Sustainability Signals in Dutch Crowdlending

Dutch crowdlending is a major source of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) finance, yet sustainability information on platforms is fragmented and largely voluntary. This creates an information asymmetry: investors cannot easily assess projects on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aspects, while platforms and SMEs miss opportunities to signal impactful sustainability propositions and attract capital. Building on the Financieel‑Economische Innovatie (FEI) partners, this postdoc investigates how private and professional investors interpret and use sustainability signals in crowdlending.
The research question is “how do crowdlending investors interpret and use sustainability signals in decision-making?”. It focuses on the investor perspective in sustainable non-bank finance research which is underexplored. It investigates how SMEs and crowdlending platforms can better communicate sustainability proposition to attract funding and how students can be trained to support SMEs in making signals more credible and comparable. Creating benefits to the SME finance ecosystem.
First, the project maps how ESG signals are currently presented across Dutch platforms and explores what investors consider credible and decision‑useful. Second, it quantifies which signals drive attention and investment choices using an experiment with eye-tracking methods and real platform cases. Third, it creates educational materials that help University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (HU) bachelor and master students support SMEs with voluntary sustainability reporting.
The trajectory strengthens the research line on (non‑bank) SME finance within HU’s Lectoraat Financieel‑Economische Innovatie and delivers durable embedding through curriculum integration in Accountancy, International Business and the Master Sustainable Business Transition. By improving ESG transparency and investor decision-making understanding, the project supports a more trustworthy and effective crowdlending ecosystem for the sustainability transition.