The dissertation entitled „Funding Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Motivation and Decision making in Crowdfunding” establishes a deeper understanding of motivation and decision making in crowdfunding. So far literature in crowdfunding has treated crowdfunding as a homogeneous practice and thus has failed to emphasize the differences that crowdfunding types entail. Moreover, studies have neglected fundamental success factors such as trust and how trust towards a crowdfunding project is formed. Based on primarily quantitative data, this dissertation investigates “Why and How does the crowd decide to support a crowdfunding project, taking into account the differences among crowdfunding types”. By revealing the motivation and decision making process in crowdfunding this dissertation shows that: (1) crowdfunders’ motivation varies among the different types of crowdfunding (2) decision making is predominately cognitive in equity crowdfunding, whereas both cognitive and affective factors define decision making in loan and presales crowdfunding (3) in equity crowdfunding projects are more likely to get funding if their financial value is perceived as high; in presales functional and emotional values are of upmost importance and finally in loan crowdfunding projects with high financial and emotional value will be successful (4) informational value, namely the utility deriving from the content of the project, i.e. the extent to which given information is indicative, adequate and trustworthy, is important for any kind of crowdfunding and thus fund-seekers need to ensure their projects’ informational value i.e. information quality and completeness is perceived as high (5) overall project trust plays a significant role on crowdfunders decision making (6) crowdfunding platforms are the central trust-building actors as not only they influence crowdfunders’ perceived project trust but also crowdfunders’ perceived trust towards the project creator (7) swift trust and trust transference effects are observed in crowdfunding as crowdfunders who trust the platform tend to trust the fund-seeker since they assume that the platform has employed all necessary internal procedures to screen out and restrict cheaters and opportunists (8) perceived idea feasibility of a crowdfunding project is vital for trust formation and positively associated with investment decisions (9) social capital and collective judgements influence trust formation and investment decision making.