The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish people’s level of knowledge about crowdfunding and their incentives and deterrents to crowdfunding investments. Early on crowdfunding was divided into two objectives: reward based and equity based crowdfunding. The division of objectives is logical due to the differencing conditions of the motivation for investors to invest. Supported by theories in crowdfunding incentives, commitment-trust, the prospect theory, and the diffusion of innovations, we aim to establish a comprehensive line of reasoning to support our model of motivation in the conclusive chapter.

The results of this essay were achieved by a combined method. A quantitative survey tended to give us a sense of how well known the crowdfunding phenomenon is amongst the Swedish people. It was followed by a qualitative study consisting of interviews with crowdfunding investors with aim to understand their incentives and deterrents. The interviews served as the basis for our analysis.

Our analysis reveals that the incentives to invest differ between equity based and reward based crowdfunding. The major common incitement was trusting the entrepreneur behind the project, rather than a neat investment prospectus. The seminal crowdfunding deterrent is ignorance. Today, the Swedish people are unknowing of the phenomenon and its significance.