Investigation of Impact of Crowdfunding Websites on Improving Entrepreneurship Skills of the UK Graduates

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate whether that crowdfunding websites can improve entrepreneurship skills of the UK graduates. The most important matter for the entrepreneurs is to have a reliable way to raise funds. Since most graduate entrepreneurs are individuals or small organizations, they need to find a reliable and easy way for their financing.
Crowdfunding is becoming a general financing way for individuals or small companies. The advantages of crowdfunding for graduate entrepreneurs are low cost, fast earning, get feedback, test the public’s reaction, and get loyal customers, etc. These advantages are seen more specifically when they are compared with traditional financing ways, such as bank loans, venture capital, Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG), and angel invest etc. A questionnaire was designed online and hard copy, random UK students were asked to respond to the questionnaire. The online questionnaire was sent online from 20th February to 20th March, 2016. The hardcopy questionnaire was distributed on 12th, 15th, and 19th March, 2016. 457 questionnaires were collected and 450 were effective. It was found that there is no evidence to prove that the crowdfunding websites can promote the students’ entrepreneurship skills.