Potential of Crowdfunding for SMEs

Economic growth is increasingly reliant on the growing sharing economy, and the imperative to use SME growth as the bedrock for future economic development. This combination drives new possibilities presented by alternative finance and tech-enabled financial solutions. The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of both lending bankers and SME owner-managers with respect to the potential of crowdfunding solutions in funding start-up SMEs.

This event will be of particular interest to financers, bankers and SMEs.

10am – Registration and refreshments

10.30am – Welcome (Provost, Professor Raffaella Folli)

10.40am – Launch of the Report (Professor Mark Durkin)

10.50am – Key findings from the Report (Professor Anthony Gandy)

11.30am – Q&A

11.45am – Networking and close

Professor Mark Durkin is Executive Dean of the Ulster University Business School. Prior to joining Ulster Mark spent over a decade in various service, sales and strategic marketing roles within the Bank of Ireland Group. His teaching and research focus remains at the marketing / technology interface and he is currently examining digital competency sets for marketing managers and exploring the role of crowdfunding within the SME-Bank relationship. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Institute of Banking and is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy. He has published over 50 peer reviewed academic papers and is an invited scholar to Babson College in Boston and Philadelphia University. He is also part of the ‘World Famous Scientist and Scholars Visit Hubei Programme’ in China.

Professor Anthony Gandy is a visiting professor at The London Institute of Banking & Finance teaching and researching bank strategy, channel strategy and regulation. His primary professional experience is in the conjuncture of bank strategy and technology-driven change and he has worked in these areas for banks and trade press journals and as a consultant to global IT companies and banks. In addition, he publishes on the history of strategy and technological change and holds a PhD from the LSE.