Aimage's entrepreneurial value creation and crowdfunding: Entrepreneurship in times of crisis

Abstract

The increasing amount of investment through crowdfunding platforms despite the recent global economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has nurtured the interest in how this form of investment can generate non-monetary value for a company. Through the lens of the entrepreneurial value creation (EVC) theory, the present case study demonstrates the development of two key stages of a new venture: (1) formulation and (2) monetization. The study employs a case study approach based on a high-tech company in Italy, namely Aimage. The case demonstrates how Aimage improves entrepreneurial competences by the acquisition of dynamic capabilities through means of a crowdfunding campaign. It shows how to gain not just monetary but also non-monetary benefits, mainly in the form of entrepreneurial knowledge. Moreover, the case of Aimage confirms that crowdfunding brings added value to an entrepreneurial venture in its monetization stage—even when capital is not needed for survival but for overcoming time of crisis—by enhancing its dynamic capabilities and helping to transform entrepreneurial competence into entrepreneurial reward.