Crowdfunding and Proactive Environmental Strategies in the Organizational Life Cycle

In some instances, a crowdfunding campaign marks the inception of an entrepreneurial journey; in others, it is launched during periods of business growth or maturity to explore the creation of a new product or to secure funding for a new venture. This chapter aims to analyze crowdfunding in the context of an organization's life cycle. From the standpoint of environmental sustainability, a crowdfunding campaign may either be a preliminary experiment in an organization's project planning or be part of an already well-established trajectory. In this context, it becomes pertinent to understand the initiatives the organization has undertaken. Specifically, the chapter presents and discusses the results of a survey conducted among companies that have launched reward-based crowdfunding campaigns to understand what circular strategies they have adopted. The responses gathered from the survey reveal that for both existing companies that have employed crowdfunding in their business strategy, and those founded following a crowdfunding campaign, sustainability issues serve as a distinguishing feature rather than a fleeting interest.