The role of location in the emergence of crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is an innovative and fastly growing way of financing for entrepreneurial firms. England is the leading country in crowdfunding. Yet no research exists that compare different cities of UK with regard to the conditions of crowdfunding emergence. In this article we shed some light on this question. We have found that cities with better access to ultrafast broadband among households and cities with greater number of people with higher education have significantly better results in crowdfunding. Further we find that entrepreneurs in these cities select lower crowdfunding targets and are more likely to publish a spotlight about their ideas suggesting that entrepreneurs in these cities understand the importance of imperfect information and signalling (direct and indirect) in crowdfunding. We also discuss these findings in light of crowdfunding theories.