Call for papers European Centre for Alternative Finance Conference 2021
Community Finance and Ownership
The ECAF Research Conference 2021 will take place on 5 Octobre 2021 at Utrecht University. This year’s conference features the special topic on the role of community finance in the landscape of financial innovation.
Key note speakers
This year we have invited two renowned keynote speakers: Richard Harries, Associate Director at the Institute for Community Studies and Tine De Moor, Professor Social Enterprise and Institutions for Collective Action at the Rotterdam School of Management.
Topics
This year’s conference features the special topic on the role of community finance in the landscape of financial innovation. We welcome the submission of rigorous quantitative, qualitative and/or theoretical studies related to alternative finance and fintech from an economic, law, sociological or other perspective, focussing on but not limited to:
- Impact of new forms of alternative finance on innovation, entrepreneurship, and employment
- Special topic: Community finance and ownership, including Employee ownership and New (community) finance and business models for energy transition
- Fintech and its impact on financing SMEs (e.g. central bank digital currencies, tokenization, computer science approaches in alternative finance)
- Relationships between new and traditional entrepreneurial finance providers
- Role of regulation and other formal or informal institutions (e.g. new European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regime – ESCP)
- Psychology and behaviour of retail investors
- Financial and entrepreneurial ecosystems for new forms of alternative finance (incl. financial advisors)
- Civic crowdfunding and match-funding for public and non-profit projects (including arts and culture)
- Combining European Structural Funds investments with crowdfunding
Paper submissions and deadlines
Abstracts for papers of up to 300 words (in English) on the above-mentioned topics should be sent to ecaf@uu.nl before 15-07-2021. The submitted abstract will be reviewed by a scientific committee. Notification of acceptance will be given by 30-07-2021.
Prior to the conference (15-09-2021) full papers need to be submitted (~10.000 words). Submissions should ideally be structured as follows:
- Introduction (Problem definition, research gap and objective)
- Theoretical foundation
- Methodology / empirical research context
- Finding/results
- Implications for entrepreneurial finance research and practice
Every paper accepted for presentation will be assigned a discussant who provides in-depth feedback.
Hybrid conference (online and physical)
Please note that due to expected travel restrictions for some regions this conference will be held in a hybrid format: Online participation and physical participation are both possible. We are looking forward to seeing you in real life or virtually.
Information in brief
Website and registration: www.uu.nl/ecaf
Contact: Wanxiang Cai, Thomas Walther, Ronald Kleverlaan and Friedemann Polzin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanCentreforAlternativeFinance
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ECAF_UU
Hashtag: #eafrc2021