Business Commons^™

How To Attract Low Prosocial Funders In Crowdfunding? Matching Among Funders, Project Descriptions, And Platform Types, Yuanqing Li, Frank Cabano, Pingshu Li

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Crowdfunding research shows inconsistent evidence about the impact of prosocial project description on crowdfunding success.

• We integrate elaboration likelihood model and language expectancy theory and propose distinct decision-making patterns from high and low prosocial motivation funders.

• Our findings show low prosocial participants are more likely to contribute to a project that aligns platform types (donation-based vs. reward-based) and prosocial project descriptions (high vs. low).

• We did not find these alignment effects for high prosocial participants.

Abstract

The amount of crowdfunding research that investigates funding success factors has been increasing. The existing research shows inconsistent evidence regarding how a prosocial …

Essays On Behavioral Decision Making In Crowdfunding Environments, Bright Frimpong

Theses and Dissertations

Crowdfunding has revolutionized the world of financing. From entrepreneurs to financially excluded individuals seeking funding for essential projects, crowdfunding provides an expansive platform for project founders to raise needed capital for pending or ongoing projects. In addition to raising capital, founders also use crowdfunding to test market an idea, gain exposure for future funding, gain validation, and build trusting relationships with backers (Zhou et al., 2018). However, the success of crowdfunding is dependent on crowd participation- backer support and funding. The importance of crowd participation in crowdfunding is not limited to project funding, but also building public involvement and support …

Signalling In Donation Crowdfunding: The Role Of Mixed Product And Ideological Bundling, Bright Frimpong, Emmanuel Wusuhon Yanibo Ayaburi, Francis K. Andoh-Baidoo, Xuan Wang

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Crowdfunding projects depend on signalling to demonstrate authenticity. However, literature on signalling has focused on investment and reward crowdfunding with lesser emphasis on donation crowdfunding. This study adopts the signalling theory and bundling concepts to explore the impact of two validation mechanisms on donation crowdfunding outcomes. Drawing from the literature on bunding and signalling, we investigate the impact of a mixed product bundling strategy (community pot mechanism) and ideological bundling strategy (thirdparty signalling) on donation project success. Based on data from Mchanga.com, our findings indicate that the mixed product bundling strategy positively influences project amount of funds raised and backer …

The Devil Is In The Details: The Effect Of Nonverbal Cues On Crowdfunding Success, Yuanqing Li, Nan Xiao, Sibin Wu

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many reward-based crowdfunding platforms encourage entrepreneurs to introduce their projects and make a personal appeal with a video clip. In this study, we investigate the impact of such a pitch video on financing outcomes. Grounded in social perception literature, we propose that effective use of nonverbal cues in a pitch video increases funding success. We coded and analyzed videos of crowdfunding campaigns and found that an entrepreneur could improve the funding outcomes by gazing less, appearing early, and reducing speech hesitations in a pitch video. We also found that smiling has no impact on funding success.

Two Sides Of The Same Coin: Essays Investigating The Founder And Backer Dynamics Of Crowdfunding, Ruben Ceballos

Theses and Dissertations

Crowdfunding provides the opportunity for entrepreneurs to acquire capital for their projects by utilizing a platform that allows the masses to provide funds towards the completion of the project. Thus, it can be looked at as two sides of the same coin. On one side you have the entrepreneurs seeking the funds otherwise known as founders, and on the other are those that provide the funds also known as backers. The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors lead to founders successfully attaining their funding, what motivates backers to support the projects, and whether the founders can deliver …

Equity Crowdfunding In The United States: Evolution, Determinants And Performance, Kenny Ozuna

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, equity crowdfunding has developed into an alternative form of early stage financing for startup firms. The main purpose of this dissertation is to understand the evolution, process and regulation of equity crowdfunding in the United States as well as assess the determinants of a successful campaign and whether this capital market lead to an enduring business.

The first essay examines the evolution, process and regulation surrounding equity crowdfunding. I establish a clear definition of crowdfunding and its restructuring of the music industry to establishing an alternative form of raising capital for nascent firms via equity crowdfunding. I …

Three Essays On Likability Factors, Crowdfunding, And Entrepreneurial Performance, Yuanqing Li

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I conduct three empirical studies exploring the relation between likability factors, crowdfunding characteristics and entrepreneurial performance. Together these studies integrate aspects of major entrepreneurial likability factors including liking of the entrepreneur (source attractiveness, credibility, personal traits) and liking of the message (verbal content and expression), and components of nonverbal and verbal cues. I apply computer-mediated communication (CMC) and persuasion theories, political and marketing literature to provide a more fine-grained understanding of likability on crowdfunding success. In the first essay, I study how the non-verbal cues of a crowdfunding video influence the crowdfunding success. By employing social presence …

Effects Of Donor- And Supporter-Based Campaign Networks On Crowdfunding Campaign Success, Bin Wang, Babajide Osatuyi, Wanrong Hou

Information Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Driven by the increasing popularity of crowdfunding, academic researchers have examined the impacts of internal social capital accumulated on crowdfunding platforms and external social capital formed through online and offline friend networks on campaign success. However, no research has examined the impacts of social networks from a structural perspective. In the current research, we investigate the extent to which donor- and supporter-based campaign network centralities affect the amount of capital a fundraising campaign is able to generate. Using a panel data set collected from a donation-based crowdfunding platform, Fundly, we reveal that campaign network centralities based on strong ties (shared …