Women in Alternative Finance : Exploring the Benefits of Equity Crowdfunding

This book focuses on equity crowdfunding in order to shed light on female entrepreneurship. Global awareness of gender inequality has resulted in international efforts to alleviate disparities and promote women's growth. This book draws academics, policymakers, and practitioners' attention to equity crowdfunding as a good environment for female entrepreneurs to overcome gender gaps and establish a more inclusive and fair financial landscape. While women are often found to be at a disadvantage when compared to male counterparts in traditional credit markets, the book's our empirical evidence suggests that this is not the case for alternative funding channels such as crowdfunding. The book's distinguishing feature is its emphasis on the equity crowdfunding market, which could be viewed as the ideal environment for developing and growing female entrepreneurial skills. From this perspective, the book provides a clear recommendation to policymakers on how to support women in alternative finance, by providing more specific and detailed rules and action plans focusing on this topic. Contents About the Authors List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction References 2 Women in Entrepreneurial Finance: The Academic Perspective 2.1 The Structural Factors 2.2 The Psychological-Social Factors 2.2.1 Empirical Evidence on Gender Funding Gap in Entrepreneurial Finance 2.3 The EU Initiatives Supporting Female Entrepreneurs 2.4 G7 Initiatives References 3 Women in Alternative Finance: A Focus on the Equity Crowdfunding 3.1 Crowdfunding Overview 3.1.1 Types of Crowdfunding 3.2 Specific Features of the Equity Crowdfunding 3.3 The Theory and the Empirical Evidence on the Role of Women in the Equity Crowdfunding References 4 An Empirical Investigation on the Italian Context 4.1 The Italian Equity Crowdfunding Context 4.2 The Italian Regulation 4.3 The Empirical Analysis 4.3.1 Sample and Data Sources 4.3.2 Variables 4.3.3 Univariate Analysis 4.3.4 Estimation Model and Results 4.4 Main Implications of Results References 5 Conclusions References Index