Nascent Entrepreneurs and Internet Based Crowd Funding: An examination of barriers in practice

Background Internet Enabled Crowdfunding (IECF) is evolving fast to become a global phenomenon and has an increasingly important role for the seed financing of Nascent Entrepreneurs. Although Crowdfunding is growing in popularity, basic academic knowledge in understanding of the general phenomena is still necessary. Academic and policy attention is drawn to the high growth "Gazelle's" rather than the more typical entrepreneur who starts from an under privileged position, using their own savings to start a low-productivity firm in a highly competitive market. A number of non-economic aspects appear to be impacting on the IECF process. Aim The aim of this paper is to explore the barriers to finance for Nascent Entrepreneurs in the context of internet-based crowd funding. While the advantages of IECF are documented, for many potential entrepreneurs, it can be source of new barriers or a new learning environment. The debates around problems faced by nascent entrepreneurs are reviewed and the impact of IECF is considered. Research Approach The review is carried out via the use of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The particular approach to the SLR used in this study is explained. The paper then explores the findings outlining themes emerging from the review and discussing the emerging barriers under those themes. Contribution This paper positions the phenomenon of IECF against the landscape and context of Nascent Entrepreneurs and explores the barriers that face Nascent Entrepreneurs in their start up journey. Research suggests a lack of access to funding as being a fundamental problem faced by Nascent Entrepreneurs. But this paper goes beyond the identification of traditional barriers and focusses on issues that are emerging because of the innovative use of web 2.0. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the role and impacts that Web 2.0 and social media is having on the access to finance for nascent entrepreneurs. This paper concludes with implications of the emergence of new barriers for Nascent Entrepreneurs. Future research questions are proposed based on emergent themes.