Ethan Mollick, a professor and researcher at Wharton, recently published new research on Kickstarter. Mollick focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation and is one of a few academians focusing their attention on alternative finance. His most recent research, entitled “Containing Multitudes: The Many Impacts of Kickstarter Funding” addresses the economic impact created by the rewards-based crowdfunding platform. According to Mollick’s research of 61,654 successful Kickstarter projects:
- For every dollar generated by Kickstarter, $2.46 in additional revenue is generated outside the campaign
- From platform launch to May of 2015, Kickstarter projects have created approximately 5,135 full time jobs
- During the same time fram, approximately 160,425 temporary positions were created
- Projects helped to launch 2,601 patent applications
Additionally, project creators reported ancillary benefits of doing crowdfunding campaigns including positive impacts on their careers.
Positive economic catalysts are important. This is something that benefits us all. It is good to be able to qualify some of the positive benefits. Hopefully Mollick’s next project will be researching the benefits of investment crowdfunding.
See the research below.
You may download – Mollick, Ethan R., Containing Multitudes: The Many Impacts of Kickstarter Funding (July 11, 2016) at SSRN.
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