Equity crowdfunding: an open innovation tool to attain corporate sustainability

This study enhances the understanding of equity crowdfunding as an open innovation tool that allows firms to embrace corporate sustainability. Building on grounded theory, we investigate how equity crowdfunding campaigns facilitate stakeholder engagement and trigger sustainability-oriented innovation. In the form of an abductive study, our qualitative inquiry adopts an interpretive stance to collect and analyse data from 17 Italian start-ups and SMEs that successfully completed an equity crowdfunding campaign. We relied on semi-structured interviews administered to managers and investors, in addition to secondary sources of information. As a result, we identify the key mechanisms by which equity crowdfunding enables companies to collect valuable feedback, resources, and market insights. According to the relational view of stakeholder engagement, two-way communication allows knowledge creation and learning, which leads to the development of sustainability-oriented innovations. A conceptual framework is provided to showcase the activity, aim, and impact of stakeholder engagement. Thus, our findings highlight the dual role of investors as financial supporters and strategic partners in driving corporate sustainability. Borrowing stakeholder theory’s dogmas, we contribute to the literature by clarifying the function of equity crowdfunding in triggering stakeholder engagement while pursuing value co-creation. From a practical standpoint, we advise companies, intermediaries, and policymakers through equity crowdfunding’s non-financial benefits exploitation to achieve corporate sustainability.