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This study draws on the linguistics literature, which recognizes the role of language attributes in shaping individual behaviour. We theorize that weak-future languages (e.g., Chinese), which create the perception that the future is closer temporally to the present than do strong-future languages (e.g., English), favour future-oriented behaviours such as investment in crowdfunding of entrepreneurial ventures. To test this thesis, we use a mixed-method approach, combining an original dataset of crowdfunding investments in 53 countries (Study 1) and a randomized experiment examining the investment behaviour of 77 bilingual (English-Chinese) students (Study 2). We find that natives of countries with weak-future languages engage more actively in crowdfunding of entrepreneurial ventures compared to individuals from countries with strong-future languages. We find that this effect dominates the stable effect of national culture. In other words, perceiving the future as closer means that the future assumes greater psychological importance for weak-future speakers and, therefore, they enact more future-oriented behaviours.

Entrepreneurs can leverage investor networks generated in the course of equity-based crowdfunding campaigns to obtain extra financial resources. While much is known about how the resources that improve venture success are configured, less attention has been paid to the organisational challenges involved in their utilisation and how to overcome them. These challenges represent an impediment to crowd openness for new ventures. Through an in-depth qualitative study of 60 European equity crowdfunded ventures, we identify the organisational barriers—resource gap, trust gap and information gap—to crowd openness. We also identify specific bridges—coordination technology, crowd stratification, mapping investors’ expertise and network and direct and proactive communication—that reduce these barriers and facilitate engagement with external actors.

The diffusion of crowdfunding among countries differs consistently, based, in part, on differences in national institutional environments. This study analyses the influence of formal and informal institutions in 27 different countries during the 2014–2017 period, on the development of crowdfunding. Our results show that the crowdfunding market – across all the different crowdfunding typologies- is larger in countries characterized by a business-friendly legal environment, and well-developed financial market in the case of lending crowdfunding. Individualistic societies register higher crowdfunding activity across the different typologies; lending crowdfunding is more widespread in countries characterized by higher uncertainty-avoidance and, together with equity crowdfunding, in long-term oriented societies.