Innovative Start-Ups and Equity Crowdfunding-Proceedings of 2nd Business Systems Laboratory - International Symposium “Systems Thinking for a sustainable Economy. Advancements in Economic and Managerial Theory and Practice”

The objective of this document is to analyse the development process of innovative start-ups, through the method of existing funds on a national level, with special attention to the 2013 Consob regulations in the theme of equity crowd-funding. Starting with the main characteristics of the start-ups (Osnabrugge 2000; Revest, 2012), including identification of the model of sustainable business that the latter implement for competition on the global market, the typical difficulties of these companies in sourcing loans are explained through the classical models of economic theory on the composition of the very best financial structure. Generated by the vital systemic approach (Golinelli, 2000), start-ups are born and developed within a complex environment, activating interactions of various kinds, in which the ones with important and influential super-systems become very important. From here the development dynamic of these companies is affected by the financial super-system, with which the companies themselves interact, in a search for compatibility and harmony. Furthermore, despite references to the theory of the debt-equity trade-offs (Modigliani & Miller, 1958) and the pecking order theorizations (Myers, 1984; Myers & Majluf, 1984), an important role in literary analysis is played by informative asymmetries (Ackerlof, 1970; Trester, 1998): this is the reason for difficulties in sourcing loans for modern start-ups through the banking system as the start-ups do not have any kind of background on which to base the credit merit and the high technological intensity does not allow for opinions to be expressed on access to some forms of loans. In this perspective, work focuses on the loan methods of innovative start-ups with a view to consonance and resonance among systems, distinguishing between recourse to business angels and to the venture capital funds and the new package of Consob norms (deliberation n. 18592 dated 26th June 2013) that grants newly established companies the possibility of sourcing capital through on-line websites (equity crowd-funding). The main objective of this analysis is to interpret the effects of equity crowd-funding on the development mechanism of innovative start-ups (Teece, 2010) and compared with other methods of existing loans, also in consideration of the increase in norm and tax related intervention supporting these companies. Some examples include the American Jobs Act and the regulations related to venture capital funds for cross border activities. The method of quality related research of work uses an exploratory kind of approach (Hair, et al., 2003), as the objective is to offer the scientific community, as well as operators, with greater understanding of the current methods of development of modern start-ups, with specific reference to funding methods. In this regard, an analysis of literature provides research with the starting point for the introduction of new regulations on equity crowd-funding and material for critical discussions on its effects, that is to say its strong and weak points. Therefore the integration of existing literature on the topic mainly occurs through the observation and analysis of documents, reports, news, journal articles in open sources (Yin, 2003), and also through focus groups with the research team and the analysis of a sufficient number of books. The differential finding of the contribution, compared with existing literature, summarises the main similarities and differences of the financial instruments of the innovative start-ups, highlighting in the new regulation on equity crowd-funding a sustainable financial instrument, capable of affecting the problem of informative asymmetries. In conclusion, the question of the research is the following: Which are the strong and weak points of equity crowdfunding on the development of innovative start-ups?