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Entrepreneurs have long been convinced about the power and possibilities of the Internet. Nowadays, the Internet is an integral tool for the functioning of a company, not only as an alternative distribution channel, but also as a channel of information and communication flow, a means of interaction with the environment. The increasing use of the Internet, and especially of social media, made it possible to escalate the activity of various social groups in various areas of the company’s activity, including innovation, leading to the development of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has redefined the existing production rules and ways of using labor resources. Its potential lies in openness, partnership, resource sharing and global action. There are already many studies on crowdsourcing and innovation, but little attention is paid to the relationship between crowdsourcing and the determinants of innovation activity. Thus, the aim of this research is examining whether the use of crowdsourcing while cooperating with product users in accordance with the concept of user-driven innovation (UDI) has an impact on selected aspects of innovative activity. An original questionnaire was used for the study. Fifty-seven R&D departments in Poland participated in the research. For the purpose of the analysis, the Kendall and V-Cramer tau correlation coefficient was used. These methods are complemented by the Ward agglomeration method. The research results show a cooperation with consumer results in the development of innovative activities in the studied R&D departments of enterprises in Poland. Using crowdsourcing results in the introduction of more product innovations, the introduction of new or significantly improved technological processes, as well as the implementation of a greater number of research and development projects.

Culture financing is becoming particularly important due to the growing global demand for funds in culture, even as financial institutions attitudes to such financing become more prudent. One method of obtaining funds is by using crowdfunding platforms whose role is not limited to merely raising capital, but also to creating demand or interest among stakeholders of cultural projects. Social support for culture is growing rapidly in the United States and gradually in the EU. The analysis of the market of culture crowdfunding platforms in Europe allows researchers to formulate some conclusions on projects, support attitudes and follow market trends. Crowdfunding can be an opportunity to implement many cultural projects and verify support for them.

Crowdfunding is a type of financing that is popular not only among entrepreneurs. There are examples of financing sport, culture, music or just someone's dreams, and many good projects could not have been realized without crowdfunding. The analysis of the largest projects realized on one of the Poland's oldest and biggest Polish crowdfunding platform -polakpotrafi.pl will be made in the article. It will be the background to formulate some conclusions about the initiatives supported by reward-based crowdfunding platforms. It can be hypothesized that crowdfunding in Poland is developing rapidly but the value and number of projects is still lower than in Western Europe countries and the USA. The research methods used in the article are primarily a statistical and comparative method and case study analysis. The data from the European Commission, the World Bank and crowdfunding platforms will be used.