RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Initial Coin Offerings and Entrepreneurial Finance: <em>The Role of Founders’ Characteristics</em>
JF The Journal of Alternative Investments
FD Institutional Investor Journals
SP jai.2019.1.068
DO 10.3905/jai.2019.1.068
A1 An, Jiafu
A1 Duan, Tinghua
A1 Hou, Wenxuan
A1 Xu, Xinyu
YR 2019
UL http://jai.pm-research.com/content/early/2019/03/05/jai.2019.1.068.abstract
AB Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are a new financing instrument that allows start-ups to sell blockchain-based digital tokens for capital on the Internet. This study tests the effects of disclosure of founders’ background information and founding team’s collective human capital on ICO outcomes. We find both the disclosure of founders’ information and founding team’s human capital are associated with better ICO outcomes measured either by the total amount raised or the speed of fundraising. Our results thus highlight the importance of information disclosure and human capital in entrepreneurial finance.