The Revolution of Crowdfunding in Social Knowledge Economy: Literature Review and Identification of Business Models

This paper provides a review on crowdfunding in order to identify the state of art in the literature. The review was carried out using Scopus and Web of Science databases from 1960 to 2014. A total of twenty-nine papers were selected and analyzed. The content analysis of the papers highlights a research gap which allows to identify a research question regarding the existing business models supporting the process of crowdfunding. In order to provide an answer to this research question, this paper proposes a taxonomy of crowdfunding business models according to three types of motivations driving people to fund a project: social motivation, material motivation and financial motivation. This taxonomy offers to large firms and also to small and medium enterprises the opportunity to identify a set of business models that can be used to obtain funds and finance their projects.