产品众筹的信息作用研究--基于风投对初创企业的投资

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have made important contributions to China’s innovative development. However, due to the small number of assets and the high risk of innovative projects, it is difficult for SMEs to attract external capital at the beginning of their establishment. As an innovative way of financing, reward-based crowdfunding has experienced rapid development in recent years with government support. The existing research on crowdfunding focuses on its financing role, and pays little attention to its informational role, i.e., as signals for the product demand, the information from the crowdfunding platform can facilitate the decision making of the venture capital investors (VC). However, venture capital plays an irreplaceable role in the development of SMEs, considering that the crowdfunding projects usually have smaller financing scales. Therefore, studying the impact of the informational value of crowdfunding on VCs’ investment decisions and SMEs’ financing decisions is very important to fully understand the impact of crowdfunding on the social economy. This project will comprehensively apply theoretical research and empirical research methods, focusing on how the informational value of crowdfunding affects the VCs’ investment decisions and the SMEs’ financing decisions, as well as exploring how such impact depends on the characteristics of crowdfunding projects and the accuracy of information on crowdfunding platforms, as well as the intensity of competition between the VCs. The project attempts to contribute to the research of crowdfunding theory and provide suggestions and management opinions on the financing decisions of SMEs, the investment decisions of VCs, and the financial regulatory authorities’ decision on which crowdfunding platform to support.

中小企业为我国建设创新型国家做出了重要贡献，但由于资产数量较少且创新项目面临风险较高，在创立初期很难吸引外部资本。作为一种创新互联网融资方式，产品众筹在近几年得到了政府扶持和快速发展。现有研究对众筹的讨论多集中于它的融资功能，极少关注它作为产品需求的信号，对风投机构（VC）的决策影响，即它的信息作用。但相比融资规模较小的众筹项目，风险资本对中小企业的发展具有不可替代的重要作用。因此，研究众筹信息作用对VC投资决策和初创企业融资决策的影响，对充分了解众筹对社会经济的影响非常重要。本项目将综合应用理论研究和实证研究的方法，聚焦众筹的信息作用如何影响VC的投资策略和初创企业的融资策略，并探讨这种影响如何依赖于众筹产品特征、众筹平台的信息准确度，以及VC之间的竞争。本项目试图对众筹理论研究做出贡献，对中小企业的融资决策、VC的投资决策、和金融监管部门应当扶持怎样的众筹平台的决策提出建议和管理见解。

作为一种创新互联网融资方式，产品众筹在近几年得到了政府扶持和快速发展。现有研究对众筹的讨论多集中于它的融资功能，极少关注它作为产品需求的信号，对风投机构（VC）的决策影响，即它的信息作用。本项目研究众筹的信息作用如何影响VC的投资策略和初创企业的融资策略，并探讨这种影响如何依赖于众筹产品特征、众筹平台的信息准确度，以及VC之间的竞争。. 通过理论建模，本研究发现存在众筹平台时，VC倾向于推迟投资时间以通过众筹平台获得更多初创企业的信息。这种延迟的存在会使得初创企业获得VC投资的机会降低。而当VC之间存在着竞争时，为了抢占先机，上述延迟投资的行为动机被减弱，因此VC之间的竞争对初创企业有利。并且在VC之间存在竞争时，众筹平台的影响力被减弱。众筹平台的存在对VC的影响较为复杂，与VC之间的竞争、众筹平台的特征及初创企业的特征都有关。例如当初创企业项目本身质量较高（成功的回报较高，失败的损失较少）时，众筹平台的存在对VC无害。本项目的研究首次揭示了VC之间的竞争对众筹平台发挥作用的影响，对众筹平台的信息作用进行了更全面的探索。研究结果还提出了众筹平台能让初创企业和VC双赢的条件，并指出了怎样的众筹平台有利于初创企业的发展，对初创企业、投资企业和政策指定者的决策有指导意义。