---

Nadine Scholz shows that crowdfunding potentially shortens the development cycle of new products, thus enabling an earlier market entry. Hence, crowdfunding serves as a multifaceted early-stage support instrument for innovation implementation facilitated by the crowd´s resources. It not only provides upfront cash for product development and production, more importantly it enables a firm to show traction through the validation of the market demand that is based on the crowd´s function as information multiplicator generating public exposure and feedback.

---

The Crowdfunding Phenomenon.- Perspectives of Crowdfunding on the Innovation Process.- Research Design for the Empirical Study.- Critical Actors and Their Drivers in the Crowdfunding Ecosystem.- New Dynamics in the Innovation Process.

---

Nadine Scholz received her Master´s degree in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship from Manchester Business School, UK.

---