This paper introduces a neural network and natural language processing approach to predict the outcome of crowdfunding startup pitches using text, speech, and video metadata in 20,188 crowdfunding campaigns. Our study emphasizes the need to understand crowdfunding from an investor's perspective. Linguistic styles in crowdfunding campaigns that aim to trigger excitement or are aimed at inclusiveness are better predictors of campaign success than firm-level determinants. At the contrary, higher uncertainty perceptions about the state of product development may substantially reduce evaluations of new products and reduce purchasing intentions among potential funders. Our findings emphasize that positive psychological language is salient in environments where objective information is scarce and where investment preferences are taste based. Employing enthusiastic language or showing the product in action may capture an individual's attention. Using all technology and design-related crowdfunding campaigns launched on Kickstarter, our study underscores the need to align potential consumers' expectations with the visualization and presentation of the crowdfunding campaign.

Using a natural language processing approach, the paper takes stock of extant disruption research and analyzes the full‐text corpus of 1078 journal articles published on disruption between 1975 and 2016. This yields a topic map composed of 84 distinct topics that present the overall topic structure of this dynamic field. Topic network analyses uncover the existence of two increasingly disconnected subnetworks centered around disruptive innovation at the macro level and radical innovation at the micro level. This disconnect is consequential, as both perspectives appear to be highly interdependent and conceptually constitute two sides of the same coin. To counteract the threat of growing fragmentation and reconnect these subnetworks, three research priorities are proposed, firmly grounded in a systematic literature analysis: (1) the need to consolidate peripheral and decoupled topics, (2) the necessity to reconcile competing terminologies and refocus the theoretical core, and (3) the imperative to strengthen the generalizable empirical evidence base.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15405885/homepage/disruptiveinnovation

This research examines how potential backers form mental representations of products in rewardbased crowdfunding campaigns, and how these representations affect funding decisions and campaign performance. To test our framework, we conducted four experiments and also drew on a sample of 961 Kickstarter campaigns. Our results show that two campaign characteristics -the product's development stage and the indicated time to product delivery -determine the psychological distance that supporters experience in response to a campaign, and that psychological distance, in turn, inhibits individual campaign contributions and cumulative campaign success. Furthermore, we find that encouraging supporters to imagine the benefits of product usage is an effective means to increase support for campaigns that elicit high psychological distance.