Time: October 28, 2021 (Thursday) 9:30-11:00 am, 13:30-15:00 pm

Topic: Theory Development for Crowdfunding Success of Start-ups: A Signaling Theory Perspective (morning session)

Toward a Theory of Coworking Space: From a Sociotechnical Theoretic Perspective (afternoon session)

Location: Main Building 317

Speaker: Associate Professor Sunghan RYU, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Speaker Profile:

SUNGHAN RYU is an associate professor at USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry in Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). He is also a research affiliate at Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance of Cambridge Judge Business School, Cambridge University. He held visiting professor positions in University of Southern California, US and Warwick University, UK. Before joining SJTU, he was a postdoctoral fellow at School of Creative Media and Department of Information Systems in City University of Hong Kong. He earned his Ph.D. in IT management from College of Business, KAIST. His research interests include IT innovations in cultural and creative domains and effective information systems applications in the entrepreneurial context. He is the author of the book “Beauty of Crowdfunding: Blooming Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Era.” His academic works appeared in journals including Journal of Strategic Information Systems, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Internet Research, Electronic Markets, Current Issues in Tourism, and Electronic Commerce Research & Applications and were presented at prestigious conferences such as ICIS, HICSS, Annual ICA Conference, and AOM Annual Meeting. He is the recipient of the 47th HICSS Best Paper Award, 2020 SJTU Candlelight Award (2nd Prize), and other multiple grants/awards for both research and teaching.

Introduction to the report:

This study examines how crowdfunding (relative to angel financing) influences subsequent venture capital (VC) investments for startups from a signaling theory perspective. We find that crowdfunded startups and angel-backed startups have no statistically significant difference in receiving subsequent venture capital investments after addressing the potential endogeneity using a bivariate Probit model with the propensity score matching. When considering different startup characteristics, we found startups located in non-VC cluster cities fail to overcome the disadvantage in obtaining subsequent VC investments, even after successful crowdfunding campaigns. Interestingly, corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) tend to favor crowdfunded startups, while independent venture capitalists (IVCs) prefer angel-funded startups. Our study contributes to the IS literature and related disciplines on crowdfunding, and more broadly, the transformative effects of IT-enabled platforms. Practical implications for the role of crowdfunding in the startup finance ecosystem are discussed.

(Organizer: Department of Management Science and Engineering, Research and Academic Exchange Center)