New financial alternatives per le piccole e medie imprese innovative. Prospettive di sviluppo dell’equity crowdfunding in Italia

This study aims to investigate – in the state of the art and in the practice – the new financial alternatives available for innovative small (and medium) enterprises (SMEs), exploring the future directions of the equity crowdfunding, with a focus on the case of Italy. In the first part of the work, a framework useful for understanding the raison d’être of the new financial alternatives is proposed. In the second part of the research, an attempt was made to find out the key-variables of the Italian equity crowdfunding market. The exploratory nature of the study was maximized through the use of a qualitative approach. The results give directions and encouragement for future research.