Strat. Change 23: 493–506 (2014) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jsc.1991 RESEARCH ARTICLE Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Strategic Change: Briefngs in Entrepreneurial Finance Strategic Change DOI: 10.1002/jsc.1991 Brand Identity Process of Financial Cooperatives: An Austrian Case 1 Laurence Attuel-Mendès Burgundy School of Business, Dijon, France Cornelia Caseau Burgundy School of Business, Dijon, France Mihaela Bonescu Burgundy School of Business, Dijon, France In a context of global crisis and increasing unemployment, each venture that is able to create jobs is welcome. In developing countries, entrepreneurship is some- times the only way to survive and to try to get out of poverty (Chang, 2010). However, access to credit through formal channels is quite impossible because those populations do not meet banks’ risk requirements — such as collateral. Although many features seem to oppose poor people in the less developed regions to start-ups in rich countries, these usually face similar difculties in accessing funding. Somehow, entrepreneurship and more specifcally start-ups are com- monly perceived as a matter for rich people aiming to increase their wealth. In contrast, the poor are at the opposite end of the scale. Nevertheless, their need for funds is pervasive and remains a big issue for each start-up. Alternative channels of funding are then used: microfnance institutions (MFIs) for the poor in addi- tion to traditional ‘love’ money (i.e., money given by the family) and business angels for start-ups. However, the Internet and new information and communica- tion technologies (NICTs) have fostered the development of an innovative source of fnancing, crowdfunding, which makes it easier to get money (Macht and Weatherston, 2014). In simple terms, crowdfunding is the fnancing of a project or a venture by a group of individuals instead of professional parties (Schwienbacher and Larralde, 2012). Its boom is tremendous as the fgures show. More than 672 crowdfunding In order to raise money, good communication backed by a solid and consistent identity is mandatory. Microfnance institutions should better insist on the communication of their identity, as crowdfunding platforms seem to do. It is possible, even if diffcult, to maintain social values within a fnancial institution. 1 JEL classifcation codes: D64, D83, L31. F inancial institutions, be they cooperatives and operating through crowdfunding, have to pay attention to the identity they create and disseminate through their communication.