Crowdlending, Self-Employment, and Entrepreneurial Performance

Douglas Cumming and Ahmed Sewaid

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2025, vol. 49, issue 2, 403-434

Abstract: Access to finance is crucial for sustaining entrepreneurial activity. Elaborating on resource dependence theory, we argue that the adverse impact of a loan rejection by a crowdlending platform is more severe than that of a rejection by a traditional financial institution. The data indicate that a failed crowdlending loan attempt is associated with a 14.80% increase in the probability of transitioning out of self-employment. This effect is 1.62 times that of revolving lines of credit and 3.08 times that of non-revolving lines of credit. We highlight that these effects are amplified for marginal borrowers and credit- and income-constrained entrepreneurs. In addition, we show that successful crowdlending enhances self-employed individuals’ future income and future access to traditional lines of credit. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Keywords: crowdlending; entrepreneurship; fintech; self-employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:49:y:2025:i:2:p:403-434

DOI: 10.1177/10422587241270596

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