Abstract:

In the hereby article the business appeal of ventures of sustainable character is examined. Sustainability, a hot topic in recent years, has dominated the discussions of the public sphere and, increasingly, the actions of entrepreneurs. The search for collective values that are relevant to a common future makes it possible to think of sustainability goals in terms of the common good. By defining sustainable development goals and legislatively enforcing pro-environmental or pro-social behaviour of market actors, the idea of the common good, which supranational institutions seek to use for the implementation of sustainable development goals, becomes not only a moral value, but also a market value. Crowdfunding, by its very nature, appealing to and building on shared values - building a community - a 'crowd', is often used to finance sustainable ventures. The research shows that the motivation of those supporting sustainable projects is changing. The aim of this article is to answer the question of whether the values inherent in sustainable projects strengthen or weaken their investment value. The main research question is: does 'sustainability' pay off? As an example of sustainable projects crowdfunded in the form of equity crowdfunding, projects with a primarily environmental and climate tech dimension were examined. Early studies of the use of crowdfunding for sustainable projects and businesses show that reward-based crowdfunding is often the funding model of choice. In contrast, research in recent years shows the opposite trend, with investment crowdfunding increasingly being the form of funding of choice for such projects. This gives sustainable projects a decidedly business-like character, as the financial innovation that is investment crowdfunding is pro-profit. As the research shows - this coincides with the motivation of crowdfunding investors, for whom 'supporting industries you believe in' is more important than 'high returns'.