Creating Complementarities: How Entrepreneurs Mobilize Crowdfunding and Local Ecosystems

Strategic Organization (Forthcoming).

54 Pages Posted: 3 May 2022

See all articles by Stephan Manning

Stephan Manning

University of Sussex Business School

Madeleine Rauch

Copenhagen Business School

Stanislav Vavilov

University of Massachusetts Boston

Date Written: March 30, 2022

Abstract

Entrepreneurs increasingly tap into both spatial and digital resource environments to mobilize critical resources in support of new ventures. Yet we know surprisingly little about how entrepreneurs make joint use of these environments. Linking the recent debate on spatial and digital affordances to the resource mobilization literature, this study examines how entrepreneurs mobilize critical resources from local ecosystems and the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in complementary ways. We discuss two strategies of resource mobilization: (1) The circular strategy, which is mainly applied by social ventures, leverages community narratives and support for crowdfunding campaigns to strengthen and expand the very community support the campaigns are based on. (2) The cumulative strategy, which is mainly applied by commercial high-tech ventures, mobilizes the symbolic value of local institutional ties to attract crowdfunding backers, and uses crowdfunding success to attract new resource-holders in local ecosystems. Our findings contribute to research on entrepreneurial resource mobilization and our understanding of the interplay of spatial and digital affordances.

Keywords: resource mobilization, affordances, complementarity, entrepreneurial ecosystems, crowdfunding

Suggested Citation

Manning, Stephan and Rauch, Madeleine and Vavilov, Stanislav, Creating Complementarities: How Entrepreneurs Mobilize Crowdfunding and Local Ecosystems (March 30, 2022). Strategic Organization (Forthcoming). , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4070374

Stephan Manning (Contact Author)

University of Sussex Business School ( email )

Sussex House
Falmer
Brighton, Sussex BNI 9RH
United Kingdom

Madeleine Rauch

Copenhagen Business School ( email )

Stanislav Vavilov

University of Massachusetts Boston ( email )

100 William T Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA 02125
United States

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