Why do people patronize donation-based crowdfunding platforms? An activity perspective of critical success factors

Abstract

As a special type of social information systems, crowdfunding platforms draw researchers' attention in recent years for their increasing popularity. In supplement to big-data analyses on usergenerated content, behavioral research using survey and interview observations provide insights on why people like or hesitate to use such platforms. Nevertheless, extant studies focus on user intention and equity/reward-based projects, leaving the knowledge body on why people actually engage in donation-based crowdfunding underdeveloped. Based on Activity Theory, this study explores the critical success factors of crowdfunding in terms of website acceptance, crowd familiarity, and donation reciprocity. It then develops a research model that adapts relevant constructs from e-commerce and charitable behavior literature to predict user trust and readiness leading to actual donation. To test the hypothesized relationships, a structural equation modeling analysis was performed on 744 survey responses collected from crowdfunding platform users in multiple countries. Results provide supporting evidence to most hypotheses and confirm the importance of factors related to the technological system as well as social collaboration in the crowdfunding activity.

The Influence of Signals on Donation Crowdfunding Campaign Success during COVID-19 Crisis

“…Our study complements existing research on DbC’s success determinants before the pandemic crisis. As the number of DbC studies increase [ 9 , 10 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], it is vital to have better conceptual models through which scholars can interpret and provide definite success factors. This study proposed a model and explained some contextual similarities and differences that negate the generic factors for successful crowdfunding campaigns to create better DbC campaigns strategies to induce potential donors to donate, especially during a health crisis.…”

“…In addition, there is little research on the signaling strategies of DbC campaigns during a natural disaster. Most previous studies about DbC campaigns are done before the COVID-19 pandemic [ 9 , 10 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”

Behavioral Influences on Crowdfunding SDG Initiatives: The Importance of Personality and Subjective Well-Being

“…Crowdfunding can be defined as fundraising by different forms of "crowdsourcing, where individuals or organizations outsource special tasks, such as recruiting investors or donors who will support creative ideas for the benefits of personal or organizational activities" [42] (p. 312). Digital innovations in information technology have contributed to the emergence of crowdfunding between funders (investors) and founders (entrepreneurs) undertaken on online platforms [43][44][45][46]. Research on crowdfunding has well documented the characteristics and personalities of entrepreneurs and their relevance to project campaigns [18,23,24,47,48].…”

Maker Networks Fighting Covid-19: Design Guidelines for Redistributed Manufacturing (RDM) Models

“…Business Model. Crowdfunding has been considered an essential source of financing for start-ups, individual projects, and even a new type of philanthropy (Zhang, Tan, Sun, & Yang, 2020). With cases in this study, it was not different: besides institutional support, donations were also a fundamental growth enabler.…”

“…Google Scholar Pearson et al, 2013. Kohtala andBosqué, 2014;Wolf et al, 2014;Wolf and Troxler, 2016;Menichinelli et al, 2017, Yang and Jiang, 2019, Manzini, 2012, Zhang, Tan, Sun, and Yang, 2020…”