Tracking the Digital Evolution of Entrepreneurial Finance: The Interplay Between Crowdfunding, Blockchain Technologies, Cryptocurrencies, and Initial Coin Offerings

• A vibrant development is currently taking place in entrepreneurial finance due to the field's digital evolution over recent years. This article aims to assess the interplay between four of the key phenomena that has fuelled this development, namely crowdfunding, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and initial coin offerings (ICOs). By making use of social media analytics, public discussions on social media concerning crowdfunding, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and ICOs have been systematically tracked in social media over three time periods between the May 6, 2017, and October 2, 2018. In doing so, a total of 197 770 captured posts across social media platforms have been collected and analyzed. The results illustrate that discussions on blockchain technologies dominated the interplay in the first analyzed time period, that discussions on cryptocurrencies and ICOs dominated the interplay in the second analyzed time period, while discussions concerning blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and ICOs highly converge in the third time period. By illustrating this shift over the analyzed time periods and by offering a systematic exploration of key characteristics of the interplay at hand, this article adds to previous literature on entrepreneurial finance by providing an empirical contribution which details the coevolution of these phenomena in recent years.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Mänsklig interaktion med IKT (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Human Aspects of ICT (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin

Social networking (online)

Blockchain

initial coin offerings (ICOs)

Entrepreneurship

crowdfunding

Blockchain

Investment

social media analytics (SMA)

Technological innovation

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)