Crowdfunding constitutes one of the financial solutions to achieve the sustainable development goals, by fostering innovation and economic growth. This paper conducts an empirical two-country analysis (the UK and Spain) of characteristics of successful offerings to assess the distribution of overfunding in equity crowdfunding. Unlike previous research, which has usually comprised campaigns posted on single-country portals, our study is based on an international leading platform operating with country-differentiated websites, Crowdcube. Such an approach allows us to identify influential factors which are dependent on country and, simultaneously, to control for those platform-related factors. To focus on the overfunding distribution, a quantile regression methodology is adopted for a total sample of 299 overfunded campaigns from 2015 to 2018. Overall, empirical results show that the effects of key campaign features (equity, voting rights and social capital) are stronger and more significant at the 75th and 90th quantiles for the overfunding level and the number of investors. Furthermore, we find significant differences across countries, which persist along the distributions of overfunding. Yet, interestingly, between-country differences in overfunding level vanish for the technological sector. Our research provides further insights into the relation between equity crowdfunding and sustainable finance.

In this paper, we investigate rewards-based crowdfunding as an innovative financing form for startups and firms. Based on game-theory models under asymmetric information, we test research hypotheses about the positive effects of two main campaign features: funding target and number of rewards. Furthermore, we examine how and when these characteristics are effective in attracting crowdfunders, by signaling high-quality projects (target) and by pricing according to backers’ preferences (rewards). Conditional process analysis is applied to a dataset of 1613 projects launched on the Spanish platform Verkami from 2015 to 2018. As expected, our study shows that market size is positively influenced by the target and the number of rewards, separately. Further analysis gives some interesting findings. Firstly, we find significant and positive mediating roles of social networks (in the relationship between target and market size) and of backers’ preferences (between rewards and market size). Secondly, the main orientation of a campaign, commercial or social, is relevant to explain previous relationships. While high funding targets are more effective in commercial projects, a high number of rewards is more effective in the social projects. This research provides new insights into the design of optimal crowdfunding, with theoretical and empirical implications.

The World Bank has an explicit commitment to financing projects aimed at ensuring access to drinking water and sanitation (SDG 6), given their implications for countries' development. The objective of this study is to analyse its performance over the past decades, in order to understand the evolution of the allocated amount and the distribution across countries, as well as its link to water and health indicators. To that purpose, 546 projects promoted by the institution between 2000 and 2022 have been analysed. The results confirm that access to water and sanitation has been a priority in the actions undertaken by the multilateral institution, especially since the adoption of the MDGs, contributing to the improvement of water services in recipient countries in different territorial contexts. However, the resources managed by the institution are concentrated in a limited number of economies and not always in those most in need, which present high child mortality rates and low‐income levels. Governance conditions and the predominance of repayable instruments limit access to financing for countries with lower borrowing capacity, despite their significant needs. This situation calls for the World Bank, based on its experience and commitment, to implement new and innovative financing instruments, particularly targeted at low‐income countries, where a fundamental human right essential to human life has still not been guaranteed.

Este estudio analiza el impacto de los factores determinantes del nivel de sobrefinanciación en las campañas de crowdfunding de recompensas. En particular, se analizan las características de los proyectos lanzados en la plataforma española, Verkami, que consiguen recaudar más financiación que el objetivo primero establecido (proyectos sobrefinanciados). Los resultados de nuestro análisis empírico sugirieron un impacto positivo significativo de los factores que aportan información y reducen el riesgo percibido por los mecenas: las actualizaciones y videos que comunican la idea y el propósito del proyecto, y las características de los emprendedores como su experiencia en el lanzamiento de proyectos previos o su participación en otras campañas de crowdfunding. Finalmente, se analiza el grado de heterogeneidad sectorial de la muestra. Los resultados indican que los proyectos que pertenecen a sectores como Entretenimiento y Literatura atraen un mayor número de mecenas, lo que muestra la diversidad en las preferencias y motivaciones de los mecenas a la hora de participar en las campañas de crowdfunding.

Uno de los grandes cambios que la entrada en el EEES supuso para los docentes fue la introducción de la enseñanza por competencias. Varios años después de ello, este trabajo analiza, mediante entrevistas al profesorado, el grado en el que los docentes ponen en marcha este sistema, esto es, el tipo de actividades que se realizan para fomentar el trabajo autónomo del alumnado y su desarrollo competencial y cómo se realiza la evaluación del mismo. Igualmente, analizamos la opinión general sobre este modelo y la necesidades que los docentes perciben para la puesta en marcha de este tipo de enseñanza. Los resultados nos muestran que aún queda mucho trabajo por hacer en este sentido y que es necesaria una mayor cantidad de recursos y formación para su correcta implementación