About the Book

This book offers a comprehensive review of crowdfunding at Higher Education Institutions, both in theory and practice. In addition, it sheds new light on the emerging concept of crowdfunding at Higher Education Institutions and presents an overview of current academic discussions and best practices regarding crowdfunding in education.

Approaching crowdfunding from an integrated perspective, the book explores the relationship between crowdfunding and higher education institutions from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

The theory part outlines why higher institutions should interact with crowdfunding platforms beyond the goal of simply raising funds. It continues to define science crowdfunding and education crowdfunding and provides a literature review of education crowdfunding. It follows with an outline of teaching alternative finance theory.

The practice part consists of an attempt to develop a core curriculum for teaching crowdfunding, with cases stemming from university education as well as professional education. Two contributions deal with the implementation of crowdfunding platforms at universities. Furthermore, crowdfunding is then connected to non-fungible tokens used to alleviate student debt. Lastly, crowdfunding is put into the context of crowdsourcing practices.

It includes contributions from international academics, scholars and professionals in the field and provides a global, multidimensional perspective on crowdfunding. Lastly, the book is unique in that it points the way forward, both for policymakers and for the research community, in terms of thinking about crowdfunding at Higher Education Institutions and the complex issues surrounding its development.

About the Author: Regina Lenart-Gansiniec is an Associate Professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. As a scientist, she conducts research within strategic management, focused on organizational learning and knowledge management, and crowdsourcing. Her interest as well as the research projects granted by National Science Centre in Poland and European Commission include higher education. She is reviewer and member of the Editorial Board of many recognized scientific journals and scientific conferences in Poland and in the world (Scopus, Web of Science). She is the Editor-in-Chief of "International Journal of Contemporary Management". Regina is a member of European Group for Organizational Studies, and International Society for Professional Innovation Management.
Karsten Wenzlaff is the founder of the Institute of Communications for Social Media (ikosom), a Berlin-based research facility for new forms of electronic technology in Germany. His research focuses on alternative finance, FinTech and crowdfunding, in particularly civic crowdfunding and corporate crowdfunding. He teaches undergraduates and conducts his research at the Chair for Digital Markets at the University of Hamburg (Germany). He is also a research affiliate with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the Judge Business School (UK) and the European Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands).
Sebastian Spaeth holds the Chair of Management & Digital Markets at the University of Hamburg (Germany). He teaches courses in general business administration, strategy, knowledge and innovation management. Together with his team, he conducts research in the field of technology and innovation management, with a focus on cross-company and collaborative innovation. His research interests also include the digitalisation of our economy and our private lives with all its challenges and implications.