an exploration of chances and challenges for women entrepreneurs," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 46(4), pages 483-504.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:46:y:2022:i:4:p:483-504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=124791
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:46:y:2022:i:4:p:483-504. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=74 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.