An equity crowdfunding research agenda: evidence from stakeholder participation in the rulemaking process

Equity crowdfunding is a unique form of entrepreneurial finance that combines elements of private and public equity. We articulate its distinctive features, then review and qualitatively analyze a large corpus of 540 public comments submitted by stakeholders in response to new US equity crowdfunding regulations. Through a qualitative content analytic approach, we combine actor (issuer, investor, and intermediary) and perspective (relational, behavioral, and technical) dimensions to develop a taxonomy of 18 categories, from which we derive and present unanswered questions and fruitful research directions in this emerging domain.