... EFFs and stakeholders are guided to adapt their business models, balance institutional pressures, implement CES and evaluate performance. It advocates collaboration within the entrepreneurial finance ecosystem and leveraging opportunities emerging from the pandemic, including new market segments...

.../methodology/approach The paper first identifies and examines the European policies developed to encourage the use of equity crowdfunding in entrepreneurial finance from 2003 to 2018. Then, it reviews national regulatory frameworks for crowdfunding, and analyses the barriers that constrain the growth...